Lahat ng Kabanata ng Reborn to ruin him : Kabanata 11 - Kabanata 20

Neither of us moved for a long moment, the phone still glowing between us like it might explode.“Who sent that?” Xavier’s voice had gone low, sharp, all the softness from a minute ago burned out of it completely.“I don’t know.” I stared at the unknown number, my thumb hovering over it like it might bite me. “It came from nowhere. No name, no contact, nothing.”He took the phone gently from my hand and studied the message himself, his jaw working the way it did when he was calculating something he didn’t like the shape of.“Can I see the number?” he asked.I nodded, and he pulled out his own phone, typing quickly, his brow furrowed in concentration. I watched his face for any sign he recognized it, any flicker that might tell me more than his words ever did.“It’s not registered to anyone.” He handed my phone back, frustration bleeding into his voice. “Burner. Whoever sent this didn’t want to be traced.”“That’s not exactly comforting.”“No.” His eyes met mine, steady despite everyth

“Because I recognize that handwriting,” Xavier said. “And if I’m right about who wrote it, nothing in your life is going to look the same after you read what’s inside.”My fingers tightened around the envelope. “Whose handwriting, Xavier?”He didn’t answer right away. He crossed the room and sat down across from me, close enough that our knees almost touched, close enough that I could see the tension carved into every line of his face. Outside, the apartment building settled with its usual creaks and groans, ordinary sounds that felt anything but ordinary tonight.“Open it,” he said finally. “You deserve to see it yourself. I don’t want to color what you find with my own guess before you do.”My hands shook as I tore the seal. Inside sat a single folded sheet of paper, older than the letter Jeremy had shown me hours ago, the kind of paper that had clearly been kept somewhere safe for a very long time, the edges gone soft from handling.I unfolded it slowly.The handwriting was careful

“You came alone.”Ashford stood behind his desk when the receptionist showed me in, a thick folder already waiting on the surface between us, his expression more guarded than it had been yesterday. The office smelled the same as before, old paper and lemon polish, but the light through the window had shifted to the flat gray of early afternoon, and somehow that made everything feel more urgent than it had felt yesterday morning.“Should I not have?” I sat down across from him, my pulse still climbing from the elevator ride up.“No, it’s fine. I only expected Mr. Nightfall might accompany you.” He slid the folder toward me without further comment, and I let that observation pass without answering it, unsure what it meant that Ashford had already started factoring Xavier into his expectations of my life.I opened the folder. Pages of incorporation documents, registered agent forms, a filing history that traced Meridian Holdings Group from creation to dissolution in under fourteen months

“Xavier. What did you do?”He hadn’t moved, the phone still glowing in his hand, his whole body gone rigid against the harbor wind. I watched the color drain from his face a second time, deeper this time, like whatever this message meant had reached somewhere colder than fear. The water behind him lapped quietly against the pier supports, an ordinary sound that felt entirely wrong against the dread suddenly thick in the air between us.“Nothing.” His voice came out too fast, too clipped. “I never touched Thomas Reyes. I don’t know what that means.”“Then why do you look like you’re about to be sick?”He didn’t answer right away. He set the phone down on the railing between us, staring out at the black water like it might hand him a better version of the truth than the one he actually had.“Because I know exactly what they’re trying to imply.” His jaw worked, tight, controlled. “In the first life, after you died, I went looking for Thomas Reyes. I wanted proof. Something I could hand t

The front door opened behind me, slow and deliberate, footsteps echoing across the marble floor I’d just crossed minutes ago.I turned, already knowing, somehow, exactly who I’d find standing there.Mrs. Devonte stood in the doorway of the study, dressed as though she’d come from a dinner party rather than whatever she actually intended tonight, her expression carved from the same cold stone I remembered from two years ago.“Hello, Kara.” Her voice carried no warmth at all. “I believe it’s long past time we had a real conversation. I trust Xavier told you what became of the Reyes girl. I made sure he would.”The confirmation landed harder than I expected, hearing it stated outright instead of only implied. “You sent those texts. You’ve been watching him for a month.”“I’ve been watching everyone who matters to you for considerably longer than a month, dear.” Her mouth curved into something that wasn’t quite a smile. “Xavier Nightfall has a very useful weakness. Guilt. I merely needed