?Chapter 970:


    Ste let out a sharp scream and instinctively ducked, only to feel William’s arm wrap firmly around her, shielding her from the chaos.


    Nothing in Ste’s life had ever prepared her for this.


    A sudden thought struck her—was this what her mother had gone through too?


    William kept one arm steady around her as he pushed the car out of the alley and into the flow of traffic on the main road.


    Ste braced for another round of pursuit, but once they merged in, the car that had been chasing them was nowhere to be seen.


    “They won’t follow us out here,” William said calmly. “No one dares cause trouble in Choria. This is domestic ground.”


    Ste finally let out a long breath, exhaustion pressing down on her as she and William returned to the vi.


    She made a beeline for the living room sofa and sank into the cushions. “Drake’s even more calcting than I thought. It’s like he reads my thoughts before I can say them—every word feels like bait.”


    Fooling someone like Drake was nearly impossible.


    William took the seat beside her, gently sping her hand. He softened his voice, trying to ease the weight between them. “Ste, let’s stop this before it gets worse. I didn’t think it through, and you’ve paid the price more than once.”


    Ste didn’t answer. She didn’t pull away, but she didn’t agree either.


    In her mind, flickers of her mother’s face shed with the image of Drake’s icy blue stare, the two colliding like a storm inside her.


    Give up now?


    She’d lost count of how many times those same two words had reached her ears.


    In the end, she could only murmur, “Let me think. I just need some time.”


    William studied her pale profile, concern etched into his expression. But all he could do was sigh and say, “Alright. Just promise me—whatever you decide, you’ll tell me first.”


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    For several days, Ste shut herself away in her study, burying her focus in the brittle journals and fadedb notes her mother had left behind, hoping they held more about the mystery of Erebus.


    Morning bled into night as she remained glued to herputer, fingers rattling across the keys while she searched obsessively for the name Drake Wells.


    No matter how many results appeared, everything she uncovered led to harmless-looking phnthropists or foreign executives, but not a single face resembled the Drake she remembered.


    What little existed about him online looked unnaturally pristine, as though every trace of his real life had been erased and reced with immacte false identities.


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