Chapter 384 A Familiar Gesture

    Quinn ended her sentence with an icy finality. The family locketb–/bstill warm from Everett’s pulse moments before–arced through the air andnded in his open palm with a muted metallic click. She pivoted without waiting, fingers tightening around Leander’s wristb, /band strode toward the door.

    ck–suited guards lunged, boots rasping against carpet. Everett lifted one hand, imcable. “Let them go.”

    Themand shattered the tension. At once, the men fell back.

    The duo left the room and reached the hotel’s lobby.

    “Your shoulder’s bleeding again,” Leander said, worry threading through every syble. “We need to stop it now. The concierge will have gauze and antiseptic.”

    “It’s just a scratch,” Quinn replied, offering a brave smile that failed to hide the flicker of pain in her eyesb. /b

    “How could I not worry?” he shot back. “You’re my sister.”

    The word sister hit her like sunlight after rain. She stilled, warmth blooming in her chest and crowding out the burn in her shoulder. iEven /iiwithout /iihis /iimemories/i, ithis /iifeels /iiexactly /iilike /iibefore/i.

    Leander practically hauled her to the concierge desk, where a calm attendant wrapped fresh gauze around the torn skin until the crimson flow dulled to a shy blush.

    The injury, mercifully, was shallow. The quick patch would hold for now.

    “I’m serious, Quinn,” Leander said once thest pin was secured. “Please don’tunch yourself into danger like that again.”

    “Today was an exception,” she answered, her voice steady. “If I’d yed it safe, Everett would have treated me like background noise.”

    “You were still reckless. If Everett had decided not to let you go…” His unfinished words lingered, heavy and cold.

    “I’m not as fragile as you think. And we’re not in Celosia anymore; if the Fane family wants to touch me here, they’ll have to do the math first. Besides, that intel you gave me about what Everett treasures? It handed me the knifeb.” /b

    She had simply turned Everett’s threat back on him, point for point.

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    Chapter 384 A Familiar Gesture

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    “So tearing off his locket was part of that master n?” he asked, equal parts exasperation and grudging respect.

    “It worked, didn’t it?” A small smile tugged at her mouth. “Now, tell me–what’s your next move?b” /b

    “Lena’s still in Celosia,” Leander said, shoulders sagging. “The Fane family covers every treatment, and she needs Serena’s stem cells. For now, I’m chained to them.”

    “I understand,” Quinn murmured. She knew he carried his own invisible shackles.

    “And Lady Margaret is kinder than you’d think. She’s… a troubled woman,” he continued, rubbing a hand over his eyes. “Once the Fane family and Whitethorn Group’s deal wraps up here, I’ll fly back to Celosia, settle things, then return–this time as Rowan Bridger.”

    The deration stole the air from Quinn’s lungs; she could only stare at him, wide–eyed and shining.

    biDoes /i/bithat /iimean /iihe /iitruly /iiembraces /iithe /iiname /iiRowan/ii? /i

    “All right,” she said, a fragile yet radiant smile appearing. “I’ll wait for you.”

    The smile triggered an old reflex in Leander. His hand rose, reaching to touch her head, a gesture he had repeated since childhood.

    Half an inch away he faltered, uncertainty freezing his arm midair.

    “What’s wrong?” Quinn asked, lifting her eyes to him.

    “Nothing,” he muttered, awkwardness creeping into his posture as he tried to withdraw.

    “Wait.” She caught his wrist and guided it thest inch, pressing his palm against her hair. “No matter what happens, you’re my brother. Every time we parted, you’d pat my head–some habits shouldn’t die.”

    Leander’s palm tingled with the warmth of her trust, confirming–more surely than any memory–that the bond between them was real.

    The jolt that had rippled through his fingertips moments ago had not been a trick of nerves. Muscle remembered what mind had lost. He had smoothed his sister’s hair exactly that way an untold number of times.

    After watching Quinn climb into the waiting car and watching the taillights dissolve into morning haze, Leander turned on his heel and rode the elevator back up to the presidential

    suite.

    O

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    Chapter 384 A Familiar Gesture

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    Inside, Everett sat beneath a spill of chandelier light, thumb brushing the worn rim of the family locket while his eyes stayed fixed on the faded photograph sealed within.

    Everett flicked a nce toward the door, voice unhurried but edged with something unreadable. “Back already? For a moment, I thought you’d leave the hotel with that young woman.”

    Leander straightened the cuffs of his coat before he spoke, each word carrying the cool precision of a soldier giving a report. “I promised to keep pretending to be a Fane to soothe Lady Margaret. I will not go back on that. But I will also find a way to have her ept me as Rowan Bridger. Once the project with Whitethorn Group is signed, I’m returning to Celosia.”

    Everett closed the locket with a soft click and slipped it into his breast pocket, then fixed his gaze on the young man who had just spoken.

    Leander was not his blood, but after three years under the same roof the boy had begun to feel unnervingly close–like family that destiny had forgotten to record.

    Despite the amnesia, the boy’s mind was a sponge, soaking up everything Everett poured into it–corporate strategy, negotiation, the subtleties of dominance–and in record time, he had grown formidable.

    Already, Leander could juggle major operations of the Fane conglomerate with effortless grace. More than once, Everett found himself admiring the youth and–dangerous thought— half–believing the boy truly was his own son.