บททั้งหมดของ The Sherova Chronicles: House of Lies : บทที่ 1 - บทที่ 8

The call ended.Ava lowered the phone slowly.For a moment, neither she nor Jace spoke.He watched her—not with curiosity, but with calculation.“What happened?”“Vivian said…” Ava looked toward the office door. “…they know I’m here.”Jace’s face remained unreadable.“They?”“She didn’t say.”“I know.”His answer came too quickly.Ava frowned.“You know who’s outside?”“I know who would be looking.”He stepped toward the office windows, careful to remain outside the line of sight. With practiced precision, he lifted one corner of the heavy velvet curtain just enough to see the circular drive below.Black SUVs.Two of them.Engines running.Lights off.A third vehicle rolled silently through the front gates before stopping beneath the portico.Jace let the curtain fall.“They’re early.”Ava’s pulse quickened.“Who?”“The Moore security detail.”“Lance?”“No.”“Christina?”“No.”His eyes settled on hers.“My father.”The distinction mattered.Christian Moore never came himself unless so

The doors of Moorecrest closed behind Ava with the slow certainty of a vault sealing shut.For a heartbeat, she remained standing beneath the towering limestone archway, one hand resting on the cold bronze handle.She did not look back.Not at the marble staircase where she had once waited for Lance after another impossible workday.Not at the grand ballroom where she had smiled through charity galas beside people who measured kindness by tax deductions.Not at the east garden where Lance had promised her forever beneath imported cherry blossoms that had never belonged to Sherova’s soil.Those memories no longer belonged to her.Neither did the house.Rain drifted softly across Imperial Road, turning the polished black pavement into a mirror that reflected the towering estates surrounding Moorecrest. Beyond the iron gates, the Elite Quarter stretched across the hills like a kingdom suspended above the rest of the city. Every mansion stood behind walls of imported stone. Private securi

Sherova did not sleep.It watched.By dawn, the city had already begun digesting yesterday’s rumors, reshaping them into polished lies and whispered truths that traveled faster than the morning financial reports.News helicopters circled above Moorecrest.Luxury sedans lined Imperial Road.Satellite vans crowded behind wrought-iron gates where reporters stood in thousand-dollar coats pretending patience while waiting for the first member of House Moore to make a mistake.They wouldn’t.Not publicly.The Moore family had survived four generations of scandals because they understood something few dynasties ever truly learned.Truth was irrelevant.Control was everything.Christian Moore stood alone in the east gallery overlooking the estate.The mansion stretched across nearly forty acres, every stone imported from Italy, every column hand carved, every garden meticulously designed to appear effortless despite requiring dozens of full-time groundskeepers.Visitors called it beautiful.C

The stranger did not move.Neither did Jace.The tunnel seemed to narrow around them, ancient brick walls swallowing every breath until even the sound of dripping water felt intrusive.Ava could hear only three things.Her own heartbeat.The distant rumble of Sherova above their heads.And Jace’s measured breathing directly in front of her.He hadn’t looked back once.He simply stood between her and the stranger as though the decision required no thought at all.It unsettled her more than she wanted to admit.Not because she believed she needed protecting.Because no one had ever stepped in front of danger for her without expecting something in return.Not Lance.Not the Moore family.Not the lawyers she had once called colleagues.Jace had done it instinctively.That frightened her in an entirely different way.The stranger’s gloved fingers rested lightly atop the silver cane.“You always did have impeccable timing, Mr. Moore.”Jace’s expression remained unreadable.“I’ve never met y