2026-02-03 22:52:55
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CHAPTER 703
"Go ahead. Push. Let's see if you have the stomach to break the skin of the man who used to feed you. Or have you forgotten that everything you are, every breath you take, was paid for by my hand?"Lottie’s face burned with humiliating heat. Every word was a lash, a reminder of the years she had spent under his thumb, beholden to his "generosity.""You didn't give me anything!" she hissed, her anger bubbling into a jagged, desperate rage. "You stole my life and called it a gift!""I gave you a name! I gave you a future!" Caleb roared. His voice turned thunderous as he stepped closer, forcing her to either stab him or retreat. "And look at you now. Cowering behind a tree, starving, bleeding, and holding a toy. We both know who is stronger here, Charlotte. You’ve always been the bird, and I’ve always been the sky. You can fly as hard as you want, but you’re still inside me."He reached out, his hand closing around her wrist with the crushing strength of a vise."Drop the toy before y
CHAPTER 702
Lottie froze.The tart juice of a wild berry stained her fingertips a deep, bruised purple, mimicking the dried blood on her thigh. The rustle in the undergrowth wasn't the light, hurried step of Hugo or the heavy tread of Marek. It was rhythmic, intentional, and chillingly confident.She pressed her back against the rough bark of the oak, her heart hammering against her ribs like a trapped bird. But she was too late. A beam of light, sharp and clinical, sliced through the dark and pinned her."Eating berries in the middle of a war zone," a voice drawled, smooth as polished stone and twice as cold. "You always did have a terrible sense of timing, Charlotte."Lottie’s blood turned to ice. She knew that voice.She squinted against the glare as a man stepped into the small circle of light. He was clad in high-grade tactical gear, but it was his hair, stark, shimmering white even in the gloom, that marked him. He was the commander who had ordered the strike on the clearing; the man wh
CHAPTER 701
She scanned the shadows, her pulse jumping at every snap of a twig. ‘Where are they?’ she wondered, her eyes burning with unshed tears. ‘Tedmond... Marek... Hugo?’She wanted to scream their names, but she knew better. The men with silenced rifles and thermal goggles were still out there. She was a target, and she had to stay small.**A mile away, near the scorched earth where the helicopter had fired its initial payload, two shadows moved cautiously through the smoke. Hugo was limping, his hand gripping Molly’s shoulder for support.When they reached the clearing, Hugo stopped dead, his face twisting.The area had been hollowed out by the blast; craters pocked the ground, and the trees were blackened skeletons."No," Hugo choked out. "Lottie was near here. She was supposed to be right here."Molly scanned the destruction, her heart sinking. "Hugo, look at this place. If she was caught in the blast...""No! Look there!" Hugo pointed toward the steep incline leading down to the dar
CHAPTER 700
“Fine,” Tedmond whispered, looking at Ivy with newfound respect. “Go on my behalf. Find them. Bring them to the clearing at the end of the tunnel. If you are not there in two hours...”"We'll be there," Ivy promised. She checked the clip of a sleek handgun pulled from her waistband, then glanced at Marek. "Come on, Heart-Blossom. Let’s see if you can keep up with a girl."Marek let out a short, grim bark of a laugh. "Try not to get in my way, Doc."As they disappeared into the hallway's shadows, Tedmond sank onto the edge of the bed, his hand finding his mother’s. The house felt suddenly hollow, the air thick with the realization that their escape, and the lives of their friends, now rested in the hands of a stranger and a man with a mangled hip.The door hissed shut, leaving the room in a heavy, echoing silence. The adrenaline that had propped Tedmond up began to drain away, leaving him fragile."I have so much to tell you, Mom," Tedmond rasped, his voice thick with the urge to b
CHAPTER 699
Ivy’s voice rose, sharp and incredulous."Leaving tonight? Tedmond, look at yourself. You can barely stand without leaning on that wheelchair, and your friend is holding his hip together with sheer willpower."‘Does he have a death wish?’ Ivy wondered, her eyes darting between Tedmond’s pale face and the dark window. ‘He was brought here because he was being hunted like an animal.’‘If those men were willing to blow up a mountainside just to sanitize a sector, they aren’t going to go home just because the sun went down. They’re out there, sitting in the dark, waiting for a single heat signature to flicker.’"I don’t care if they’ve turned the forest into a grid," Tedmond snapped, his blue eyes flashing with cold intensity. "Every second she stays in this house is another second she’s a target. If they confused her with Molly once, they’ll do it again. I am not losing her twice."Tedmond knew staying might be worse. The men wouldn’t stop until they found them, and that would put Milli
CHAPTER 698
Marek looked as though he were staring at a ghost.He hadn’t been certain they would find her at all, but now, seeing her like this, alive and awake, he could hardly believe it.His eyes widened, filled with an intensity that bordered on reverence.For a man who had faced down armies, he looked utterly defenseless.The rugged, scarred warrior and the fragile, white-haired beauty stared at each other, the air between them thick with a strange, undeniable pull.“Millicent?” he said again, her full name resting on his tongue like a prayer.Tedmond watched from the bed, his mouth slightly open.He had seen Marek fight, kill, and bleed without flinching. He had never seen the giant look at a woman as though she were the only thing left in the world.Millicent blinked, her heart still racing from the sudden intrusion. She looked down at the massive, scarred man at her feet, then turned toward her son.“Tedmond,” she whispered gently, confusion threading her voice. “Does… does this friend o
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