"Once more, Javon," Meisha whispered, her voice husky and alluring. Her eyes, usually as sharp as an assassin’s dagger, now shimmered, wet like a moonlit lake. "Just one more time. I can feel it… we're so close to the peak."Javon looked at her, the Serpent Queen of Southeast Asia. Her beautiful face was flushed, not from shame, but from the torrent of energy they had just summoned together. There was a sincere plea in her gaze, a frightening dependency.Javon shook his head slowly, disentangling his legs from hers with a movement that felt heavy. "Time's up, Meisha."A rare frown of disappointment creased Meisha’s lips. "You're leaving me right when we've almost succeeded? After all this?" Her hand gripped the bedsheet. "Without your energy to balance mine, who will tame the demon inside me?"The question hung in the heavy air. This was the core of their symbiotic relationship for five years in this prison. This place was a cage for the world's most brilliant and dangerous female cri

"Fifty million."The words hung in the desolate villa, heavier than the silence itself. Serana stared at Javon as if he’d just suggested draining the ocean with a thimble.Javon set down his teacup with a precise movement. A flash of sharp calculation crossed his eyes, replacing the cold calm he had shown earlier. "I'll get it from the Edelweiss family."Serana laughed, a sound more like a weary hiss than amusement. "The Edelweiss family? Javon, you've been locked away for five years. The world has changed." She rubbed her temples, dizzy from exhaustion and the absurdity of the situation. "You think Aleesha, your fiancée, is just going to give you the money? Don't be delusional. Ever since the news of your arrest broke, they've drawn a thick line in the sand. They're vultures, waiting for us to die so they can peck at the remains of our market share."Javon fell silent. His memory drifted to Aleesha—the girl with the sweet smile and eyes that always looked at him with admiration. He r

The silence in the main lobby was now heavy and oppressive, as if all the oxygen had been sucked out. Everyone's eyes—wide, scornful, and bewildered—were locked on a single point. Sherly Edelweiss, the fallen paradise, who had just done the unthinkable.Aleesha stared at her cousin as if seeing her for the first time. Her sweet mask cracked, revealing pure annoyance and disbelief. Beside her, the contempt on Javier's face froze, replaced by a complex, dark flicker.Among all the Edelweiss girls, it was Sherly who had once truly caught his eye—beautiful, brilliant, and his equal. But fate had a cruel sense of humor. A car accident, and Sherly became a damaged asset. Javier couldn't marry a disabled woman. Aleesha was just a more practical, second choice."Sherly, you were always so emotional," Javier sneered, his tone sharp. "Perhaps that's why you weren't careful on the road that day."It was a vicious low blow. Oliver's face turned as dark as a storm cloud. "Sherly, be quiet!" he com

Sherly's breath hitched, and for a moment, the beautiful garden around her seemed to vanish. Hope was a cruel thing, and Sherly had learned long ago not to trust it."Javon, you… you can't be serious," she said, trying to smile, but the result was fragile and bitter. "I don't need to be comforted. I've come to terms with my condition."Javon brushed a dry leaf from Sherly's shoulder, his gaze intense, as if it could pierce through the layers of calm she had painstakingly built. "Come to terms?" he asked softly. "The Sherly I remember was a fighter. A business genius whose stare could make directors tremble. She would never 'come to terms' with defeat."Sherly's grip on the thin blanket over her knees tightened. "What else can I do?" she sighed, her defensive walls beginning to crack. "I've seen all the most prominent experts, tried every new medical technology from around the world. The result was always the same." She stared blankly ahead. "They all shook their heads. 'There's no pre

Javon laughed. It was a cold, humorless laugh that made the scarred man on the ground tremble violently."Nocturnal Hall?" Javon repeated, as if savoring the name on his tongue. "Of all the names you could have used, you chose the worst possible one to say in front of me."He crouched down, pressing the cold barrel of a gun against the thug's uninjured hand. "You have two hands," he whispered, his voice terrifyingly calm. "One is already broken. Want to try your luck with the other one?""N-no! I'm not lying!"Javon didn't reply. He just pressed the barrel a little harder. The man could feel the chill of the steel seemingly seeping into his bones. A terror worse than any pain gripped him."Alright! Alright! I'll talk!" he screamed in panic. "We're from the Proteus Society! Not Nocturnal Hall! A mysterious client paid us to kill you! I swear!"He hastily explained that naming Nocturnal Hall was a tactic to divert Javon's potential revenge toward a larger power, hoping the two would des