Tous les chapitres de : Chapitre 31 - Chapitre 40

Leila was still talking to Carlos when she felt it. The way you feel someone staring at you from across a room before you ever turn your head. A flicker at the edge of her vision. Something small. She almost dismissed it. Then her eyes caught it properly. A tiny dot of red danced across Carlos's forehead. Searching. Patient. She didn't process what it was. There wasn't time for her mind to catch up to what her body already understood. Some ancient, wordless instinct fired first—the kind that had kept humans alive long before language existed. Her legs moved before the thought laser had even fully formed. "Get down—" The window exploded inward. It happened in a way that didn't make sense at first. Glass burst across the room in a glittering wave, catching the hostel lights for one suspended second, hanging there almost beautifully before it rained down over the desk, the floor, her hair, her shoulders. She felt it before she heard anything. That was the part that wou

The glass was still in her hair.Leila felt it every time she turned her head — a small sting, proof that an hour ago she and Carlos had been alive by accident, not by design.Carlos drove without a word, taking corners that made no sense until she stopped trying to make sense of them. He pulled into a small hotel off the main strip, the kind of place with a flickering sign and a receptionist who didn't look up, paid cash, gave a name that wasn't his, and led her upstairs without checking to see if she followed.Inside, he locked the door once and dropped his keys on the table like something heavy he'd been carrying too long.Leila set the chip down beside them.The small metallic object felt enormous in the silence."I'm done," she said."I'm done following you around without answers."Carlos looked at the chip like it had teeth."Start there."He was quiet long enough that she thought he might refuse again.Then something in him gave way."It has everything on it," he said."Names.

The whiskey had stopped burning hours ago. Carlos left Leila and stepped out of the hotel to a bar rest his mind. He couldn't remember how many glasses he'd emptied. The bartender had stopped asking if he wanted another and had simply begun replacing the empty glass whenever it ran dry. Outside, rain tapped softly against the windows. Inside, the television above the shelves played muted sports highlights that nobody was watching. Carlos stared into the amber liquid swirling inside his glass. His reflection stared back. Older. Tired. Guilty. He laughed once under his breath. "You look terrible." The words disappeared into the music. No one heard them except him.

Evening settled over the venue of the charity gala in a blaze of gold. Luxury cars stretched along the circular driveway, their polished bodies reflecting the glow of towering chandeliers visible through the ballroom windows. Camera flashes erupted one after another, turning the entrance into a wall of white light while reporters called out names that disappeared beneath the constant clicking of shutters. Zane’s limousine which was carrying Susan slowed to a stop. For a single heartbeat, she remained still. Not because she was afraid. Because she was remembering. Confidence isn't the absence of fear. It's what you do with your face while you're afraid. Jonas's words settled quietly in the back of her mind. The chauffeur opened the door. Light poured inside. Susan stepped onto the red carpet. The

Leila's POVThe aircraft was already accelerating when Leila looked down at the message again.“BETTER OUT OF THE PICTURE”.Her thumb hovered over the reply field.Then she saw the number underneath it, and her breath caught in her throat.The same number.The one that had been sending her those anonymous messages for weeks — the warnings she'd never been able to trace, the ones that always seemed to know exactly where she was a day before she moved again.Carlos.It had been Carlos all along.Her fingers tightened around the phone hard enough to hurt.Every warning.Every unsigned message telling her to run, to wait, to trust no one.Every time he'd shown up exactly when she needed him, as if he'd known before she did.She'd thought it was instinct.She'd thought it was luck.He hadn't just known what was coming.He'd been part of