The safehouse feels colder after Lila stops shaking.Too quiet.Too still.Ethan keeps one arm around her while Hale finishes the neural scan.Lila clings to him—not out of weakness, but because her entire nervous system is still recalibrating.Hale studies the monitor, face tightening.“…Ethan, there’s something you need to see.”Ethan looks up sharply.“What is it?”Hale expands a graph—neural patterns flashing rapidly across the screen.“This isn’t normal recovery. Her mind is… reorganizing itself.”Malik frowns.“Reorganizing how?”Hale touches the screen.“You see these overlapping sequences? They’re Ghost-format recognition codes.”He swallows.“She shouldn’t be able to read or process these. Only trained operatives can.”Shadow steps closer.“Are you saying she’s becoming one of us?”“No,” Hale says tightly. “I’m saying she’s becoming something new.”Lila flinches at the word.Ethan tightens his hold around her.“She is not a weapon. Not a project.”Hale nods quickly.“I’m not

The moment the black sedan left the compound, the Dawson mansion erupted into hushed arguments.Uncle Henry paced the room. “This is a golden opportunity. We were nobodies compared to the Coles—now powerful people are knocking on our door.”Aunt Vivian folded her arms. “But they want us to betray Ethan. If he is who they say he is, that’s suicide.”“He won’t know,” Henry snapped. “We’ll just… pay attention. Ask questions. It’s harmless.”But even he didn’t sound confident.Lila’s mother, Evelyn Dawson, sat quietly in the corner, watching the briefcase on the table as though it were a bomb. She was the only one who had truly observed Ethan during his years of exile. His eyes… his silence… the strange control he had over himself.A man like that didn’t bend easily.And he certainly didn’t forgive easily.She rubbed her palms together anxiously.“Let’s just start small,” Henry said. “Today, we gather information. Who he meets. Where he goes. Who he calls.” He forced a smile. “We won’t be

Lila stepped out of the market with two bags of groceries, unaware that three different forces were already closing around her.Her phone buzzed.Mom.She frowned. They almost never called unless something was wrong—or they needed money.“Hello?”Evelyn’s voice sounded too gentle.Too soft.Almost rehearsed.“Lila… dear. Can you come home today?”Lila stopped walking.“…Why?”“Oh. Nothing serious!” Evelyn rushed. “We’ve just missed you. Haven’t seen you in so long. Your father wants us to… spend time together.”Lila narrowed her eyes.Evelyn never said “spend time together.”Evelyn said things like, You’ve changed since you married that boy, or Come home so we can talk sense into you.Never this.“Is someone there?” Lila asked slowly.A sharp inhale on the other end.“No! No, dear. It’s just us.”Lila’s fingers tightened around the phone.“Mom… what’s going on?”Evelyn’s voice cracked—finally real.“Lila, please. Just come home quickly.”Lila froze.Her mother sounded scared.Not irri

The driveway lights cut the night into harsh slices as Ethan’s car pulled up outside the Dawson mansion. He did not park. He did not wait.He moved like someone whose entire life had been measured in seconds.Two of his men peeled from the shadows and took positions on the house’s flanks. Hale slipped along the garden wall and vanished into the dark. Shadow rode ahead, silent, already in the threshold of things that break quietly and fast.Inside, the gray-suited men were arranging chairs. One checked his watch, palms steady. Another made a polite motion toward the dining room, as if inviting a reluctant guest to a gentle meal.They had rehearsed civility as if it could mask what they were about to do.On the second floor, Lila’s phone vibrated again. Evelyn’s voice—thin, urgent—came through the line.“Lila, they said they’ll be here in five minutes. Please—just come home.”She could hear the tremor in her mother’s words. She could also hear the soft scrape of a chair, a man’s low voi

The house was too quiet.Too still.Like the air itself was waiting for something to break.Lila’s parents hovered near the kitchen doorway, whispering anxiously. They didn’t dare leave. They didn’t dare speak to her. They didn’t dare push her either.Not after what the Cole Council had offered them.Not after what the emissary had said.Not after the final line he left in the doorway:“Ask your husband why the Council approved your marriage instantly.”Lila sat on the couch, hands clenched so tightly her nails dug into her palms.Her heart felt too loud.Her thoughts too sharp.Her fear too real.When the door finally opened…She didn’t look up.But she felt him.Ethan.His presence hit the room like a shift in gravity.Strong. Controlled. Deadly.And this time… uncertain.“Lila.”His voice was low.She swallowed.“They came,” she whispered.The tension in his body coiled instantly. “Who?”She lifted her eyes slowly.“The Cole Council.”Ethan’s expression changed—just slightly—but en