Chasel Bright had locked himself inside the Bright Biopharmacy R&Db for an entire week.


    He had been relentlessly analyzing the medication Chad Abernathy had supplied for Emeric, desperately trying to map out its hidden chemicalposition.


    This afternoon, he finally broke through.


    To his absolute horror, he discovered that the drug Chad provided for Chairman Emeric was an 80% match to the syntheticpounds found in Thaddeus Abernathy''s blood! The differences were purely superficial.


    It meant the so-called ''miracle cure'' Chad was peddling was actually a highly covert, weaponized narcotic!


    It had ravaged Thaddeus''s central nervous system, effectively castrating his


    emotional capacity. And now, Chad was using the exact same ybook to destroy Chairman Emeric.


    The man''s endgame was ringly obvious-


    That venomous bastard was methodically isting Evadne, ensuring she had absolutely no one left!


    As evening approached, Chasel grabbed the finalizedb reports, shoved them into


    a man envelope, and practically sprinted toward the underground parking garage. Along the way, he finally powered on his phone.


    A few secondster, it began to vibrate. Almost as if he had a sixth sense, Cassius was calling the very second the phone reconnected to thework.


    Chasel stared down at the glowing screen. A sharp, violent pain radiated from the depths of his heart, slicing through his chest like a rusty de.


    He had blocked Cassius a while ago.


    But over the past few weeks, he had constantly kept tabs on the Ashbourne family, quietly asking around about Emeric''s condition. Emeric was his uncle by marriage, and the man had always championed him, supported him, and treated him like his own son. How could he just ignore the life-or-death crisis of a man he loved so dearly?


    That was exactly why he had worked so frantically to expose Chad''s poison—and why he had quietly pulled Cassius out of his blocked contacts list.


    Chasel stared nkly at the contact name.


    *My Love.*


    Those two words made his vision blur with heat.


    From the painful breakup to the blocking, and now to this ringing screen, he had never once changed Cassius''s contact name.


    But he knew they could never go back to the way things were...


    The phone vibrated relentlessly against his palm. He let the first call ring out, but Cassius stubbornly dialed a second time.


    Chasel''s stomach dropped. A sudden instinct told him this wasn''t just a check-in; it was a real emergency.


    Right as his thumb hovered over the answer button, a freezing, terrifying chill shot down his spine. He whipped around—


    A man dressed entirely in ck, face hidden beneath a baseball cap, suddenly locked an arm around Chasel''s throat. With his free hand, the attacker aggressively mped a chemical-soaked rag over Chasel''s mouth and nose.


    Chasel''s eyes widened in sheer terror.


    As a doctor, he immediately recognized the sickeningly sweet smell. Ether!


    But it was toote.


    A secondter, his heavy eyelids fluttered shut, and his consciousness plunged into an endless, suffocating abyss.


    His fingers went ck, and the phone slipped from his hand.


    Before it could hit the pavement, the attacker caught it out of the air. ncing at the contact name shing on the screen, a dark, sinister smirk twisted his lips. He immediately powered the device off.


    "Cassius, I''d really love to see exactly how far you''re willing to go for this man."


    On the other end of the line, Cassius heard the call abruptly disconnect. A dark, terrifying shadow fell over his tightly furrowed brow.


    A deep, ominous premonition wed at his chest.


    "Cassius!"


    Hearing about Suri''s disappearance and Evadne''s copse, Aaron rushed back from the precinct in an absolute panic. Arnold and Bet were right on his heels.


    Aaron''s temple throbbed wildly. "I can''t reach my mom either! This ispletely wrong. I''m going to track her phone''s GPS right now!"


    "I can''t reach Chasel either."


    Cassius gripped his phone so hard his knuckles turned stark white. His voice was incredibly deep and raspy. "The call actually went through. He just didn''t answer the first time. If he just didn''t want to talk to me he could have let it ring or declined ite Why would he turn his phonepletely off?"


    Arnold desperately tried to rationalize it. "Maybe... his battery just died? Let''s try


    calling again in a few minutes. Maybe it''ll connect."


    Cassius''s mind waspletely


    consumed by Chasel. A tidal wave of


    longing and paralyzing terror


    crashed into him from all sides His


    massive frame swayed on the spot


    forcing him to grip the windowsill


    just to stay upright.


    "Cassius, are you alright?" Bet asked, deeply rmed by his brother''s deathly pale face.


    Cassius''s eyes were shot with blood. His throat trembled so badly he could barely string the words together. "Aaron, run a trace on Chasers phone I


    too. need to


    exactly where he was the second that phone turned off."


    A drone silently trailed a ck SUV until it finally arrived at the site of Suri''s crash.


    The vehicle braked. The door swung open, and Hans stepped out into the biting, freezing wind.


    For some inexplicable reason, his legs felt like jelly. His heart hammered against his ribs with heavy, violent strikes. It felt like he was walking on marshmallows; he had absolutely zero strength.


    But he couldn''t afford to show a single ounce of panic.


    Because on the other side of that drone feed, Chad and Alexia were likely


    scrutinizing his every single move.