CHAPTER 83
Author: Victoria C
last update2025-12-12 16:33:39

Leon Returns

Emily’s POV

Dawn crawled into the sky like something wounded—slow, gray, heavy. I hadn’t slept at all. I sat on the floor of my room, back pressed against the wall, the classified file still lying open in front of me.

I hadn’t turned a single page since the call ended.

I didn’t need to.

Just the title alone had iced my spine: PROJECT BLACK SUNRISE.

Shadowline clearance: Omega Tier.

Leon Black: Primary Architect.

Even without reading, I felt its weight—its danger—pressing into the base of my throat like a blade. My father’s voice kept replaying:

“When Leon falls apart, he won’t fall alone.”

The house was quiet. Too quiet. The kind of silence that wrapped around my ribs and squeezed. Then I heard it. A door opening downstairs. Heavy footsteps. Slow. Controlled.

Leon.

My heart stopped.

No one else walked like that—like they owned the ground, like the world stepped out of their way. Even exhausted, even furious, even half-broken, Leon carried power in every motion.

I scramble
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