جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 160

Before leaving the facility, Aria stopped beside Alessia near the corridor entrance. “You should go home too,” she said quietly.Alessia frowned at once. “I’m staying until my mother wakes up.”“Not today.” Aria kept her tone calm. “You can come back tomorrow. Right now, staying here isn’t safe.”The response only hardened Alessia’s expression. “I’m not leaving her alone.”Aria lowered her voice. “You don’t want another incident like the hotel.”That made Alessia hesitate.Before she could answer, footsteps approached from behind. Oscar, her lead security officer, stopped beside her. “Ma’am,” he said professionally, “we’ve been instru

The following morning, Richard appeared exactly as he always did, calm, composed, and seemingly unaffected by everything around him.But after finding Alessia in his study, he could no longer ignore what was happening. She was asking questions about Solen, Selene, and Stonebridge, and Richard knew she would not stop until she found answers.Over the next several days, his attention became noticeably sharper. He asked more questions than usual. Whenever Alessia left the estate, he wanted to know where she was going. When she returned, he often seemed to know where she had been before she mentioned it.At first, Alessia dismissed it as concern. After everything that had happened with Solen, it was reasonable for him to worry.Yet the feeling that something was off refused to leave her.A few days later, after attending a charity event in the city, she noticed Oscar step aside to answer a phone call. That alone was not unusual. What caught her attenti

Alessia stared at Nolan's name on her phone for a moment before pressing call.The line rang twice.Across the city, Nolan sat in a private lounge at an exclusive club, half-listening to a business associate while scrolling through his phone. When Alessia's name appeared on the screen, he raised an eyebrow."What now?" he muttered.The last few times she had unexpectedly appeared in his life, trouble had followed.He answered and leaned back in his chair. "Don't tell me you're in trouble again. I'm not your bodyguard, Alessia. I have other things to do."Normally, she would have fired back immediately. Tonight, she didn't."Can we meet?" she asked. "Now?"The change in her tone made him straighten slightly.Nolan glanced around the lounge. Whatever this was, it wasn't a conversation he wanted to have here, especially after Adrian's divorce announcement. Being seen with Adrian Wolfe's ex-wife would draw attention he had no interest in."Come to my penthouse," he said.Alessia hesitated

The next morning, Nolan wasted no time.After Alessia left his suite, he contacted one of the few investigators he trusted completely. The man wasn't connected to Volkov Global Logistics and had no ties to any of the powerful families involved. More importantly, nothing could be traced back to Alessia.Nolan gave one simple instruction: start with Richard Vale's phone records.By late afternoon, the first report arrived.Dean entered Nolan's office carrying a folder."You got something already?" Nolan asked.Dean nodded. "More than we expected."Nolan opened the report and scanned the pages."One number keeps appearing," Dean said. "Incoming and outgoing calls over several years. We traced it back to Stonebridge, but that's not the interesting part."Nolan looked up."The number is connected to Kingsley Conglomerate."Nolan's expression hardened. "The company?"Dean nodded. "The calls were routed through their corporate network. We can't identify the exact user yet, but the source poi

Three days later, preparations for the official signing ceremony between Volkov Global Logistics and Kingsley Conglomerate were nearly complete.The agreement had already passed legal review, and the signing banquet, scheduled for two days later, was largely ceremonial, a public display of cooperation between two powerful business empires.That afternoon, Aria sat in her study reviewing a report when her phone rang. Adrian was nearby, working through a stack of documents spread across the table. The moment she glanced at the screen and saw Nolan's name, Adrian looked up and raised an eyebrow."Put it on speaker."Aria rolled her eyes. "You've become incredibly nosy lately.""I prefer being thorough.""You prefer being controlling."