All Chapters of Trapped In My Husband’s Golden Cage : Chapter 151 - Chapter 160

DAVINA'S POV"This was never supposed to be hidden."The realization arrived before I could fully articulate it, sitting there in the glow of the screen, the communication log open in front of me, most of its contents locked behind encryption that would have taken days to crack.But one message sat unencrypted inside a fully secured archive.That was not an accident. Nothing in Marcus Van Leer's system was accidental.I opened it.A list of names filled the screen. Eight of them, typed cleanly, no formatting, no additional context.Michael, Sarah, Garrett, Tom, Viktor, Alvin, and Vera.These were not participant records. The file headers were different, the categorization system was different, the metadata attached to each name carried a different classification than anything else in Claudia's database. I had seen participant records for three weeks. I knew what they looked like.These were target files.Not Claudia's targets. The classification system predated Claudia's game by years

GARRETT'S POVElizabeth looked at me.I looked back.And Sarah caught the half-second exchange, which carried a full conversation in it. Her expression shifted, the hurt arriving fast, the kind that came not from what was said but from being the only person in a room who didn't know what everyone else knew."It's nothing you need to worry about right now," I replied."Nothing I need to worry about," Sarah repeated. Not a question. The flat repetition of someone cataloguing an insult before they respond to it. "Clara just told me to leave her alone. Rael is sending photographs. Michael is running private calculations, Alvin is watching me from windows." She stepped closer. "Everyone keeps making decisions about what I can handle. Every single person in this situation." Her voice stayed level, which was worse than if it hadn't. "Now you.""Sarah.""Don't." She looked at Elizabeth. "Tell me."Elizabeth opened her mouth."Don't," I cut across to her.Elizabeth looked at me for one long se

ALVIN'S POV"Delete it if you want. I already saw it."Garrett's hand was still on my phone screen, the image gone in the second it took him to swipe and confirm, the action so fast it confirmed everything I needed to know. You didn't delete a photograph that quickly if it didn't matter.He handed the phone back without looking at me."Forget you saw it," he replied. Flat, controlled, the voice he used when he was managing something large."That's not how this works," I replied. "You don't get to delete evidence and tell me to move on." I stepped closer. "What happened that night?"Garrett turned away. Then he picked up the jacket he'd set on the chair, moved toward the door."Garrett."He stopped but didn't turn around. His shoulders carried the weight of something that had been sitting on them long enough to become structural."There are things you don't understand," he replied. He turned enough to look at me sideways. "Michael is involved in this. That's all you need to know right n

SARAH'S POV"Don't move."Garrett had his weapon up before I finished the sentence. Clara's gun came up simultaneously, pointed directly at him, her stance practiced, unhesitating, the posture of someone who had been trained to respond to threats before her brain finished processing them."Garrett, lower it," I told him. Firm. No room for argument."She's pointing a weapon at me," he replied through his teeth."I know. Lower it anyway."His jaw worked. His arm came down two degrees. Not fully but enough to signal that he was choosing restraint rather than being forced into it.Clara kept hers up.I stepped in front of Garrett, putting myself between both weapons, the most insane position in the room, also the only one that made any sense."Clara." I looked at her directly. "We are not here to hurt you. I promise you that.""Leave," she replied. Cold, flat, the word that carried no interest in negotiation."I lost a sister," I told her. "Her name was Serena. She died because of what wa

ALVIN'S POV"Nobody ever tells me anything."The message sat on my screen, the location pin blinking, the one sentence beneath it sitting there with the patience of something that had been waiting a long time for me to read it.Normally I would have put the phone down. Gone to Viktor or to Tom. Run it through the same cautious process the Trial House had installed in all of us, the instinct to verify before moving.I was tired of being cautious. I was tired of being the last person in every room to understand what everyone else already knew.I put my jacket on and left.The location was twenty minutes on foot, a small park two streets from a canal, the kind of place that emptied completely after dark. I walked it in fifteen, moving fast, checking behind me twice.The bench was empty.I stood there for a moment, I looked around. Nobody.Then I saw it. A tablet, propped against the back of the bench, screen dark, power light blinking. I picked it up. The screen activated the moment my h