CHAPTER 21

Lyra's POVFarrah called just after noon, and this time I put her on speaker without hesitation, needing Marcus to hear every word alongside me, needing a witness to whatever she was about to say."I traced the edit on your incorporation filing," she said, her voice crisp and businesslike, carrying the particular steadiness of someone who had delivered bad news often enough to have smoothed all the hesitation out of it. "Shell account. Offshore. Closed two days after the edit went through, with no personal name attached to it anywhere in the registry.""A dead end," I said, already bracing myself for the disappointment, my fingers tightening around my coffee cup."I thought so too, at first," Farrah said. "Until your security contact sent me the delivery account tied to those six food orders about an hour ago. I almost didn't bother cross-referencing them. I'm glad I did."Marcus straightened in his chair beside me, setting down the tablet he'd been scrolling through all morning. "And

Last Updated : 2026-10-10

CHAPTER 22

Selene's POVKaelen didn't bring up the schedule again after that night in the study, which somehow felt worse than if he had. He simply watched me now, in a careful and quiet way, like the way you watch something you no longer trust not to bite.I told myself I hadn't done anything wrong yet.'Yet' was doing a lot of work in that sentence, and I knew it.---The gossip found me two days later, the way it always seemed to lately."Did you hear about Alpha Nightvale?" one of the kitchen maids murmured to another, not realizing how close I stood behind the pantry door. "At the hotel pool nearly every afternoon. With the Sterling woman's children.""The investment judge? Isn't that strange, mixing business like that?" The other asked, gossip evident in her voice."Strange or not, my cousin works the front desk there. Says he brings his own nephew along so it looks casual. Says the mother sits right there with him. Laughing. Comfortable, like old friends." The first one continued.I stepp

Last Updated : 2026-10-11

CHAPTER 23

Selene's POVI bought a new phone the next morning, paid cash, and registered it under a name that wasn't mine, in a shop across town where nobody would recognize an Ashthorn face.I got in the car and told myself it was a smart thing to do, not a guilty one.Three days passed before he texted the new number, no explanation for how he'd found it.(Got something. Not everything. You want it in pieces or all at once?)(All at once,) I typed back.A file arrived a minute later. I opened it in the parking garage beneath my usual salon, engine running, doors locked, feeling ridiculous and terrified in equal measure.Most of it was ordinary. Silver Crescent Holdings' public filings. News clippings about Lyra's rise from nothing. A photo of her at some business dinner, looking poised and untouchable in a way that made my stomach twist with envy.Then a section near the bottom, labeled only 'Sterling — restricted.'Half the page was blacked out. What remained read like fragments torn out of c

Last Updated : 2026-10-13

Chapter 24

Selene's Pov I stared at the message for a long time, my heart pounding somewhere near my throat but I went anyway.The café was small, tucked between a laundromat and a shuttered bookstore, the kind of place no one from Kaelen's circle would ever think to look for me. I sat in the back booth exactly as instructed, my hands wrapped around a cup of tea I had no intention of drinking.He was late enough that I'd nearly convinced myself he wasn't coming at all, then a man slid into the seat across from me without a word of greeting.He was unremarkable, had average height and putting on a gray jacket. It was the kind of face you'd forget five minutes after passing him on the street. Nothing about him matched the low, careful voice I recognized instantly once he spoke."You shouldn't have come," he said."You shouldn't have known my name," I countered, the words coming out steadier than I felt. "Or which household account I was calling from. Who are you working for?""That's not informat

Last Updated : 2026-10-15

All Chapters of dear Alpha, my twins are no longer yours: Chapter 21 - Chapter 24

CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 22

CHAPTER 23

Chapter 24