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Rise Of The Phoenix: Dylan’s Rebirth 68
68 Zara watched as Dr. Caldwell’s words hung in the air, but neither man moved. Dr. Everett remained on his knees, his face pale, tears still staining his cheeks, while Dylan stood tall, unmoved by Caldwell’s outburst.Dr. Caldwell’s frustration boiled over, his lips curling into a sneer as he pointed an accusatory finger at Dylan. “This is absurd,” he spat, his voice thick with disdain. “You’re all being played! Don’t you see it?” His eyes flicked to Dr. Everett, who remained on his knees. “Especially you, Dr. Everett. You of all people should know better. You’re the person with the big mind I know.”Dr. Everett exhaled sharply, his hands clenching at his sides. “You don’t understand,” he murmured, shaking his head.“No, you don’t understand,” Caldwell shot back, his voice rising. “This man is a fraud! An imposter! He’s spinning some elaborate tale, and you’re swallowing every word like a fool.” His gaze swept across the room, his expression a mixture of incredulity and disgust. “A
Rise Of The Phoenix: Dylan’s Rebirth 69
69 “You have no idea what you’re talking about, Caldwell,” he seethed. “You have no idea what this man has done. What he’s endured. What we have endured.” His fingers twitched at his sides, as though resisting the urge to strike Caldwell a third time. “And you dare to mock him? To question his name?” Caldwell swallowed, hard. The sheer intensity in Everett’s eyes was unnerving. “You—” He shook his head, as if trying to shake off his own confusion. “You’re actually serious. You actually believe all this.” He scoffed, but there was no real strength behind it.The room fell silent.Dr. Everett’s voice shattered the silence with a question that was both cutting and resolute. “Do you have any idea who he is?” His eyes drilled into Dr. Caldwell, his tone laden with a weight that seemed to carry years of unspoken words. The room, already thick with tension, seemed to tighten further with the intensity of his question.Caldwell blinked, momentarily taken aback. “What are you talking about?”
Rise Of The Phoenix: Dylan’s Rebirth 70
70 Olivia shifted in her seat, her mind still spinning. “I—I never imagined…” She trailed off, the weight of the moment too heavy for her to complete the thought. She glanced at Lucas, whose jaw was still slack with disbelief. “I never thought he could be—” She cut herself off, shaking her head as if trying to wake herself from the fog that had settled over her thoughts. Zara, allowed her gaze to wander around the room. The air was thick with the aftermath of the explosion. Caldwell’s incredulity was palpable, but the others in the room were still trying to come to terms with the truth. Everyone had assumed the worst about Dylan—whether they had consciously acknowledged it or not. But now, with this new information, the foundation they had built for their judgments was crumbling. Dylan, still silent, finally broke his stillness. His voice was calm but cold, like ice cutting through the air. “You wanted proof,” he said, his eyes narrowing slightly as he addressed Caldwell. “I’ve j
Rise Of The Phoenix: Dylan’s Rebirth 71
71 The truth had been spoken, and now there was no going back.Caldwell’s panic was growing more palpable with each passing second. His hands trembled, his grip tightening on the back of the chair as if it might hold him steady in the face of his own crumbling world. “No,” he insisted, his voice rising with desperation. “This isn’t true. I—I gave her the right treatment! Dylan, you’re just a bitter man, a vengeful man, trying to ruin me—trying to spread lies about me.”His eyes flicked around the room, searching for someone—anyone—who might stand with him, who might back his claim. But the faces of the people around him were hard and unmoving. Olivia’s face was a mask of fury, her hands still clenched tightly in her lap as though holding herself back from doing something reckless. Everett stood like a pillar, unwavering, his eyes cold but filled with an undeniable truth. Dylan, silent but resolute, remained a constant, a rock against Caldwell’s mounting hysteria.“You think you can
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72 The silence that followed was suffocating. Everyone in the room was processing the gravity of what had been said, the weight of the betrayal hanging over them like a dark cloud. Zara’s breath came in short, shallow bursts, her anger building to a fever pitch. Her hands, still clenched, trembled with the force of it. How could this man—this so-called doctor—have put her sister’s life in such danger? And for what? Ego? Ambition? “This is what you’ve done?” Olivia’s voice broke through the silence, raw and shaking with fury. “You let him treat my daughter when you knew he wasn’t ready? You knew he wasn’t qualified!” She was shaking now, her anger spilling over, raw and unfiltered. She stood up, her movements jerky, her breath catching as the weight of it all came crashing down. “How could you do this?” she demanded, her eyes filled with both anguish and fury. “You said you were friends! You said you’d trained him. This is what you’ve done to us?” Everett’s expression softened for
Rise Of The Phoenix: Dylan’s Rebirth 73
73 Lewis took another step closer, his expression dark. “If my daughter had died because of you…” His voice trailed off, but the threat in his tone was undeniable. Caldwell’s breathing turned shallow. He shook his head rapidly. “I didn’t—I didn’t want that. I swear, I was only trying to—” “Trying to what?” Olivia snapped. Her hands were shaking at her sides. “Play hero? Prove something?” She let out a choked sound, somewhere between a laugh and a sob. “You almost destroyed my family.” Caldwell’s mouth opened, but no words came. His hands trembled as he looked at each of them, realizing there was no way out of this. Dylan took a slow step closer, his expression unreadable. “I don’t think you understand the situation you’re in,” he said, his voice dangerously quiet. Caldwell stiffened. Dylan tilted his head slightly. “You should leave while you still can.”The air was thick with tension, every breath heavy, every movement charged. Lewis’s jaw clenched, his fists tight at his sid
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74Her voice was ice, her body rigid with fury. Caldwell recoiled, his lips twitching, but she wasn’t done.“We’re going to file a complaint against you,” she said, her voice sharp enough to cut. “You nearly killed my daughter. And we will make sure you never get to hurt anyone else again.”Caldwell let out a harsh, bitter laugh, his teeth bared in something almost animalistic. “You think you can ruin me?” he sneered. “I’ve worked too hard for this! I won’t let you destroy everything I’ve built!”Olivia let out a sharp breath, her hands trembling at her sides. “You destroyed yourself,” she said coldly. “No one else did that for you.”Caldwell opened his mouth to retort, but before he could, Lucas—who had been eerily quiet until now—spoke.“This is annoying.”Everyone turned to him.Lucas leaned against the wall, his arms crossed, his expression unreadable. But there was something unsettling in his gaze, something almost… disappointed.Caldwell noticed it, too. His eyes flickered with
Rise Of The Phoenix: Dylan’s Rebirth 75
75 A Matter of Pride and DesperationThe silence in the room was thick, nearly suffocating. Zara and Lewis exchanged conflicted glances, the weight of their pride battling the undeniable urgency of their daughter’s condition.Slowly, shame began to creep into their expressions.Zara’s nails dug into her palm as she swallowed hard, forcing herself to consider the unthinkable. Apologizing to Lord Grenville. To that insufferable man. It burned her pride, made her stomach churn with resentment, but—Before she could take the step, Lucas scoffed, cutting through the tense air like a blade.“Wait.” His voice was sharp, unwavering. “How do we know this isn’t all a setup?”Every head in the room snapped toward him.Dylan’s brows lifted in surprise before his expression darkened. “You think this is an act?”Lucas folded his arms, his gaze unwavering. “What proof do we have that Everett isn’t working with Grenville? For all we know, this was orchestrated from the start.”A sharp gasp broke the
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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
