Todos os capítulos de Awakened: Capítulo 11 - Capítulo 20

Julian’s POVI stood by the floor-to-ceiling glass of my study, swirling two fingers of scotch in a heavy crystal tumbler. Outside, the night sky over the city was a seamless sheet of black glass, broken only by the sharp, electric grid of skyscrapers below.Eight o'clock was approaching. In less than an hour, the Syer Gala would begin, and with it, a carefully orchestrated war.My mind worked in precise, mathematical equations, filtering out noise to focus entirely on the board. Marcus Vance was an arrogant, predictable fool, easily manipulated, blinded by his own desperation to secure the Vance fortune and cover up his spiraling incompetence. Lurii was a snake, venomous but frantic, playing a high-stakes game she barely had the intellect to manage without leaving a trail of blood behind her. They were easy targets. Transparent. Loud.The real variable in this entire equation was Ashley.The way she had looked at me in that hospital room... it wasn't the gaze of a victim nursing her

Marcus’ POV The sharp, glaring contrast of Lurii’s neon pink corporate dress against my deep red suit jacket suddenly felt suffocating, like a cheap costume I had been tricked into wearing. But that was nothing compared to the violent surge of hot poison currently flooding my veins.Standing side by side with Lurii near the marble pillar, I couldn't tear my eyes away from the grand staircase.I couldn't breathe. I couldn't think.There was no trace of the fragile, broken girl who had spent the last few days in a hospital bed. Ashley stood at the base of the stairs in a midnight-black gown that left almost nothing to the imagination, a scandalously high slit showcasing her leg, a plunging neckline framing her chest, and a confidence so thick it practically radiated across the ballroom floor. But it wasn't just the dress that made my blood run hot.It was the way Julian Syer was looking at her.He wasn't staring at her the way men stared at beautiful women in a crowd. His dark, calcula

Chapter 15The heavy, suffocating silence following Marcus’s humiliation near the grand staircase was more than I could stomach. I watched from afar as Julian Syer practically loomed over Marcus, cutting him down to size with a single, lethal smirk. Marcus stood there looking pathetic, his red tuxedo clashing violently against my bright pink corporate dress, making us look like two lost fools who had stumbled into the wrong high-society nightmare.My heart was hammering against my ribs, hot panic and bitter rage knotting tightly in the pit of my stomach. Ashley was supposed to be broken. She was supposed to be hiding away in her bedroom, wallowing in the dark, crying over the ruins of her life. Instead, she was standing on the arm of the most powerful man in the city, draped in midnight-black silk, commanding every camera lens in the room.I turned away from Marcus, clutching my designer handbag so tightly my knuckles turned white, and began scanning the vast, glittering expanse of th

Chapter 17Ashley’s POV "I'm fine," I lied, my voice barely a whisper against the low, hum of the ballroom's strings.Julian’s thumb was still resting against the side of my jaw, his thumb softly tracing my skin, but the warmth of his touch couldn't reach the arctic chill expanding inside my chest. His dark eyes searched mine, heavy with an unsettling, protective intensity, but I couldn't stay in his gaze. I couldn't let him see the hairline fractures tearing through my mask."Excuse me for a moment," I murmured, gently slipping my hand from his grip.He didn't stop me, though his brow furrowed, his eyes tracking my every movement as I backed away into the shifting sea of formal gowns and dark tuxedos.I turned away, my heart hammering a violent, erratic rhythm against my ribs. I knew what time it was. I knew what was happening. In my last life, on this exact night, at this exact hour, I had aimlessly wandered away from the noise of a party, searching for the man who promised to love

Chapter 19Ashley’s POV The soft, filtered morning light pierced through the heavy velvet drapes, warming my face and forcing my eyelids open.My mind was a blank slate for a single, quiet second before my eyes adjusted to the room. I shifted slightly, feeling the cool silk of expensive sheets against my bare skin. I was entirely naked beneath the covers. Across the polished hardwood floor, a path of rumpled clothing lay scattered, a jacket thrown over a chair, a tie tossed on the rug, and my midnight-black gown discarded near the foot of the massive bed like a shed skin.Then, the memory slammed back into my chest with the violent force of a tidal wave.It started with the hallway. Lurii, her neon pink corporate dress wrinkled, her body entangled with Marcus on that mahogany desk. The sickening, casual weight of his betrayal echoing off the walls. The nausea. The frantic, blind steps backward.And then, the solid wall of Julian's chest.A sharp, electric heat flushed straight up my