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"What kind of provisions?" I whispered, my voice trembling against the cold oxygen tube still hooked to my nose. / Chapter 18 / 20

Chapter 18 - Bloodlines and Bullets

"Let Arthur go, Evelyn," I said, stepping into the dim light, backed by six heavy security operatives whose laser sights hovered over her body. "It's over. Your stock raid failed. Your mercenaries outside are disarmed. You have nowhere left to run."

Evelyn set her teacup down with a slow, deliberate clink. She stood up, revealing a small detonator held tightly in her right hand.

"Do you think I came here for money, Claire?" Evelyn chuckled softly, a manic glint shining in her dark eyes. "I don't care about Hart Global's stock. I placed explosives under the structural pillars of this entire manor. If my thumb leaves this switch, this house collapses, burying us both thirty feet under mountain bedrock."

From behind me, Flynn suddenly stumbled into the room, gasping for air. "Evelyn! Stop! Please! Give her the detonator! Let's just take whatever cash is left and flee the country!"

Evelyn turned her eyes toward Flynn with pure contempt. "You pathetic, spineless coward. You were always the weakest link in this chain."

Without warning, Evelyn raised a sleek silver pistol from beneath the desk and aimed it directly at my chest.

"Goodbye, Claire," she hissed.

BANG!

A gunshot deafened the room.

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The heavy brass key felt impossibly cold against my palm, yet the metal hummed with a quiet, persistent gravity. I stared down at the simple platinum band on my left ring finger—the same ring Mara had slipped onto my hand twelve years ago in a quiet ceremony by the coast. She had always joked that my fingerprints would eventually wear the metal down to a thread.

The heavy brass key felt impossibly cold against my palm, yet the metal...

I didn’t wipe the blood from my nose. I let it drip onto the pristine white bodice of my ten-thousand-dollar wedding gown, watching the crimson bloom against the silk like ink on parchment.

I didn’t wipe the blood from my nose. I let it drip onto the pristine wh...

The shards of crystal caught the cold light of the recessed kitchen ceiling, scattering tiny prisms across the imported Italian marble. I didn’t move immediately. I stayed crouched on the floor, the blood humming faintly in my ears, while Claudia’s sharp heels clicked away toward the foyer, her displeasure radiating like a physical chill.

The shards of crystal caught the cold light of the recessed kitchen ceil...

I braced for impact, but the pain never came. Instead, a heavy body slammed into me, throwing me behind a stone pillar as a second bullet shattered the marble wall behind us.

I looked down in shock. Flynn Vance was lying on top of me, blood pooling rapidly from a gaping wound in his chest. He had thrown himself in front of Evelyn's bullet.

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