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The silence that swept through the grand ballroom of the Carter Foundation was thick enough to suffocate. Hundreds of wealthy eyes darted from Ethan Carter standing resolute at the podium to Dr. Adrian Vaughn standing frozen near the center aisle. Adrian’s jaw tightened, the muscles flexing beneath his porcelain-smooth skin, but his smile didn't entirely vanish—it merely morphed into something cold, calculating, and predatory. / Chapter 19 / 20

Chapter 19 - The Falling Castle

"Ava!" Ethan dropped to his knees beside me, his large hands frantically tearing away the restraints binding my wrists. "Are you hurt? Look at me, baby, are you okay?"

"I'm fine! We have to go—the timer!" I cried out, pointing to the wall: 00:45... 00:44...

Ethan scooped me up into his arms, carrying me out of the operating room as concrete dust rained down from the ceiling. Alarms shrieked as structural support beams began to buckle under explosive charges.

We sprinted through the collapsing corridors as Vance and the private security team provided covering fire against Victoria’s remaining mercenaries.

We burst through the bunker's iron exit doors onto the rain-slicked cliffside just as the helicopter hovered ten feet above the ground. Ethan threw me into the open bay, scrambling in right behind me as Vance leaped onto the landing skids.

00:02... 00:01... 00:00.

A deafening detonation shook the earth. The entire cliffside collapsed inward, dragging the subterranean lab and everyone inside into the churning, hungry waves of the Atlantic Ocean below.

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"Lock every gate, seal every exit, and cut the main grid to manual," I barked, my voice cutting through the heavy air of the ballroom like a razor.

"Lock every gate, seal every exit, and cut the main grid to manual," I b...

The silence in the ICU room was heavier than the lead aprons I wore in radiology. Dante’s words hung in the sterile air like poison: I had people watching you.

The silence in the ICU room was heavier than the lead aprons I wore in r...

The silence in the room was heavier than the snow piling against the windowpane. Declan sat motionless in the chair, his green eyes fixated on me as if I were a stranger who had spoken in a language he couldn't comprehend. Outside, the Seattle storm howled, but inside, the only sound was the soft, rhythmic breathing of our six-day-old son against my chest.

The silence in the room was heavier than the snow piling against the win...

Sitting on the floor of the helicopter, soaked in rain and blood, Ethan wrapped his arms around me, pulling me tight against his chest. I buried my face in his neck, sobbing tears of absolute relief as he kissed my hair over and over again.

"It's over, Ava," Ethan whispered, his chest shuddering. "It's finally over."

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