Page 108 of Billionaire’s Ruin

The words hung in the air like an explosion.

Finally—finally—someone said the thing I’d been too terrified to voice.

“I don’t think anything,” Dave muttered, dragging a hand down his face. “But she knew every detail—the plan, the timing, this house—every blind spot, every entry point.

A cold chill ran down my spine.

My hands curled tight, nails biting into my palms. “Then we find her.”

“But this doesn’t make sense,” Dave muttered, a grimace of disbelief tightening his features. “Who could Clare possibly be working for?”

“Kai’s mother?” The accusation tore out of me.

“Then why would they take her too?” Lincoln cut in. His tone was maddeningly controlled—too measured. Logical. Detached. I hated him for it. He always dissected everything with surgical precision while I was busy drowning in panic.

“Yes, she disobeyed orders sometimes,” Dave added, rubbing the back of his neck. “Challenge Mr. Li more than anyone else dared. But I never thought she’d go this far.”

“Then I don’t know—you tell me,” I fired back, my voice splintering like breaking glass. “You’ve been his bodyguard for years. You must’ve seen something.”

Dave’s jaw tightened. “Mr. Li made plenty of enemies. But none of them would go through this much trouble. Not like this. It doesn’t add up.”

“Dave isn’t wrong,” Lincoln said quietly, “Why take Lucy and Mrs. Li too?”

“Two possibilities,” I answered, flat and hollow. “Wrong place, wrong time. Or it’s personal.”

Before either of them could respond, Andy burst into the living room, wide-eyed, nearly gasping. “I’ve got Clare on the phone!” she shouted, waving her phone like a flare in the middle of the storm.

“Give it to me,” I barked, already storming toward her.

“June, no.” Lincoln’s voice sliced through the room—sharp, commanding. “Let me handle this.”

I froze mid-step, rage sparking so quickly it felt electric. Of course. One minute he wanted me to grow up, to stop waiting for people to tell me what to do—and the next? Suddenly I was too fragile to talk on a damn phone?

“Put it on speaker,” I demanded, turning with a glare sharp enough to cut bone.

“Win-win. You get to supervise, and I get my answers.”

Something shifted in the room at that moment.

It wasn’t big or loud.

Just a flicker—tiny, but unmistakable.

Like a seesaw tipping in the other direction.

For the first time, I wasn’t the one being managed, handled, protected.

I was leading.

And Lincoln knew it.

He could either fall in line… or walk out that door.

He didn’t move.

Andy tapped the screen, and Clare’s unsteady words filled the air.

“Dr. Bennet,” she whispered out, her words thin, fragile. “I’ve been following them.”