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197 Bobby clapped his hands together, almost giddy. “That’s what I’m talking about.” “But,” Helen said, cutting him off again, “if you even think about crossing me—” He held up his hands. “Scout’s honor.” Helen laughed humorlessly. “You were never a scout, Bobby.” “No,” he admitted, “but I was always good at surviving.” Helen smirked. “Survival’s not enough anymore.” Bobby lifted his coffee in a mock toast. “To the queen of the city.” Helen hesitated, just for a second, before clinking her mug against his. She could almost taste the victory already—sweet, rich, and long overdue. ⸻ Last night, she had told Lisa everything, practically bouncing on her designer heels. Lisa had squealed and shrieked, “YES! This is it! You’re finally going to crush them all!” Helen had believed it. She had seen herself rising—higher than the Nelsons, higher than all those self-important bastards who had sneered at her. But what Helen didn’t know—what Lisa didn’t know—was that Bobby had never
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198The Next Morning,Helen stood in front of the mirror in her luxury apartment, smoothing the front of her navy sheath dress for the fifth time. Her heels clicked restlessly against the marble floor as she checked her appearance from every angle.She looked perfect. Sharp. Professional. Unstoppable.Today was the day.She had barely slept, tossing and turning with excitement, replaying Bobby’s words over and over in her head:“Big money, Helen. Billions.”“You’re going to crush them all.”Lisa had practically screamed when Helen called her after midnight.“You’re going to OWN this city!” Lisa had cried. “They won’t even know what hit them!”Helen had laughed, giddy and breathless.Finally.Finally she would be more than the woman they whispered about behind champagne glasses. She would be a force.She stared at her reflection, brushing an imaginary speck off her dress.“No mistakes,” she whispered to herself. “You’re ready.”Her phone buzzed. A text from Bobby:Car’s waiting downsta
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199 Pages and pages of dense legal language. Terms like “full legal responsibility,” “personal liability,” “unlimited financial exposure.” Helen’s stomach twisted. “This is…” she trailed off. “Standard,” the thickset man said shortly. Helen looked up sharply. “It doesn’t look standard.” The man with the scar leaned forward, voice low and threatening. “You want in or not?” Helen tried to laugh, but it came out thin and shaky. “I’m just… not used to moving this fast, I guess. Big deals usually involve—” “Lawyers?” the young man sneered. “Mediators? Delays?” He leaned forward, eyes cold. “That’s why most people never make it, sweetheart. They hesitate. They waste time. Opportunities vanish.” Helen’s heart hammered painfully against her ribs. “But—” “Bobby said you were serious,” the man with the scar interrupted, his voice like gravel. “That you had guts. Were we wrong?” Helen’s cheeks flamed. “No,” she snapped. The man shoved the pen across the table toward her. “The
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200Helen tried to return the smile, but it came out more strained than she intended. Her stomach churned, and her skin prickled with an ominous sense of foreboding that she couldn’t shake.Something was wrong. Her instincts, always so sharp when it came to business, were screaming at her. This wasn’t right.She glanced at the man who had spoken, trying to find some sign of warmth or sincerity. But there was none. Just cold professionalism. He didn’t seem to care that she’d just signed away a chunk of her life.The words echoed in her mind: “It’s a done deal. Congratulations.”Her hand trembled as she reached for the pen, signing the contract without hesitation. Was it a mistake? She couldn’t tell. She’d been briefed, she’d weighed the pros and cons, but now that it was done—now that the deal was final—she wasn’t sure she could even trust her own judgment anymore.“Thank you,” she said, her voice coming out softer than she had intended. Her eyes were on the paper in front of her, but
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201Back to HelenHelen sat still, frozen in the middle of the conference room. The emptiness of the space around her seemed to echo her growing realization.Everything she had worked for. Everything she thought she knew.Had it all been a lie?The sinking feeling in her stomach spread like cold fire. She couldn’t ignore the dread anymore. It was a feeling that would stay with her—forever.The door clicked shut behind her, but the sound of the finality echoed in her mind.“God, what have I done?” she whispered to herself, the weight of her decisions pressing down on her chest. “How could I have been so blind?”She stared at the documents on the table. The ink seemed to mock her, the signatures binding her to something she didn’t fully understand. The deal had seemed like the opportunity of a lifetime—until it wasn’t. Now it was a trap, and she was the prey.Her phone buzzed on the table in front of her, but she didn’t pick it up immediately. Her hands were shaking too much. When she f
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202Back at Jane’s ApartmentThe hallway outside her apartment was quiet, but Jane’s heart wasn’t. It thudded like a warning drum inside her chest as she reached her door and fumbled for her keys. Her fingers, usually so precise, felt clumsy against the cool metal. She finally slid the key into the lock and twisted, pushing the door open with a soft creak.The moment she stepped inside, she exhaled a breath she hadn’t realized she was holding. Her heels clicked on the hardwood as she moved forward, slowly closing the door behind her with a quiet click, then rested her forehead against the wood. It was cold, smooth, and grounding.The silence inside her apartment was eerie—thick, like a pause before something broke. The familiar lavender scent of the reed diffuser in the corner greeted her, but even that felt distant tonight. She slipped off her heels by the door, nudging them aside with the edge of her foot. The relief was immediate. Her toes ached, but her mind hurt more.She glanced
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203“I am right,” Lisa replied, sounding pleased with herself. “You need to stop second-guessing everything. You’re not Helen from twenty years ago, struggling to prove herself. You’re Jane White. CEO. Boss. And Bobby? He’s not just your business partner. He’s your partner, period. In every sense.”Jane exhaled through her nose, gripping her phone a little tighter as she leaned against the elevator’s mirrored wall. The ride up to the penthouse was smooth, soundless, too quiet for her thoughts. Lisa’s voice echoed even after she hung up, bouncing around the corners of her mind like a song on repeat.She stepped out onto the twelfth floor of the luxurious Westside tower and moved down the hallway, heels clicking sharply against polished marble. Her steps slowed as she reached her door—unit 12A. The keypad glowed soft blue under her fingertips as she punched in her code. With a soft hiss, the door unlocked.Inside, the apartment was dim, bathed in the amber hues of city lights filtering
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204Dylan Grenville’s eyes flicked to the vibrating phone on the edge of his glass desk. The screen lit up with an unfamiliar number—no caller ID, just an empty sequence of digits that seemed to hum with menace.He hesitated.The air in his office felt heavier now, as if it were thickening with some unseen pressure. Outside the bulletproof glass windows of the high-rise, the city of Eridale glistened under the midnight rain, the skyline cut with static lightning. His pulse quickened, jaw tightening. Then—he hit accept.“Yeah?” he said, voice flat, cautious.For a moment, there was nothing—just static. A hiss, like radio silence stretched too thin. And then it came.A voice.Low. Gravelly. Mechanically distorted, as if dragged through sand and soaked in tar. Filtered, twisted—inhuman.“Mr. Grenville.”Dylan sat upright, every vertebrae snapping to attention as his spine stiffened. His fingers twitched toward the panic button under the desk, but he held off. His voice came out sharper,
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221: The Future in Flame “I wouldn’t have told you if I wasn’t.” Dylan nodded. “Then let’s burn the world down.” He typed the command. A loading bar began to climb. Lilith stepped up beside him and pulled a drive from her coat—sleek, unlabeled, humming softly. “My code’s on here,” she said. “It’ll mimic the framework of Ignis Core perfectly. I’ve even embedded some of your old code from before you joined Ash. They’ll think it’s legit. Familiar. But once it activates… recursive detonation.” She handed it to him. He plugged it in. The system blinked. Code spilled across the screen—lines upon lines of luminous, perfect deception. Lilith crossed her arms as she watched. “We’ve got one shot at this.” Dylan didn’t look away from the screen. “Then we make it count.” The lights dimmed for a moment as the system initiated a shadow crawl—spreading the false Ignis Core like a virus in slow motion. Unseen. Waiting. When it was done, Dylan stood back, eyes cold. “Now we wait for them
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220 Another pause. Then the faint sound of typing. “You want a paper trail?” “I want everything. Timeline?” “Standard turnaround is three days—” “Yesterday,” she cut in coldly. “I want to know everything.” The line stayed quiet for another beat, then the voice softened just a little. “Got it. I’ll be in touch.” Jane hung up before he could say anything else. She stood still for a moment, the city buzzing around her, oblivious. The ache in her cheek was fading now. But something else was forming beneath it. A plan. This wasn’t over. Not by a long shot. She might not have been the mother Molly needed—but she was still the sharpest weapon in the room. And it was time to cut through the lies. **** “God, that hurt,” Jane muttered under her breath, wincing as she touched her cheek again. Jane exhaled slowly, tucking the phone into her coat. Her fingers were trembling slightly, but not from fear. Anticipation. She turned to herself, muttering quietly, “Let them play the her
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219 Jane was a good actress.Always had been.The tears never came when they were supposed to, and yet she could conjure them on command. A trembling voice, a haunted look, a furious, grieving mother storming into the middle of someone else’s crisis like she owned it—she wore the mask well. She always had.She could remember the first time she learned how useful a lie could be. She was ten, maybe eleven. Her father had forgotten to pick her up from piano class. Again. When she walked home alone, cold and soaked from the rain, her mother demanded to know why she hadn’t called.“I dropped the phone,” Jane had said. “It broke.”Not true. Not even close.But her mother had sighed, pulled her into a towel, and mumbled something about how her father never remembered the important things. That day, Jane realized that people didn’t want the truth. They wanted a version of it they could live with.Molly’s disappearance? Tragic, yes. Maddening, of course. But gut-wrenching?Not exactly.She fe
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218Her cheek was on fire.The skin throbbed beneath her fingertips, every heartbeat pumping more heat into the wound Lilith had left. Jane could feel the swelling already—tight and raw, as if a thousand needles were pricking her at once. Her ears rang from the sound of the slap, but louder still was the pounding of her own pride, screaming at her that she couldn’t—wouldn’t—let this end with her standing there, humiliated.No.Not like this.Not with Dylan between them, not with Lilith standing there looking like some righteous, self-important goddess. Not when her cheek was burning like it was trying to peel off her damn face.Jane’s eyes locked on Lilith—and without a second thought, without hesitation or grace, she struck.Her hand shot out fast and furious, an explosion of motion that cracked across Lilith’s face with a sickening sound. Her palm connected hard, and the impact shuddered down her arm like a jolt.Lilith’s head snapped to the side. Her hair, half-loose from the earli
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217Jane’s chest heaved, her breath coming fast and shallow. Her eyes burned—wild, furious, and unrelenting. She pointed a shaking finger at Dylan, voice trembling but loud enough to draw the attention of a passing couple across the street.“I left you, Dylan. You. Not Molly.”Her voice dropped, turning venomous and precise, like she was lashing each syllable across his face. “Both of you were the chains wrapped around my neck. You—some pathetic, broke, useless excuse of a man. A man with no future, no plan, no spine. Every day I spent in that house was like dying slowly. I did the right thing leaving. And guess what? I’m better for it. Stronger. Smarter. And soon, I’ll be a very rich woman. Not just locally. Not just nationally. Internationally. Bobby’s making it happen.”Dylan blinked, once, then twice. For a second he said nothing, just looked at her—really looked at her. At the expensive earrings, the glossy lipstick, the clothes tailored to perfection. All the glitter piled on to
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216 “I left Molly,” she whispered. “I left her behind. I thought she’d be better off without the mess I was making. I thought Dylan—God—he was supposed to protect her.” “I think he’s been trying,” Lisa said softly. “But he’s hiding something. Maybe a lot of things.” “And he brought Lilith into this,” Jane muttered. “Of course he did. Of course.” There was venom in her voice when she said Lilith’s name. Jane had met the woman twice—both times by accident, and both times left her with the distinct impression that Lilith was a wolf smiling in a fur coat. Jane’s breathing became shallow. She looked around her kitchen like she was searching for something to punch. The cabinets were too sturdy. The walls were too silent. “She’s just a little girl,” Jane said, her voice cracking. “She still calls bees ‘buzzies’ and thinks thunder means God’s bowling. How the hell could he keep this from me?” Lisa didn’t speak. “I’m going to find him,” Jane said suddenly, moving. Her voice was low and
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215Her hand slowly dropped from her cheek. “You’re talking about her like she’s a monster.”“She’s not,” Dylan said. “She’s human. But that doesn’t make her a mother.”A long silence stretched between them.Lilith said nothing, letting the space breathe, letting the weight of truth settle.Lisa looked at her, and for once, there was no bite in her voice. Just a raw kind of confusion. “Why didn’t you tell me?”Lilith looked back evenly. “Because you were too busy setting the stage.”Lisa’s lip trembled. “I didn’t know…”“No,” Dylan said, softer now. “You didn’t want to know.”He stepped past her then, toward the street, toward whatever came next. He was done with the confrontation. Done with the theater. There were more important things to do.Molly needed him.Lilith followed without a word, falling into step beside him.Lisa stood in the middle of the sidewalk, surrounded by the remnants of her own performance—watchers gone, the spotlight faded.She was alone now.And the weight of
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214 Infact it was her shady car buyers and Dylan mistook them as people there to try to kill him. “Who are they?” Lilith asked. Lisa didn’t answer. She turned back to Dylan instead. “Don’t play dumb. Don’t pretend you’re in danger. You’re not the victim here. You never have been.” “Then what’s the show for?” Lilith asked. “I told you,” Lisa snapped. “People deserve to know what kind of man he is.” “People already think they know,” Lilith said. “You’re just hammering it in. Why now? Why here? What’s happening that you don’t want anyone to see?” Lisa’s jaw clenched. She took another step back. But Dylan had already started mentally mapping the exit points. The alley to their right. The cafe entrance. The fire escape four buildings down. He wasn’t just seeing Lisa anymore—he was reading the whole board. This wasn’t random. And the moment he’d seen her, standing there with her coat too perfect, voice too loud, eyes too bright, he’d known. It was all wrong. It wasn’t grief or
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213“She finally divorced you,” Lisa said, the words slicing the air like glass. Her voice was calmer now, but only because she knew she’d drawn blood. “Finally. And thank God she did. Jane is building a life now—a future. Something you would have ruined if she’d stayed. You dragged her down long enough.”The words settled over the sidewalk like ash. A few onlookers had stopped, heads turning, phones subtly raised. The city had its own rhythm—cars hissing by on wet asphalt, neon lights flickering in windows—but all of it dimmed under Lisa’s voice.Dylan stood frozen for a beat too long. His hands curled into fists, not out of anger, but restraint. His heart pounded like a war drum behind his ribs. He wanted to yell, to peel back her lies in front of everyone, to lay out the complexities of what had really happened—what Jane had chosen to ignore, what she had run from long before any betrayal.But he knew how this would look.Lisa always knew how to hold a stage. How to paint herself i
