Chapter 80 Shadows In The Light

• Chapter : Shadows in the Light
• The ballroom emptied like a dream ripped away at dawn, leaving only overturned chairs, shattered champagne flutes, and the echo of Wallace’s last taunt ringing inside my skull. I stood under the harsh stage lights, skin prickling with sweat and fear, eyes fixed on the double doors where they had dragged him out in handcuffs. Lucien’s hand rested against the small of my back, steady and warm, yet the chill he could not chase away soaked deep into my bones.
• Reporters swarmed the corridors beyond, shouting questions we did not answer. Security herded the board into waiting cars. Sirens flashed against the glass curtain walls like veins of lightning. And still I watched that door, half expecting Wallace to stride back through, laughing because what we had witnessed was only a puppet show, a single act in a play we had never truly controlled.