Chapter One Hundred and Eighty- One
Demir
She should have been back by now.
Demir stood by the window for a long mont, watching the street below as if staring hard enough would summon her car out of thin air. His jaw tightened as he checked his watch. Too late.
With a sharp exhale, he grabbed his coat and left.
Asli’s apartnt was quiet when he arrived. He knew she was still not back. The silence scraped at his nerves. He had barely stepped into the hall when movent caught his eye.
Her nanny was climbing the stairs, her steps hurried, almost furtive, and she disappeared into Asli’s room without looking back. Demir frowned but said nothing. This wasn’t unusual. Still, sothing about the way she moved stayed with him, like an itch he couldn’t reach.
Minutes later, she ca back down and the mont her eyes t his, she froze.
It was subtle... just a hitch in her breath, and like a tremor in her hands but Demir saw it.
Her gaze flicked upward, too fast, and too guilty, before she forced a smile that didn’t quite settle on her face.
"Good evening, sir," she said.
Demir nodded, calm on the surface. "Evening."
She escaped into the kitchen as if the walls were closing in on her.
That was all it took.
He didn’t follow the sound of clinking dishes. Instead, he turned and took the stairs two at a ti, his steps silent, and deliberate. The hallway upstairs felt heavier, and the air grew thicker as he thought of whatever she was hiding. Asli’s door was slightly ajar.
He pushed it open.
The room looked untouched. Too neat as always. And too careful. His eyes swept over the dresser, the bedside table, the wardrobe. Nothing out of place. There was nothing obvious. He checked the washroom and every other corner in the suite.
Annoyance pricked at him. He turned to leave.
Then he saw it.
A small object lay on the bed, half-hidden by the folds of the duvet.
Demir stepped closer and he picked it up.
Two words stared back at him.
Pregnancy Test.
"Pregnancy test?" he read it on the item. "Why is this here?" he asked himself as he inspected it.
His fingers curled around it, knuckles whitening. A low, shaky breath dragged out of his chest, heat flooding his veins in a violent rush. The room suddenly felt too small, the walls pressing in as his pulse roared in his ears.
Pregnancy. The word echoed in his head again.
His vision blurred, and it was not with tears, but with fury.
Images flashed through his mind uninvited. Asli’s skin beneath soone else’s hands. Her laughter, her breath, her body... all given away.
To soone.
Soone who wasn’t him.
Shared with soone.
Stolen.
His grip tightened until the item creaked.
Had she dared?
After everything. After what she belonged to. After the way he had guarded her, revered her, kept her untouched in his mind like sothing sacred.
A muscle jumped in his jaw.
His chest rose and fell, sharp, and uneven. Anger wrapped around his spine, familiar and welco, settling into him like an old friend. He grew possessive, violent, and certain.
Soone had crossed a line.
And Asli... his Asli, had let him.
Demir lowered his hand slowly, his eyes dark, dangerous, and already calculating.
When she ca back...
This would end quietly. He’d make sure of it.
The room began to close in on him.
Demir’s breath ca shallow now, each inhale scraping his chest like broken glass. The air in Asli’s bedroom felt poisoned; thick, and suffocating, laced with betrayal. He dropped the test back onto the bed as if it burned his skin.
He turned.
One step. Then another. They were too slow for him, so he hurried his steps.
By the ti he reached the stairs, his hands were already shaking. He was not weak, never had been weak. He was only furious.
He took them two at a ti, his shoulder brushing the wall as he descended. The nanny’s voice drifted from the kitchen, but he didn’t look her way. If he did, he wasn’t sure he wouldn’t tear the truth out of her with his bare hands.
He shoved the door open and stepped outside.
Cool night air hit his face, but it didn’t help. His lungs still refused to fill properly. He leaned briefly against the car, head bowed, and his jaw clenched so tightly that it ached.
Then he straightened, slid into the driver’s seat, and slamd the door shut.
The engine roared to life.
He drove as the road owed him sothing. He didn’t care he drove too fast, and too aggressively that every corner was begging for rcy.
Pregnant.
The word echoed again with every heartbeat.
When he reached his hideout; one that Aht and his cousin hadn’t touched, or even knew existed, he didn’t park properly. He abandoned the car and stord inside, the elevator ride feeling like torture. The mont the doors opened, he was already moving.
Where was his right-hand man? While he was working his ass off to make sure the empire was still functioning, soone was ruining his property.
Where the hell was Daniel?
He didn’t slow as he reached his right-hand man’s door.
He didn’t knock.
The door flew open with a sharp crack against the wall.
Demir registered it in pieces: the bare skins first, pale in the dim light, then the sheets, twisted and damp, dragged halfway to the floor.
A sharp gasp split the room.
Sothing ugly lurched in Demir’s chest.
For a split second, his mind betrayed him. As an image flashed, unwanted, and cruel.
Asli. This was how she was in soone else’s bed. Or...
Her bed. Her sheets. Soone else’s hands.
His jaw locked so hard it hurt.
The sight crawled under his skin. Daniel had always been disciplined, controlled, and loyal. And now here he was, indulging while Demir’s world had just cracked open.
"What the..."
Daniel shifted, his breath uneven, already reaching for the edge of the sheet. In the dark, the open door was just a shaped disturbance, thinking probably one of the new n who hadn’t learned boundaries yet.
"Get off her," Demir said.
His voice was low. Deadly. Final.
Daniel froze.
There was only one man who spoke like that. Only one who never raised his voice because he never needed to.
"Boss." Daniel scrambled back instantly, the woman pulling the sheets up with a sharp, embarrassed gasp.
Demir didn’t move. He only stood at the threshold, aware of the activity that was happening, and it angered him more that it contradicted what he was feeling. It only gave him a vivid picture of what...
He tried taking in swap breaths. He had never stepped into Daniel’s room like this. Never summoned him this way. Daniel ca when called, always had.
But not tonight.
Tonight, knocking felt useless, and waiting felt impossible. Staying in Asli’s apartnt had been choking him, and this, this was the nearest place his anger could land.
His gaze didn’t linger on the bed, or the woman, or the disarray. He had already seen enough. More than he wanted. More than his mind could bear so soon after...
"Now."
Daniel didn’t argue. He pulled on his trousers with shaking hands, muttered sothing to the woman without even looking at her, and followed Demir out of the room as he was.
The door slamd behind them.
Demir stalked into the living room, pacing once, and then twice before raking a hand through his hair. His chest rose sharply as he turned, eyes burning.
"I need you," he said. "And I need you clear-headed."
Daniel swallowed. "I am always mission-ready, sir."
Demir stopped pacing.
For a mont, it looked like he might laugh but the sound never ca. Instead, his lips curled into sothing dark and dangerous.
"She’s pregnant. Or could be."
Silence crashed between them. Demon never talked about anything personal with him. And never had he bothered about any woman... except one.
Daniel’s face tightened. "Asli?"
Demir nodded once.
"And if she is, then it’s obviously not mine," he added quietly.
The words tasted like poison.
Daniel straightened fully now, every trace of distraction gone. "Tell what you want done."
Demir’s eyes lifted, cold and ruthless.
"Find out who touched what belongs to ," he said.
"And bring the truth, alive or breathing, I don’t care which." He ordered.
Daniel inclined his head and turned toward the door, already moving to carry out the order.
"And the girl?" Demir asked, his voice lazy, as though the question barely mattered.
Daniel paused only long enough to answer. "She’s clean."
Demir nodded slowly. A smile crept across his face; slick, satisfied, and deeply wrong.
"Good."
He turned back into the room without another word and shut the door behind him, the sound final, and deliberate, leaving no doubt that whatever Daniel had stopped, Demir intended to finish.
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