Chapter thirty one

*Present day.*Lucian.She's still on her knees when I get to her, both hands pressed flat against the glass like she can hold Harold's heartbeat steady through it by will alone, and it takes two nurses and considerably more strength than either of them should need to get her upright and moving."No—" Her voice tears raw against the corridor's tile. "Let me see him, let me—""Eveline." I crouch to her level, hands finding her shoulders, forcing my own voice into the register I use for families in the worst moment of their lives, steady, load-bearing, built to hold weight neither of us actually feels right now. "He's stabilizing. We need to move fast — the tumor's positioning means we can't wait for a clean window anymore. We're taking him into surgery within the hour.""You said tomorrow." Her eyes are wrecked, red-rimmed, fixed on mine like I might still take it back if she looks hard enough. "You said we had until tomorrow.""Plans change when a patient's condition does." I keep my

Last Updated : 2026-08-19

chapter thirty two

Lucian.I don't confront him.That's the decision that arrives cold and immediate, the moment I finish cross-referencing the last log entry — no fury, no theatrical unraveling in a hospital corridor where anyone could overhear. Osei has spent weeks inside this family's medical care, close enough to touch every safeguard I've tried to put in place, and if he's discovered before I understand who he's working for, whatever's coming for Harold simply routes itself through someone new.I step into the empty stairwell instead, phone already against my ear, dialing a number I haven't used in over a year.It picks up on the second ring."Dr. Harry Osei," I say. Nothing else. "You know what to do."I end the call before the silence on the other end can turn into a question, and for one long moment I stand in that stairwell with my back against cold concrete, feeling something in my chest settle into the particular, terrible calm that used to carry me through the worst nights of the decade I sp

Last Updated : 2026-08-21

chapter thirty three

Eveline.Julian shows up a little after noon, coffee in hand, looking like a man stopping by on his lunch break rather than a man who once called me at midnight with his voice shaking apart."How's Harold doing?"He asks it easy, casual, settling into the chair across from me like this is any other visit, like the parking lot never happened, like he never stood there under the sodium lights and told me my father was murdered."He's stable." I watch his face carefully, waiting for some flicker, some acknowledgment of the last time we were both in this hospital together. "Recovering. Slowly.""Good. That's good." He takes a sip of his coffee, glancing toward the hallway with mild, unbothered curiosity. "Heard there was some kind of incident here yesterday. One of the doctors?""Dr. Osei." I keep my voice level, testing him. "He was shot. He's in a coma."I watch for it — shock, discomfort, anything that would tell me this news is landing on him the way it should land on anyone hearing i

Last Updated : 2026-08-21

chapter thirty four

Lucian.Linda finds us in the family lounge an hour later, and I know before she says a word, from the particular set of her shoulders, exactly what she's about to tell us."He didn't make it," she says. "Dr. Osei. Passed twenty minutes ago."I keep my face perfectly still. It costs me nothing to do it — I've had a decade of practice holding my expression steady around news that should shatter it, and this particular news doesn't even require the effort. I know my own people. I know precisely what it takes to keep a man breathing after a bullet, and I know precisely what it takes to make certain he doesn't stay that way once he's served his purpose.I never gave the order to keep him alive.*You know what to do* has only ever meant one thing, in the years I've used that number, and I made the call fully understanding what I was choosing. I could have chosen differently. I could have had him taken somewhere quiet instead, interrogated at length, every answer about Julian's involvement,

Last Updated : 2026-08-22

chapter thirty five

Adrian.I know she's there before she makes a sound. Ten years in that chair teaches a man to listen for things other people never bother learning to hear — the specific hitch in someone's breathing when they're trying not to breathe at all, the particular stillness of a person hoping the room will simply forget they're in it."I know you're there," I say, not turning around yet. "Show yourself."She doesn't have a choice. I hear her step out from behind the door, slow, and when I finally turn to look at her, the fear on her face is already doing half the work for me."Well, well, well." I let the words stretch out, enjoying the shape of them. "If it isn't my son's fiancée herself.""Hi, Adrian." Her voice comes out thin, and she's trying so hard to smooth it into something normal that the effort itself gives her away completely."Are you alone?""Yes."I already know that. I sent every last member of staff out of this house an hour ago, the way I do every time I need these legs for a

Last Updated : 2026-08-25

Chapter thirty-six

Lucian.Adrian's blood is still on my knuckles when he finally speaks again, one hand pressed to his split lip, backed against the bookshelf with nowhere left to retreat to."You think this changes anything." His voice comes out thick, wet around the words. "You think walking in here, breaking my door, hitting me in front of her — you think that buys you anything at all?""It buys Eveline getting out of this room." I don't lower my voice. I want him to hear exactly how little room there is in it for negotiation. "Whatever you think you're owed for the last ten years, this isn't the place you collect it.""Owed." He laughs, short and ugly, blood catching at the corner of his mouth. "You have no idea what I'm owed, Lucian. You've spent a decade thinking you were the wronged one in this family.The exiled son. The scapegoat." He straightens, testing weight on legs that have apparently carried this lie flawlessly for ten years. "You have no idea what it cost me to sit in that chair every

Last Updated : 2026-08-26