All Chapters of The Sterling Accord : Chapter 121
- Chapter 130
200 chapters
Chapter 121
The aftermath The rain wouldn’t stop. It came down in heavy sheets, swallowing the forest in a wet hush. Smoke still curled from the remnants of the ambush — the blackened shell of what was once their shelter, the soft hiss of fire dying in the mud.Clara knelt beside the body.Her fingers trembled as she brushed mud from Victor’s cheek. His eyes were half-open, as if caught between words he never said. The hole in his chest was small but deep, his shirt soaked dark red.“Help me,” she whispered.Ethan stood behind her, his arm still bleeding through the bandage she tied earlier. “Clara—”“Don’t. Just help me.”He hesitated before stepping closer. Together, they lifted Victor’s limp body to the edge of the clearing. The rain did the rest — washing away the blood that trailed behind them, erasing the violence like it wanted to hide what happened here.They didn’t speak again until the grave was done. Shallow. Uneven. The soil turned to thick, sticky mud under their hands.When they we
Chapter 122
The Weight of MemoryThe rain had started again that evening, soft and unhurried, like the sky was exhaling all the secrets it had held too long. Clara stood by the window, tracing the raindrops on the glass with the tip of her finger, lost in the sound of the world falling apart quietly outside.Behind her, Ethan moved with the ease of familiarity. He’d taken off his jacket, rolled his sleeves, and was now making tea like he had a right to belong here — in her space, her quiet, her brokenness.“Still can’t sleep?” he asked, his voice low.Clara shook her head without turning. “Every time I close my eyes, it’s like I can see it again. The lab… the light… Kane’s face.”Ethan froze for a moment before setting the mug down. “You said the memory came back slowly,” he said, carefully. “But now you remember everything?”“Not everything,” Clara whispered. “Just flashes. He kept saying it wasn’t personal. That I was… chosen. For something greater.” Her voice cracked. “He said I’d thank him s
Chapter 123
The wrestling hearts The night had teeth. It bit into Clara’s skin as the wind screamed through the cracks in the safehouse walls. The storm outside was relentless—like something alive, furious, as if the world itself had decided to tear open everything they’d tried to keep hidden. Inside, though, there was a silence that felt sharper than the storm.Clara sat by the small fire Ethan had managed to build, its glow painting her skin gold and shadow by turns. Her hands trembled even though she tried to hide it, pressing her palms together like she could hold herself in one piece. The words from Kane’s files still echoed in her head—sentences that didn’t belong to any sane reality.Subject 07: viability confirmed. Neural response to the serum exceeded projection. Emotional retention: intact. Memory: suppressed.She could still see her name—Clara Bernett—in neat black ink, at the top of the report. Her stomach twisted every time she remembered it.Across the room, Ethan stood by the wind
Chapter 124
Reflections Ethan hadn’t slept. He sat on the floor, his back against the wall, watching Clara sleep beside the dying fire. The shadows of the flames danced across her face, soft and unguarded for the first time in what felt like forever. Her breathing was steady now, her features relaxed — a fragile peace that he didn’t dare disturb.He wanted to reach out. To trace the curve of her cheek. To memorize her like this — not as the experiment Kane had tried to brand her as, but as the woman she’d become in spite of it all.But he didn’t. Because every time he looked at her, guilt pressed against his ribs like a blade.He’d known Kane for years. Trusted him. Worked under him. And even though he’d left, even though he’d tried to make amends, he couldn’t change the fact that he had helped build the very system that broke her.A low hum filled the quiet. The generator in the next room was struggling to stay alive. The safehouse was old, hidden in the woods far outside the city — one of the
Chapter 125
Echoes Rain lashed against the fractured glass dome of the abandoned communications outpost, the sound sharp and relentless—like the earth itself was mourning something lost. Inside, Clara and Ethan crouched beside a flickering terminal, the dim blue light casting hollow shadows across their faces. The system hummed weakly, its circuits corroded by time and stormwater, but it was the only working link they had left to the outside world.Ethan’s fingers hovered over the cracked keyboard. His shoulder was still bound from the last encounter, movement restricted, yet his focus was unbroken—intense, surgical. “If Kane rerouted the satellite frequencies, he’s masking movement within a fifty-mile radius,” he said, voice rough from exhaustion. “We’re blind out here unless I can decode his firewall.”Clara knelt beside him, her damp hair clinging to her skin, the chill biting through the fabric of her worn jacket. “You shouldn’t be doing this with one arm,” she murmured, reaching to steady t
Chapter 126
Quiet WallsThe city felt too loud after the forest.Even the hum of traffic beneath the narrow apartment windows seemed like a reminder that the world hadn’t stopped — that somewhere, beyond their silence, life was continuing normally. For Ethan and Clara, it felt anything but normal.The apartment was small, unremarkable, tucked into the back corner of an aging building that smelled faintly of detergent and concrete. It wasn’t home — but it was hidden.And for now, that was enough.Ethan stood by the window, blinds drawn halfway, his reflection faint against the fading dusk. The bruises on his arm had begun to turn pale yellow. The ache in his chest wasn’t from injury, it was the kind that sat too deep, somewhere beneath control and reason. He was alive. She was alive. That should have been relief.It wasn’t.Behind him, Clara moved quietly — her movements almost habitual, like she was afraid of breaking something fragile in the air between them. She poured hot water into two chipp
Chapter 127
The Pull of SilenceMorning came slow. The light filtered through pale curtains, falling across the small living room in fractured shapes. The city outside moved as if nothing had changed , buses growling, people shouting, the rhythm of normal life continuing without pause. Inside, Ethan and Clara stayed in the hush between breaths, caught in the kind of quiet that came only after too much had been lost.Clara woke first. For a moment, she didn’t know where she was — the unfamiliar ceiling, the muted hum of city noise — but then it came back. The forest. The escape. The narrow streets of the city. The apartment Ethan had found for them, its walls still smelling of dust and detergent.She sat up, rubbing her arms against the faint chill. The blanket slipped to her lap. On the small counter, two mugs sat where they had left them last night, untouched.Ethan wasn’t asleep. He never was. He stood by the window again, blinds half-open, his eyes scanning the alleyway below. A dark shirt cl
Chapter 128
The Storm BeginsThe city was restless that night.Rain drifted down the tall windows of the flat like fine silk, the sound soft but constant, wrapping the silence in something alive. Clara sat on the edge of the bed, knees drawn close, her damp hair falling over her face. The lights were dim, the room painted in amber shadows.Ethan moved quietly across the room. His shoulder had healed enough for movement, though the scar still burned when he turned too fast. He was dressed in a plain black shirt, sleeves rolled up, the faint sheen of water from the window outlining the hard lines of his frame.Neither spoke for a while. The air between them was charged with everything that had gone unsaid for days.“You should rest,” Ethan said finally, his voice low, steady but carrying an edge of exhaustion.Clara looked up at him. “You said that yesterday.”He half-smiled. “And you didn’t listen then either.”“I couldn’t,” she replied. Her eyes met his, something fragile and bright flickering t
Chapter 129
Fracture LineThe storm didn’t stop that night.It rolled through the city in waves—lightning tearing across the clouds, thunder crawling deep into the bones of the apartment. The sound was steady, relentless, and somewhere between each rumble, Clara heard her own pulse.She hadn’t slept. Neither had Ethan.He was by the window, shoulders tense, eyes tracing the city lights through sheets of rain. The glow from the skyline cut across his face in uneven lines, throwing one side in light, the other in shadow.Clara sat on the couch, her fingers wrapped around a mug gone cold. Every so often, she glanced toward the desk—toward the chip now silent, as if the images it had shown them had burned out its last breath.The words Project Genesis wouldn’t leave her mind.Her father’s handwriting.That voice.She whispered, almost to herself, “It was her… wasn’t it? The woman on that table.”Ethan didn’t turn immediately. “Yes.”He finally faced her, and for a moment his expression softened—just
Chapter 130
Beneath the RuinsThe world returned as sound before sight—a slow, uneven rhythm of dripping water, muffled echoes, and the distant hum of the city far above.Clara’s head throbbed. Her lungs burned. The air was thick with the smell of iron and smoke.When she tried to move, pain shot through her shoulder. Something heavy pinned her down—a slab of twisted metal and concrete. Panic clawed at her chest as she gasped, blinking against the haze.“Ethan?” Her voice was hoarse, barely more than a whisper.A groan answered from somewhere to her right.She turned her head, wincing through the pain. Ethan was half-buried under broken beams, blood trailing down his temple. He was conscious—barely—but trying to move.“Ethan,” she croaked again, forcing her hand free from the debris. “Hey—hey, can you hear me?”He coughed, head rolling slightly toward her. “Clara…”Relief hit her so sharply she almost cried. “Don’t move, okay? Just—just stay still.”He ignored her and tried to push a metal beam