CHAPTER 36: THE WAR WITHIN THE WALLS
Elena could feel the air in the mansion shift after Lydia's warning—thick, watchful, heavy with silent hostility. The Kane estate had always been intimidating, but after learning that Adrian's own father had been digging into her past, every corridor felt colder. Every shadow felt alive.
She woke the next morning with a pounding tension behind her eyes. Sleep had refused to come, and even when she drifted off, nightmares chased her—faceless men trying to pull her away from Adrian… Marcus watching from the corner… Lydia turning her back on her… Adrian fighting a ghost shaped like his father.
By dawn, she was already sitting up, the sheets twisted around her legs.
Her phone buzzed with a new message from Marcus.
Her heart stilled.
Marcus: Did you think my warning was a threat? It wasn't. It was preparation.
Elena dropped the phone onto the bed as if it burned her skin. She didn't reply. She didn't have the strength.
A knock came at the door.
