?Chapter 1487:


    “Sir, we have an unexpected development. The team we have secretly assigned to protect Maia has just sent word…”


    Grayson paused, carefully observing Chris’s reaction before continuing. “Maia is currently on her way here. She is less than three miles away.”


    Chris was momentarily taken aback. The cold detachment in his eyes briefly fractured, reced by a sh of surprise and deep confusion.


    Maia? How could she know about this ce? Was sheing here for him?


    This vi was his father’s most closely guarded secret — a location known only to himself and Zoey. Could it be that Maia had known Zoey long ago, and known her well enough for Zoey to have divulged its location? Chris instinctively wanted to reject such a possibility.


    Sensing his hesitation, Grayson waited for instructions. “Sir, what are your orders? Shall we…”


    Chris drew a slow breath, his gaze drifting toward the storm clouds gathering ominously beyond the window. His voice came out low and firm.


    “Clear all evidence of our presence here. Evacuate everyone. Immediately.”


    The forest road stretched endlessly ahead.


    The ck SUV cut through the winding asphalt like a bolt of silent lightning, wind screaming past the windows with a harsh mor. Maia’s knuckles whitened around the steering wheel. Her eyes stayed on the road, yet her mind wandered — blurry and fractured.


    Memories flickered like two films ying in alternation.


    One reel glowed with warmth. An afternoon at Elysium Apartments, Chris’s eyes fixed on her — tender and teasing — his voice low in her ear. “I’m your husband, and you have every right to look wherever you want.” Every nce had made her heart leap. Every word had stolen her breath.


    Then the scene abruptly shifted. ck and white. Silent. Cold. Piercing.


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    Post-surgery, Chris had awoken with a distant gaze, coldly scrutinizing — as if she were a stranger passing by. The warmth, the affection, all of it gone.


    Maia mmed the brakes and released them. Inertia threw her forward, the seatbelt biting into her chest. The sharp pain hauled her back into the present.


    “A living nightmare,” she breathed into the sudden quiet.


    Without Chris, every second felt like torment. Where was the man who had once whispered “honey,” who had risked his life to shield her?


    She inhaled slowly, steadying herself, and scanned through the windshield. Amid the dense forest, the gray-white silhouette of a building emerged — Kyle’s secret vi. Her destination.


    A sudden, powerful intuition electrified her nerves. It was a feeling both profoundly familiar and overwhelming — a visceral pull telling her someone important was near. Perhaps right there, in that forest.


    Chris?


    Her pulse surged.


    Headlights zed through the trees. A convoy of roughly five ck SUVs barreled toward her, exuding an unmistakable keep-back menace. The road narrowed sharply, leaving barely enough room for the vehicles to pass side by side.


    Inside the middle bulletproof car, Chris — masked and motionless — sensed a shift. His eyes snapped open and he turned his head. Through the one-way privacy ss, he spotted a ck vehicle racing past. The silhouette was unmistakable.


    It was Maia.


    Yet Chris did not speak. He did not reach for the window control. He simply sat in the dim interior as a sudden,nce-sharp pain spiked behind his eyes — a pain that brought no memory with it. He remained perfectly still, a silent spectator in the shadows, watching Maia’s vehicle sh past his own.


    They were close enough that a raised hand might have touched the ss between them. But mentally, they were worlds apart.


    At that exact moment, Maia instinctively turned her head, her gaze drawn to the passing SUV. Yet all she saw was her own reflection and the blur of trees rushing past, mirrored in the imprably dark tinted window. She saw nothing of the upant within.


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