Chapter 1786:


    “Has it urred to you that stepping into my territory might make leaving a bit moreplicated?” he said, aiming for intimidating.


    He hadn’t expected the look that came back at him.


    Something shifted in Christina’s eyes — quiet, unhurried, and far more dangerous than anything he was projecting. It was predatory in the way that didn’t need to announce itself. Alban had intended to unsettle her. Instead, he felt a cold thread of unease move down his own spine.


    She lookedpletely calm. Her eyesmunicated something simple and absolute: if he tried to stop her, she would end the situation herself — and far more efficiently than any poison in his bloodstream.


    “I’d genuinely like to see you try,” Christina said, with a small, precise smile that carried no warmth whatsoever.


    Alban let out a short, ufortableugh. “I was joking. Rx.”


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    “Then move,” she said, her voice carrying the weight of someone who meant itpletely.


    He didn’t move immediately. “This poison you mentioned — do you have a way to remove it?”


    The question came out quieter than he’d intended, the bravado gone from it.


    If she had been sharp enough to detect it in the first ce, she was probably the only person who could do anything about it.


    “I thought you didn’t believe a word I said,” Christina replied, her eyebrow lifting.


    “I’m not going to gamble with my own life,” Alban said.


    It settled over him as he said it — the weight of itnding cleanly. He had been chalking everything up to stress and poor sleep. But this was the real reason his body felt the way it did. Someone was killing him, slowly and quietly, and he had been walking through it without knowing.


    “I can clear the toxin from your system,” Christina said. “But you follow my instructions precisely, without argument. Can you do that?”


    Alban hesitated. “Why would you help me? Our families have been enemies for years. You have every reason to let this run its course.”


    “We share the same enemies. That makes us something closer to allies than adversaries.” She paused. “And you’re Adide’s biological father. You’ve already confirmed it through a DNA test — I’m assuming you know that’s true.”


    Alban went still for just a moment. Then: “You worked that out as well.”


    “Your family did everything it could to appear neutral, but the way you all look at Adide gives it away entirely,” Christina said, with a small, knowing expression.


    “The Joneses deserve their reputation,” he said, and something in his posture shifted — thest of the performance dropping away. “You don’t miss much.”


    “If I’ve read this correctly, it’s the Hewitts who are poisoning you,” Christina said, her tone returning to something direct and businesslike. “I imagine you’d prefer that problem dealt with. This arrangement benefits both of us.”


    “The logic is sound,” Alban said, “but how do I know you won’t use this to position yourself against us once the Hewitts are gone? Your family isn’t exactly known for clean hands.”


    Removing the Hewitts would eliminate a significant threat — but it would also leave the Martels without a key ally, and the Joneses were not people he could afford to be exposed to without some form of leverage.


    Christina let out a quietugh. “We’re not as ruthless as you’ve decided we are. I think our families have spent years assuming the worst of each other without much evidence. I’m not in the habit of betraying people who’ve dealt with me honestly. And besides — this isn’t a one-sided loss.” She met his eyes evenly. “We’re losing our connection to the Wades the same way you’re losing the Hewitts. The Hewitts and the Wades are already working together, and if that alliance holds, they wille for everything both our families have built. That’s the actual threat here.”


    Both the Jones and Martel families faced the same ufortable reality: they were cutting ties with their respective allies at exactly the same moment. Each had spent years worried that any sign of weakness would invite the other to move against them. In the world they operated in, there was always someone positioned to profit from another family’s copse.


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