บททั้งหมดของ The Billionaire's Betrayed Bride : บทที่ 21 - บทที่ 30

The Houston estate had never felt this quiet.Alice stood outside the front entrance, staring at the massive house that had once been her home. Six years of memories lived behind those walls. Her wedding. Her first Christmas with William. Arguments. Laughter. The nights when she had believed she was safe.Now every window looked like it was hiding a secret.William unlocked the door. They entered.Nothing had changed. And somehow, that made everything worse.Alice walked slowly through the foyer. "Where is the room?"William glanced at her. "I don't know.""You've lived here most of your life.""I've never seen a room beneath the house."David looked around. "Then we're looking for something hidden."Elena closed the front door behind them. "Which means someone went to a lot of trouble to make sure nobody found it."Alice held up the brass key. "Let's find out why."---They searched the basement first. Storage rooms. Wine cellar. Old utility closets. Nothing.Alice began losing patie

The hidden door opened with a slow metallic groan.Alice stared into the darkness beyond it. William stood beside her, completely still. Neither of them spoke.The words on the screen were still burned into Alice's mind. PROJECT PHOENIX: MARRIAGE PROTOCOL — HOUSTON/WALTER.Their marriage had been planned.The thought was almost impossible to comprehend. Six years of memories. Six years of loving William. Six years of believing that, whatever else had gone wrong, at least their beginning had been real.Now even that was being questioned.Alice stepped through the doorway. "I'm going in."William followed. David and Elena exchanged a glance before coming after them.The passage opened into another room. Unlike the archive chamber, this one was clean. Too clean. There were no dusty boxes or old files. Instead, one wall was covered by photographs.Alice stopped. Her photograph was everywhere. At fifteen. At seventeen. At twenty. At twenty-four. Different schools. Different cities. Differe

Alice couldn't move.The man stood in the doorway, soaked from the rain. Older than she remembered. Thinner. His hair was almost completely gray now, and a scar ran from his temple toward his jaw.But his eyes were the same. There was no mistaking them."Dad?"The word barely left her mouth.The man looked at her. For a moment, his expression broke. "I'm sorry, Alice."She stepped backward. "No."William moved closer to her. "Stay behind me."Her father looked at him. "William."William froze. "You know me?""I knew you before you knew yourself."Alice's confusion turned into anger. "You're supposed to be dead."Her father swallowed. "I know.""You let me believe you were dead.""I had no choice.""You always had a choice!" Her voice cracked through the room. "You left me!"Her father flinched. "I left because staying would have gotten you killed."Alice shook her head. "No. You don't get to say that. You don't get to disappear for seven years and walk back into my life because you su

Alice stared at the photograph on her phone.Her childhood bedroom. The bed. The window. The old wooden floor where they had found the metal box. Someone had taken the photograph recently. Very recently.William looked over her shoulder. "They're in the house."David immediately shook his head. "Not necessarily."Alice looked at him. "What do you mean?""The photograph could have been taken earlier and sent now."Thomas Reed emerged from the darkness behind them. "No."Everyone turned. Thomas was breathing heavily. "They were there."David raised his weapon. "Stay where you are."Thomas stopped. "I saw them enter the house."Alice's stomach tightened. "How many?""Three.""Who?""I don't know." Thomas looked at William. "But they weren't searching the house."William frowned. "What were they doing?""They were waiting."A chill moved through Alice. "For us?"Thomas nodded. "They knew you'd come back."William stepped closer. "Then we don't go back."Thomas shook his head. "You don't u

TERMINATE SUBJECT.Alice stared at the screen.For several seconds, nobody moved. Then David rushed toward the steel door. "It's locked." He pulled the handle again. Nothing.Elena examined the control panel. "There's no manual override."William looked at the countdown. 04:31"Alice." She turned. "What?""Stay away from the screen."She frowned. "Why?""I don't know what this system is designed to do.""Neither do I.""That doesn't mean we stand here and wait."David opened one of the files. "There has to be an emergency shutdown."Elena joined him. "Search for a control protocol."Alice remained frozen. The word was still on the screen. TERMINATE.Then the screen flickered. The word disappeared. A new message appeared.SUBJECT A-02: ALICE HOUSTON. STATUS: ACTIVE. THREAT LEVEL: CRITICAL.Alice stared. "Why am I a threat?"William looked at the files around them. "Because you're remembering."She looked at him. "Remembering what?""I don't know."A new file opened automatically. MEMOR