Chapter 1006:

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I raised a hand and gently held his face, brushing my thumb across the moisture gathered at the corner of his eye. “With you beside me, I can face anything that comes our way. I don’t care how much time I have left. As long as I can spend every day I have with you, I’ll be satisfied. So don’t blame yourself anymore, okay?”

For several seconds, neither of us spoke. Then he lowered his head until his forehead rested against mine. “Okay,” he whispered, his voice rough and hoarse.

Ethan’s POV:

The despair I had felt the night before didn’t last long.

I knew we hadn’t reached a dead end yet, so there was no point in drowning myself in self-pity. Lianne was still alive, and she was still beside me. For now, that was all that mattered.

As long as even the tiniest chance remained, I would never give up.

𝗤𝗎𝘢𝗹𝘪t𝗒 𝘵𝗋aոs𝗹𝗮𝘵𝗶𝘰𝗇ѕ 𝗈𝘯 𝗀𝖺lո𝘰𝘃e𝗅𝘀.𝘤o𝗆

I spent the entire night going over everything from the beginning. The light in the study remained on until dawn while I drained cup after cup of coffee.

I laid out every clue I had and examined them one by one — Brian’s personality, his methods, his fixation on Lianne, his hatred toward me. I considered every possibility, repeatedly running through different scenarios in my head.

By five in the morning, I had finally pieced together a complete plan for dealing with Brian.

The first thing I did was pick up my phone and message Jeremy. “From this point forward, keep Brian under covert surveillance. Don’t leave any trace of your movements. Let him keep thinking he’s in control. At the moment, he’s waiting for the poison to take effect and kill me, so don’t let him realize we’re onto him too soon.”

Jeremy responded almost immediately, “Understood. I’ll inform you the moment he makes a move.”

Then I sent another message. “He’s deliberately keeping a low profile to avoid attracting attention. He’s waiting for me to die so he can approach Lianne without anyone standing in his way. In his mind, I’m his biggest obstacle. He believes that once I’m gone and Lianne has no one else to depend on, she’ll naturally turn to him.”

Jeremy’s response was brief. “Understood.”

Even after that, I couldn’t completely relax. Jeremy could be impulsive when his temper got the better of him, and that made it easy for him to overlook details.

I shot off another message, this time to Noah. “Monitor Jeremy’s operations. If he misses anything, step in immediately.”

Noah replied, “Copy that, Alpha. You can count on me.”

Only then did I finally feel somewhat reassured.

Once everything had been arranged, I rose from my chair, left the study, and headed back to the master bedroom. When I pushed open the door, I assumed Lianne was still asleep. But when I walked over to the bed, I discovered that she was already awake and quietly looking at me.

Exhaustion weighed heavily on her features, and the faint shadows beneath her eyes made it obvious that she hadn’t slept well either.

I sat on the edge of the bed and drew her into my arms. “Why are you still awake?”

She rested against my shoulder and answered in a hoarse voice, “You stayed up the entire night. How could I possibly sleep?”

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