All Chapters of The Devil's Fortune : Chapter 71
- Chapter 80
95 chapters
The lie about father
Marcel stared at the faded ink scrawled across the back of the photograph, his pulse thumping heavily in his ears. The cold wind from the open service bay whipped through the hospital corridor, rustling the edges of the paper."She didn't kill him," Lily said, her voice raw as she stepped beside him. She reached out, her fingers catching the corner of the envelope. "Marcel, look at me. Whatever was going on between them, Mom spent ten years hiding us in small towns, moving us every six months. She wouldn't have done that if she'd killed him.""Protecting someone doesn't erase betrayal, Lily," Marcel said, his eyes glued to the scrawled handwriting. "People do terrible things under pressure and call it protection."Aurora shifted her weight near the doorframe, her sidearm resting against her tactical belt. "He's right about that much. But taking a anonymous speaker's word for it inside a rigged hospital isn't smart."Marcel turned his head sharply
The doctor's secret
Marcel stared down at the crisp black ink of the official signature block. The stamp printed on the bottom right corner of the death certificate read Dr. Samuel Cross."I know that name," Lily said quietly, her hand shaking as she reached out to touch the paper. "He was my doctor. He used to give me those tiny wooden puzzles whenever I got sick.""He treated you when you were seven," Marcel said, his voice dropping into a register so low it was almost unrecognizable. "I remember mom bringing you to his clinic on 4th Street. But she never let me step inside the room with you. I had to wait in the hall.""I thought she was just being protective," Lily whispered."She wasn't protecting you from the cold," Marcel said, his knuckles turning white as he gripped the desk edge. "She was keeping me away from him."Marcus tapped furiously on his secondary tablet, pulling up medical registry logs. "Cross officially retired twelve years ago, but his medical license was renewed every three years t
The woman archive
Marcel dropped to his knees, his hands pressing against the dark blood soaking through Dr. Cross’s shirt. The old man’s breath rattled in his chest, his pale fingers clawing weakly at Marcel’s wrist."Don't let Adrian... find the archive," Cross wheezed, his eyes rolling back. "Your mother... she isn't hiding from you, Marcel. She's hiding the archive from you."Cross’s head slumped sideways, his grip slacking entirely.Marcel stared at the dead doctor, his breath coming in short, sharp bursts. Through the shattered office window, the taillights of the black sedan disappeared into the rainy night."Adrian," Marcel spat, pushing himself up off the floor. "We chase him now.""No!" Marcus shouted, lunging forward to grab Marcel’s jacket. "There are at least three shooters on the perimeter roof! You walk out those front doors, and you're dead!"Aurora fired two suppressing rounds out the window into the dark alley below, glass rainin
What Adrian did
Marcel stood rooted to the wooden floorboards, his pistol hanging at his side. Twenty years of funeral flowers, silent anniversaries, and phantom grief hardened into a wall between him and the woman standing five feet away. He couldn't move his boots. He couldn't raise his arms.Lily remained buried in their mother's shoulders, her violent sobs shaking them both. Eleanor Kane held her daughter like a lifeline, her knuckles white against Lily's dark coat, her eyes never leaving Marcel's face."Marcel, please," Eleanor rasped, her voice cracking under the weight of the room. "I know what you're thinking.""Don't apologize yet," Marcel said. His voice was bone-dry, entirely stripped of inflection. "Tell me what happened."Eleanor took a trembling breath, smoothing Lily's hair before gently stepping back. She wiped her face with the back of a bruised hand. "After the fire at the research lab, I found your father. He was alive, Marcel. Severely burned,
The key
Marcel stared down at the tiny gold key resting in his palm. Rain lashed the windowpane behind him, casting long, jagged shadows across the floorboards.He walked to the window, peering down through the blinds. Adrian stood on the gravel driveway below, soaked to the skin, his arms hanging loose at his sides."I'm not opening this door," Marcel called out, his voice sharp enough to cut through the storm."Did Dad give you the archive?" Marcel asked, turning toward his mother without looking away from the glass.Eleanor shook her head, her breath ragged. "No. I swear to you, Marcel, no.""Did he give it to Adrian?""No.""Then who?""I don't know," Eleanor whispered, her voice breaking. "I spent ten years trying to figure out what he did with the master drive before he disappeared."Marcel looked at her eyes. For the first time since walking into the house, he believed her.Outside, Adrian stepped closer to the porch, pointing toward the coastal road. "You're wasting seconds, Marcel! T
The primary suspect
Marcel stared at the crimson text glowing on his phone screen, his fingers rigid around the glass casing.{PRIMARY SUBJECT IDENTIFIED: LILY KANE}"No," Marcel said, his voice quiet, flat, and absolute. "No, that's impossible.""Marcel, I don't know what that means," Lily said, backing away from the open steel cabinet, her hands trembling against her sides. "I've never seen that screen. I've never touched your phone. I never agreed to any of this!""Don't take the bait," Aurora said, descending the concrete cellar stairs with her sidearm raised. "It's a psychological trigger. The system gave you prompts for six months to make you feel like the center of the board. Now it's changing the rules to make you panic.""Marcus, check the archive drives," Marcel ordered, his heart thumping against his ribs as he stepped between Lily and the screen. "Right now."Marcus knelt on the cold cellar floor, plugging a diagnostic cable straight int
The lie
"What do you mean you left him there?" Marcel demanded, taking a step toward his mother, his jaw clamped tight enough to crack his teeth. "Explain it to me!"Eleanor backed toward the cellar door, her hands raised, her eyes darting nervously toward the rafters overhead. "Not here, Marcel. Not in this house. Cain's people planted short-range directional mics along the coastline weeks ago. If we speak now, they'll hear every name.""I don't care who hears!" Marcel growled."I do," Aurora snapped, shoving her weapon into her tactical rig and grabbing Marcel's shoulder with a firm grip. "She's right. The perimeter was compromised ten minutes ago. We move now, or we get boxed in. Move!"They piled into the reinforced SUV, Marcus gunning the engine before the rear doors fully latched. Rain rattled against the armored glass like thrown gravel as they tore down the coastal highway toward the Blackwood District.In the backseat, Lily sat pressed a
The Choice Adrian made
Adrian’s voice still rattled through the laboratory intercom, the metallic echo bouncing off the cold concrete walls."Where is he?" Marcel roared into the speaker, slamming his fist against the console screen until the glass fractured. "Where is my father, Adrian!"The monitor flickered, but Adrian didn't answer through the feed."Marcel, stop!" Eleanor pleaded, grabbing his arm with trembling hands. "He’s pulling you into a maze! Adrian has spent twenty years feeding us half-truths to keep us moving where he wants us!""He said Dad is down here!" Marcel snapped, turning on her, his breathing heavy and ragged. "I spent my entire life believing he died in a fire! I am not walking out those doors if he's fifty feet beneath our boots!"The heavy steel security door at the far end of the lab disengaged with a loud pneumatic hiss. Adrian stepped through the threshold alone. He was drenched in sweat, his tactical jacket torn at the shoulder, but his hands were empty and held low."The faci
The architect
Marcel stared out the SUV’s rain-streaked window as the city skyline rose in the distance like a jagged wall of glass and steel. He didn't order Marcus to turn toward First National Capital Tower. He sat back in the leather seat, his phone resting face-down on his knee."We aren't going to the tower yet," Marcel said, his voice flat.Marcus glanced in the rearview mirror. "The System gave you the exact address, Marcel. If we wait, they'll clear out.""The System tagged him as a protected asset," Marcel said, looking toward Marcus. "Everything it gives me is curated. If it wants me at that building right now, it's because someone wants me walking through the front doors angry.""Smart," Aurora muttered from the front passenger seat. "A man running on adrenaline is predictable."Marcus pulled into an underground parking garage beneath an old commercial warehouse, setting up his servers on a folding table in the back of the vehicle. Within ten minutes, he pulled up the corporate filings
Your father
Marcel stood frozen in the center of the subterranean garage, his fingers crushing the piece of paper."He's playing you, Marcel!" Marcus shouted, waving his tablet frantically. "Look at the handwriting! It's designed to make you snap and sprint straight into an ambush!""Look around, Marcus," Marcel said, his voice dropping into a dangerous, quiet register. "Look at the floor."Marcus paused, his chest heaving as his eyes swept the empty concrete bay."There's no broken glass," Marcel said, pacing slowly around the open doors of the SUV. "No spent brass, no scuff marks from boots, no blood. The perimeter alarm didn't trip. Whoever walked in here didn't force a lock. They were let in, or they had the master bypass key."Marcus immediately sat on the bumper, pulling up the garage security logs. "Give me thirty seconds." He tapped through the interface, his expression darkening. "The last sixty minutes of feed were overwritten with a static