All Chapters of The invisible Groom: Chapter 31
- Chapter 40
114 chapters
Chapter thirty-one
The room is too quiet.Too still.The kind of silence that forms only after something inside a person has broken so completely that even the air refuses to move.Lila sits upright now—no longer trembling, no longer crying, no longer collapsing into Ethan’s chest.She is simply… still.Her hands are folded in her lap.Her chin is slightly lifted.Her eyes are dry but empty.It is the stillness of shock.Shadow studies her from a distance—carefully, cautiously—as if she is made of glass that has shattered but hasn’t yet realized it.Malik stands by the wall, jaw clenched, guilt settling into his spine like lead.Ethan remains seated beside her, but he does not touch her.He knows better.Touch might break what she has left.Instead, he speaks softly.“Lila… say something.”She doesn’t.Her gaze is fixed on a point in front of her—far away, unreachable.Ethan tries again, voice lower, rawer.“Lila, please.”She finally blinks.Once.Slowly.Then her voice comes out hoarse.“What else?”E
Chapter thirty- two
The message was simple and surgical: a single encrypted address, a time stamped for midnight, and the words FOR BOARD MEMBERS ONLY.Marian Cole’s security detail ignored it—until she insisted. She moved through the compound like winter: deliberate, cold, impossible to read. When her car slid into the guest court of an off-grid manor outside the city, the fog braided itself into the hedges as if the night itself wished to keep secrets.Inside, a man in slate-gray suit awaited—too casual, too prepared. He did not rise when she entered. He assessed her like a ledger. Finally, he smiled with the little cruelty of someone who’d already won.“Marian,” he said. Slate’s voice, via a liaison, was silk and gravel. “You look tired.”“I’m not here to gossip,” Marian replied. “You have what I asked for?”The man produced a slim data-slate. Marian took it, eyes scanning the contents faster than the human brain should permit: transactional trails, off-books accounts, contractors listed under dead na
Chapter thirty-three
The Cole estate was quiet that night—not the silence of peace, but the silence of something being hidden.Ethan stood in the surveillance hall, watching the feed Hale had just decrypted. The footage was grainy, but unmistakable:Marian Cole, his aunt, slipping into an unregistered black sedan at 2:13 a.m.Destination: unknown.Driver: masked.License plate: falsified.Every detail screamed one thing—she didn’t want the family to know where she was going.Hale exhaled sharply.“Sir… she’s covering her tracks like someone who knows how to disappear.”Ethan didn’t answer. He simply watched the screen, jaw tense, eyes still and cold. The type of stillness that preceded violence.THE SECRET MEETINGSlate waited in an abandoned chapel on the outskirts of District 8. Black candles burned low, the shadows trembling across his scarred jaw.A figure stepped inside.Marian.Her heels clicked on the stone floor, each step confident and unhurried—like meeting a terrorist mastermind was normal for
Chapter thirty-four
The city hummed with late-night chaos—sirens in the distance, streetlights flickering, shadows stretching like claws across the pavement.But inside Slate’s underground bunker, everything was quiet.Unnaturally quiet.A quiet that belonged to war.THE ROOM OF NAMESSlate stood alone before a massive holographic screen. Rows of encrypted files flickered across it—military emblems, medical records, psychological profiles.At the very top of the display glowed a single heading:PROJECT GHOST — PRIMARY ASSET LOCKEDAuthorization Required: COLE BLOODLINEHe stared at it with an expression halfway between amusement and hatred.“Bloodline… of course.”With a flick of his hand, Slate pulled up a sub-file labeled:AUTHORIZATION DNA MATCHES —Ethan Cole (Full Match)Slate (Partial Match)He studied it silently.“So that’s why you were always favored… Ethan.”Slate turned and paced, the tension in the air sharp enough to cut.He wasn’t just building an army.He wasn’t just trying to kill Ethan.
Chapter thirty-five
The Cole estate was supposed to be impenetrable.Its outer walls were lined with motion grids.Its inner halls packed with biometric locks.Its underground vaults guarded by an army of elite Cole operatives.But tonight—The ground shook.Lights flickered.Every alarm in the estate screamed at once.And for the first time in decades, the Central Vault—the heart of Cole family secrets—was under direct attack.THE FIRST BREACHGuards sprinted through the lower halls, shouting coordinates.Security drones activated.Gunfire echoed down steel corridors.But it was already too late.A Phantom Unit operative—dressed in full matte armor—slammed a fist into the vault door.Not a bomb.Not a tool.A strike.One single, perfectly measured blow.The reinforced metal dented inward.The guards froze.“What kind of strength—?”They never finished the question.The Phantom Unit moved.Three blurs.Three shadows.Three kills.Silent.Precise.Mechanical.They were not here to fight.They were here to
Chapter thirty-six
Silence swallowed the vault.Not the silence of emptiness—but the silence before a detonation.Ethan stood perfectly still.Shadow and Hale froze behind him.Even the smoke drifting from the ruined security drones felt suspended.Marian’s words echoed in the air:“Experiment Zero… is you.”Ethan didn’t move.Not a muscle.Not a breath.Only his voice broke the stillness—quiet, razor-edged.“Explain.”Marian’s eyes glistened—not with softness, but with the weight of something she’d carried too long.“You weren’t born into this family, Ethan.”Hale stiffened.Shadow inhaled sharply.Ethan didn’t react.Marian took a step closer—slow, trembling.“You were created for it.”Ethan’s eyes narrowed—barely.“From whom?”Marian looked away.“For the heir program,” she murmured. “Your father couldn’t produce a viable successor. So the council authorized an alternative.”Hale’s face twisted.“Jesus, Marian—are you saying—?”“Yes.”Her voice broke.“Ethan wasn’t a child. Ethan was a project.”Sha
Chapter thirty-seven
The private hall beneath the Cole estate is colder than usual—an unnatural cold that clings to the walls like old ghosts.Ethan stands at the center of the subterranean chamber, surrounded by shelves of sealed archives, rusted lockboxes, and files that were never meant to be opened. Lila sits on a nearby metal bench, pale and exhausted from the memory flashes that struck her earlier.A single name repeats in her head like a broken echo:Project Heirloom.Ethan finally finds the sealed case marked with the same codename. He touches it, and the biometric lock scans him. For a moment nothing happens… then the lock clicks open.The case hisses with a slow exhale, as though releasing a decade of secrets.Inside lies a thin black folder, a silver chain, and a photograph—Ethan freezes.The photograph shows Vincent Cole standing in a lab, surrounded by men in military coats… and a little girl strapped to a medical chair.A girl with Lila’s eyes.Lila doesn’t breathe.Her fingers curl.Her vo
Chapter thirty-eight
For a moment, no one in the underground chamber breathes.Vincent Cole stands at the threshold like a phantom, hands casually in his pockets, eyes bright with a sort of cruel amusement. He looks exactly the same as he did in the old photos—impossibly ageless, sharply dressed, even elegant.As if death never touched him.As if he had simply stepped out of a myth.Ethan doesn’t move.Not an inch.The air around him thickens—danger radiating through every tight line of his body.“Vincent,” Ethan says, voice low, cold. “You died twelve years ago.”Vincent smiles.“Did I?”Shadow and Malik appear instantly at Ethan’s sides, guns drawn, stance ready.Lila’s fingers grip Ethan’s jacket from behind, her pulse shaking through her entire body.Vincent lets his gaze slide to her.“Hello, my masterpiece.”Lila freezes as if someone poured ice straight through her veins.Ethan steps in front of her entirely.“You don’t speak to her.”Vincent chuckles softly.“Protective, are we? How sweet. And poi
Chapter thirty-nine
Lila collapses into Ethan’s arms as the black chip emits a sharp metallic crackle. The lights in the underground chamber flicker violently, reacting to the surge of energy pulsing through her nervous system.Vincent stiffens, expression turning from confident amusement to cold, calculating fury.“That device,” he whispers. “Where did you get it?”Ethan ignores him entirely.He lowers Lila to her knees, steadying her gently as her body trembles from the neural overload. The chip glows in his hand—sparking blue, then red, then fading to a dull black.Shadow steps forward. “Boss… that chip was never tested. It could—”“It will save her,” Ethan replies without looking away from Lila.Her breaths come in broken, painful gasps. Every inhale seems to shred her from the inside. A low whimper escapes her, and Ethan grips her shoulders, steady but desperate.“Lila. Stay with me.”Her fingers clutch his wrists with what little control she still possesses.Vincent watches with growing displeasure
Chapter forty
The ride back to the safehouse is silent.Not peaceful—but sharp.Heavy.Filled with the kind of pressure that cracks stone.Lila lies unconscious in Ethan’s arms, her head resting against his chest. Her breathing is shallow but steady now, the violent tremors gone. The burning red lines around her neck—the places where the chip fused—have faded to faint markings.Shadow keeps glancing at her through the rearview mirror.Malik keeps checking sensors on a tablet.Ethan never looks away from her.Never blinks.Never loosens his hold.When they reach the fortified entrance, Hale rushes out.His eyes widen when he sees Lila.“What happened?” he demands.Shadow answers before Ethan can speak.“Override chip. Full burn.”Hale pales.“That thing is experimental—”“Yes,” Ethan says.“But why would you—”Ethan steps past him.Everything in his posture makes Hale shut his mouth instantly.Inside the SafehouseThe medical wing is already prepared. Ethan places Lila gently on the central bed. Th