Accueil / MM Romance / Billionaire’s shadow contract / Chapitre 41 - Chapitre 50

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Cracks in Armor

Chapter 41I woke before the sun fully rose, the penthouse still wrapped in that bruised half-light that made everything feel suspended. Riven was still asleep beside me, his breathing even but shallow, one hand loosely curled against my chest like he’d reached for me even in dreams. I studied his face in the dimness — the faint scar above his eyebrow, the way his lashes cast shadows on his cheeks, the tension that never quite left his jaw even now.He looked peaceful. He felt like mine.And yet something was wrong.I slipped out of bed without waking him, pulling on sweatpants and moving quietly to the living room. The city was waking below, slow and indifferent. My phone sat on the table where I’d left it. I picked it up, thumb hovering over the security logs I’d set to run overnight. The ones that tracked every access, every anomaly, every quiet breach in the systems I still controlled from the shadows.The report loaded.Three small files. Partial ledgers. Downloaded and forwarded

The Next File

Chapter 42I waited until Damien left for another emergency meeting with what remained of his legal team. The door had barely clicked shut behind him when I opened the laptop again. My hands moved on autopilot now — muscle memory from too many nights like this. The guilt no longer screamed. It just sat there, heavy and familiar, like an old scar that had stopped hurting but still pulled when I moved.The file was ready. Another partial ledger. Enough to keep Marcus satisfied, not enough to give him the keys to everything. I told myself the lie again as I hit send. This keeps Lila safe. This buys us one more day.The confirmation pinged back almost instantly.Unknown: Good. One more by tonight and I’ll hold off on the next leak. Your sister gets to keep her fingers for now.I closed the laptop so hard the screen rattled. My reflection in the black glass looked like a stranger — eyes sunken, mouth tight, the face of someone who had started measuring love in pieces of betrayal.When Dami

The silent war

Chapter 43I watched Riven from the doorway while he thought I wasn’t looking.He was in the study again, laptop open, shoulders tense in that way I’d come to recognize. The same way he held himself when he was hiding something. I didn’t move. I just stood there, coffee cooling in my hand, letting the quiet stretch between us like a blade I wasn’t ready to use yet.He closed the laptop too quickly when he sensed me. The guilt flashed across his face for half a second before he buried it under a tired smile.“Morning,” he said, voice rough. “You’re up early.”“Couldn’t sleep.” I crossed the room and set the coffee down, then pulled him against me without warning. He came willingly, arms wrapping around my waist, temple resting against my shoulder. My hand settled at the nape of his neck, thumb brushing the spot that always made him shiver. He did now, small and involuntary.“We’ll get through it,” I murmured against his hair. “Together.”The word tasted bitter. Because I was lying too.

The Trap

Chapter 44I set the poisoned file at 4:12 a.m. while Riven slept.It looked real. A full ledger of offshore accounts, complete with dummy transactions and my forged digital signature. But the moment it was accessed from an external IP, it would trigger a silent alert and plant a tracker. If Riven sent it to Marcus, I would know. And I would have proof.I closed the laptop and returned to bed. Riven was still asleep, curled on his side, one hand reaching across the sheets like he was searching for me even in dreams. I slid in beside him and pulled him close. He stirred, pressing his face against my chest with a soft sound. My arms tightened around him automatically. My body still recognized him as safe. My mind no longer did.By morning, the trap was set.Riven woke slowly, eyes heavy, hair messy. He looked at me like I was still the only solid thing left in his world. I kissed him before he could speak, deep and slow, letting the heat burn through the cold in my chest for a moment. H

The second thread

Chapter 45The tracker lit up at 11:03 a.m.I was alone in the study when the alert hit my secondary laptop. The poisoned file had been accessed. Downloaded. Forwarded to Marcus’s encrypted server. Riven’s credentials. No mistake. No shadow account. Just clear, undeniable proof.I stared at the screen until the numbers blurred. My hands stayed steady on the desk, but something inside me went very still. The man I loved had just handed my enemy another piece of me. And I had let him.The second ping came seconds later. A different destination. An internal IP I recognized immediately.Owen Mercer. Head of internal security. One of the few people I still trusted with access to the shadow systems.The betrayal wasn’t just Riven anymore.It was inside my own house.I called Kane on the encrypted line before Riven returned from checking on Lila. He answered on the first ring.“Sir.”“Lock down every access point tied to Owen Mercer. Quietly. No alerts. No logs.”Silence.“Mercer?” Kane aske

Counter strike

Chapter 46I didn’t confront him that night.Instead I watched.Riven moved through the penthouse like a man walking on thin ice — careful steps, quiet voice, eyes that never quite settled on mine for long. He checked on Lila twice, made her tea with the precision of someone who had done it a thousand times, adjusted her blankets with the kind of tenderness that still twisted something deep in my chest. Every gentle action felt like proof and indictment at the same time. He was still the man who would burn the world for his sister. And he was still the man who had started burning mine to keep her safe.He loved his sister.He loved me.And he was still choosing between us with every file he sent.I waited until he fell asleep on the couch, exhausted from pretending. The city lights painted faint patterns across his face, highlighting the shadows under his eyes. I crouched beside him, studying the man who had once tried to destroy me and was now destroying me in a completely different

The first Blow

Chapter 47Mercer discovered the trap at 6:47 a.m.I watched the security feed in real time as he sat in his downtown apartment, coffee forgotten on the table, steam still rising. He tried logging into the shadow servers. Access denied. Again. Again. His face went from confusion to panic in under thirty seconds. Sweat beaded on his forehead. His hands shook as he grabbed his phone and made three rapid calls. All went to voicemail.He stood up, pacing the room like a caged animal, running his fingers through his hair. For the first time in years, I felt a cold satisfaction. This was what power looked like when it turned inward.Elias’s message came seconds later.Elias: Mercer just tried to contact the board member. Failed. He’s spiraling. Want me to tighten the noose?I typed back without hesitation:Damien: Tighten it. Make him feel watched. But don’t break him yet. I want him desperate enough to make mistakes.Riven was still asleep on the couch when I stepped out of the study. The

The Net Tightens

Chapter 48Mercer cracked by 9:15 a.m.Elias sent the footage without comment. I watched it once in the study, door locked, volume low. Mercer pacing his apartment like a trapped animal, voice cracking as he left another voicemail for the vice chairman. “They’re onto us. Voss knows. I can feel it. We need to pull back before—”The call cut off. Mercer threw his phone across the room. It shattered against the wall. He sank onto the couch, head in his hands, shoulders shaking. For the first time in years, I felt a cold, sharp satisfaction. This was what power looked like when it turned inward.I forwarded the clip to Kane with one note:Keep the pressure. Make him run.Riven found me a few minutes later. He stood in the doorway, hair still messy from sleep, holding two mugs of coffee like a peace offering. His eyes were tired, the kind of exhaustion that came from carrying secrets too heavy for one person.“You didn’t come back to bed,” he said quietly.“Work.” I took one of the mugs, l

The Inner Circle

Chapter 49:The head of legal broke in under ten minutes.Jonathan Hale sat across from me in the secondary conference room, sweat beading on his forehead, hands trembling on the table. Kane stood behind him like a shadow. I didn’t raise my voice. I didn’t need to.“You drafted every major contract,” I said quietly. “You knew every contingency plan. You stood beside me through the worst years of building this empire. And you sold it all to Marcus.”Hale swallowed hard. “They promised me a position on the new board. They said you were finished anyway. I… I have a family.”I leaned forward, eyes locked on his. “So do I.”The words landed like a blade. Hale didn’t know I meant Riven and Lila, but the weight of them settled between us. He broke completely after that, spilling names, timestamps, and the full scope of the plan. Marcus wasn’t just trying to take the company. He was trying to dismantle it piece by piece and sell the core technology to foreign interests. The head of legal had

Blood and Lies

Chapter 50:The photograph showed Elias Voss.My cousin. The man I had called in the middle of the night to start this war. The one I had trusted with the darkest parts of my empire because blood was supposed to mean something.I stared at the image until the pixels burned. Elias sitting across from Marcus in a private room, leaning forward, speaking with the same dry humor he had used with me. The timestamp was three weeks ago — right after the first ledger had been leaked.The betrayal wasn’t just deep.It was in my blood.I sat in the darkened study for a long time, the only light coming from the laptop screen. Outside, the city kept moving, indifferent to the fact that my entire world was collapsing from within. Riven was asleep in the bedroom. Lila was stable for now. And the two people I had trusted most — one with my heart, one with my secrets — had been working against me.My phone vibrated. Kane.Kane: Mercer is trying to run. We have eyes on him. Orders?I typed back with st

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