Finn’s chest rose and fell, shallow and unsteady. The sound of the rain outside was now a dull roar in his ears. He stared at Shawn, searching for the smallest flicker of deceit—but all he found was calm certainty, as if Shawn was merely describing the weather.“What are you saying, Shawn?” Finn’s voice was low, almost hoarse.“That Ruth— what, she’s alive?”Shawn tilted his head, eyes gleaming with something that wasn’t quite victory, but satisfaction.“I’m saying nothing in the Callahan empire ever dies without a reason. People like Ruth don’t simply… vanish. They’re erased.”Finn shook his head, almost laughing. “I buried her, damn it. I saw the casket lowered into the ground.”“Did you?” Shawn asked softly. “Or did you see what you were told to see?”Finn’s mind replayed the day of Ruth’s funeral like a looping film reel. The black veil. The press held at a distance. The closed casket—because “the body was too fragile,” they said. The priest’s words, blurred by flashes of cameras.

Evan stumbled through the rubble, coughing against the dust. His veins still pulsed faintly blue under the skin. Every throb sent a jolt of static through his nerves.Nova ran beside him, checking the scanner on her wrist. “The grid’s offline across seven sectors. You killed the city’s mainframe, Evan. It’s all dark.”Evan steadied himself on a broken beam. “Good. That means he’s gone too.”She didn’t answer. Her gaze flicked to his arms. “You’re glowing again.”He tugged his sleeve down. “It’ll fade.”“Yeah? It didn’t fade the last three times you said that.”They reached a service tunnel, the only path still intact. Steam hissed from ruptured pipes, and somewhere in the distance, alarms screamed helplessly into the blackout.Nova muttered, “We have to find a live terminal. If Kieran left fragments, I can isolate them before they spread.”Evan followed, voice low. “What if it’s not just fragments? What if… part of him’s inside me?”She stopped walking. “Say that again.”He met her ey

The phone slipped slightly in Finn’s grip. For a moment, the only sound he could hear was his own breath — sharp, uneven — like he’d been running for miles even though he hadn’t moved an inch.“Who… who is this?” he repeated, his voice low.The line crackled softly, and the voice came again. Calm. Gentle. Familiar in a way that twisted something deep inside him.“Finn. Don’t hang up. Please.”It was her voice.Ruth Callahan.But that was impossible.He swallowed hard. “If this is some kind of sick joke—”“It’s not a joke. I need you to listen to me.”His heart pounded like a drum. Every rational part of him screamed hang up, walk away, don’t feed the delusion.But something stronger held him in place. A memory, maybe — a trace of warmth he thought had died with her.“Where are you?” he asked.“Somewhere safe. Somewhere no one can find me yet.”“Shawn said you were—”“Don’t trust Shawn.”Her tone sharpened suddenly, a trace of urgency creeping through the static.“He doesn’t know the f

The echo of Hans’s words hung in the air like gunpowder smoke.“You were her experiment.”Finn’s grip on Hans’s collar tightened until the fabric began to tear. His pulse thundered in his ears; his breath came fast and sharp.“You’re lying,” he hissed. “Say it again.”Hans didn’t flinch. His lips curled into a faint, cruel smile.“I don’t need to. You already feel it, don’t you? That hollow space in your memory—where her face should be, where your life should be.”Finn slammed him hard against the concrete wall. The metal table behind them rattled from the impact.“Stop talking—”“Why?” Hans’s tone was almost gentle now, infuriatingly calm. “Because you’re afraid I’m right?”Finn’s hand shook, fingers still gripping the collar. His vision blurred, rage mixing with confusion. He wanted to believe it was a trick — another one of Shawn’s mind games — but Hans’s eyes were steady, almost pitying.“What the hell are you talking about?” Finn demanded. “Experiment for what? Ruth loved me—”“R

The morning light sliced through the blinds of Finn’s penthouse like a blade, cutting across the room and landing on the glass table littered with files. He hadn’t slept. His tie was still around his neck, his hair slightly disheveled, eyes bloodshot but alive with the kind of focus that only came from obsession.He’d spent the night replaying every word Shawn said.“Do you know Ruth still has a living child?”The sentence had haunted him, crawling under his skin like a parasite. Finn didn’t believe it—no, he refused to believe it—but the possibility clawed at him in ways he couldn’t shake.He poured himself a glass of water, though it looked more like an attempt to drown the shaking in his hand. He stared out the window. The city was waking up. Everyone below was rushing to live another day, while he was standing on the edge of something that could end his.The sound of the elevator doors sliding open broke his trance. Audrey stepped in, heels clicking, her scent filling the room bef