Margaret's breath hitched, a dry, painful sound in the quiet room. The guilt over Chloe was now joined by a deeper, more rotten shame. Her entire adult life, her career, her distance, her fractured relationship with her daughter had been built, in part, on a foundation of Frank’s lies. She hadn't just abandoned her child; she had done so while carrying the banner of a monster.She curled forward, elbows on her knees, face in her hands. The cool Margaret Robbins was gone. In her place was a woman gutted by the sheer scale of her own misjudgment.She had run from a monster of her own creation, and in doing so, had handed him the perfect weapon: her own absence.A soft knock at the connecting door to the sitting room made her jerk upright, hastily wiping her eyes. “Yes?”The door opened a crack, revealing Leif, looking weary and uncharacteristically uncertain. “Aunt Margaret? I saw your light. I… I heard a noise.”He was lying. He’d probably been listening in the hall, drawn by the tens

“What is the meaning of what you did earlier?” she hissed, but her hands were already clutching his bare shoulders, her nails digging in. “You called Margaret. You’ve stirred the hornet’s nest.”Frank chuckled, pulling back to look at her. His eyes, the same Robbins blue but infinitely colder, scanned her face. “I am the hornet, darling. And the nest is already full of other stinging things. I hear we have a guest. A very familiar-looking guest.”He released her and walked towards a sideboard where a bottle of expensive bourbon waited. He poured two glasses, the towel riding dangerously low. “Tell me everything. And then,” he said, turning and handing her a glass, his gaze turning flinty, “we’re going to talk about how you and my dear ex-wife are going to help me get the other pieces of the Aetheron treasures. I just found out that the crown is just one piece of the three Aetheron treasures."Rose took the glass, her hand steady despite the chaos inside her. She looked at the man she

Chloe's feet carried her not to the kitchen, not to her mother's room, but to Emma.It was an unlikely destination but the morning's clarity had stripped away the old patterns. The imposter was in the hallway. The real Ethan was a ghost in the city. And Emma, fragile and deceived, was sleeping in a gilded cage of lies, unaware that the man who played her hero was anything but.This wasn't something she usually did but after everything that happened the previous night, and how Ethan had saved her, she immediately felt obligated towards Emma."Knock. Knock."Chloe knocked softly on Emma's door.A tired, wary voice answered. "Come in."Chloe drew in a deep breath before she opened the door and stepped inside.Emma was propped against her pillows, her laptop open, a cup of tea cooling untouched on the nightstand. She looked pale, shadows bruising the hollows beneath her eyes. But it was the guarded tension in her shoulders that struck Chloe—the posture of a woman who had learned to expe

Emma couldn't answer. The cramp came again, stronger, and she doubled over, clutching her abdomen. Her face was ashen."Something's wrong," Elizabeth cried out, breaking from the group. "She needs a doctor—"Nathan shoved her back. "No one moves."He hadn't meant to take things this way but because his cover was blown earlier than he had expected, he was left with no choice."You're killing her!" Margaret's composure finally cracked. "She's bleeding—can't you see that?"For a moment, something flickered in Nathan's eyes. Not remorse. Calculation. A dead hostage was worthless. A dead Emma, carrying his brother's child, was… complicated.The standoff stretched, agonizing and absolute. Emma slumped against Chloe, her breath coming in shallow, rapid gasps. A thin trickle of blood stained her white nightgown.Chloe caught Margaret's eye. Margaret gave an almost imperceptible nod. They had few minutes, maybe less.In that moment, Chloe's guilt enveloped her seeing that everything that was c

The Aegis fell silent. It had no protocol for this. No algorithm to counter a man who simply refused to stop.He burst out of the industrial district and onto a main thoroughfare. Cars swerved, horns blared. A delivery truck driver leaned on his horn as Ethan darted across four lanes of traffic, leaping over a sedan's hood, rolling across the asphalt and coming up running without breaking stride.DISTANCE TO TARGET: 4.7 MILES.PROJECTED ARRIVAL AT CURRENT PACE: 8 MINUTES 23 SECONDS."Too slow," he growled.He veered off the road, cutting through an alley, then a park, then another alley. His body moved on instinct, the old training—the A.M.E.N. training—surfacing despite the system's protests. After a while, the Aegis system spoke again.DISTANCE TO TARGET: 3.2 MILES.PROJECTED ARRIVAL: 5 MINUTES 47 SECONDS.She doesn't have five minutes.He pushed harder. His vision blurred at the edges. Ethan's lungs burned. His legs screamed. But he couldn't stop. Wouldn't stop. Emma's voice echo