The Broken King's Silent Obsession

I am Cipher, an elite operative, but the world knows me as Evita Peck-the mute, illegitimate liability of a powerful political dynasty. To protect my sister and maintain my cover, I played the role of a fragile, broken doll, enduring my stepmother's abuse in silence. Everything shattered at a high-stakes gala when my stepmother forced a drugged cocktail down my throat to sell me to a wealthy donor for campaign funds. Fighting the chemical haze, I fled to a restricted suite and collapsed into the arms of the one man I should have avoided: Jedidiah Stone, the paralyzed, reclusive "Broken King." The drug stripped away my control, leading to a night of desperate passion with the man who was my family's greatest enemy. I escaped at dawn, but I accidentally left behind a bloodstain on his sheets and fled with a classified data chip hidden in his jacket, marking me as a target for the most dangerous security force in the city. When I returned home, my mother slapped me for the "failed" deal and immediately announced I was being sold into a marriage alliance with the Stone family. Before I could process the horror, Julian Kensington-Jedidiah's deadliest rival-publicly claimed me as his secret fiancée, turning me into a pawn in their brutal corporate war. I was trapped in a deadly tug-of-war between a man who wanted to use me as a shield and a man who was hunting for the "spy" who had breached his bed. I didn't know how much longer I could play the mute victim while the two most powerful men in the country fought to possess me. The game reached a breaking point when Jedidiah invoked a "hostile asset acquisition" clause to legally force me to marry him instead of his cousin. Now, I am moving into the Stone estate, realizing that the man I am about to marry is the same man who has sworn to break the very woman I truly am.

Chapters

Chapter 7

Victoria Stone snipped the head off a prize-winning orchid. The flower fell to the tiled floor of the conservatory with a soft thud.

"Nothing?" she asked, not looking up.

Quentin shifted his weight. Sweat beaded on his forehead despite the climate-controlled cool of the room. "No, ma'am. We've scrubbed the city. The woman doesn't exist. No prints, no face match."

"She exists," Victoria snapped. She pointed the shears at him. "A woman doesn't leave a bloodstain and vanish into thin air unless she is trained."

"We checked the guest list again," Quentin said. "The only anomaly was Evita Peck leaving early."

Victoria paused. "The mute."

"Yes."

"Julian Kensington just announced his engagement to her," Victoria mused. "On live television."

She set the shears down. Her mind worked like a trap snapping shut. Evita Peck. The silent, abused girl. The perfect cover. And now, Julian-who never did anything without a motive-had scooped her up.

"Why would Julian want a mute wife?" Victoria asked the air. "Unless her silence is an asset."

"Ma'am?"

"Find out where she was that night. Exactly where. I want a timeline."

Down in the basement level, the sounds of grunting and metal clanking filled the rehab gym.

Jedidiah was doing pull-ups. His wheelchair sat empty nearby. He was strapped to the bar, his upper body heaving, muscles coiling like steel cables under his sweat-slicked skin. His legs hung dead weight, dragging him down.

Twenty-eight. Twenty-nine.

Every rep was a battle against gravity and his own broken body.

He dropped from the bar, landing heavily on the mat. He dragged himself toward his chair, refusing the help of the therapist standing nearby.

"Get out," he growled.

The therapist left.

Jedidiah hauled himself into the chair. His arms burned. His chest heaved.

He picked up the tablet Quentin had left on the bench. The news was playing. Julian Kensington, holding Evita Peck's hand, smiling that fake, charming smile.

"Since we connected over our mutual love for quiet European towns..."

Jedidiah stared at Evita's face on the screen. She looked terrified. Her eyes were wide, darting around like a trapped animal.

Wait.

He zoomed in on the video. The way she held her shoulders. The tension in her neck.

It reminded him of something. The woman in the dark. The way she had tensed before...

"No," he muttered. "It can't be."

But Julian was involved. And if Julian wanted her, it meant she was valuable.

Quentin entered the gym. "Sir, your grandmother is asking for a background check on Evita Peck."

Jedidiah looked up. "Why?"

"Because of the engagement. She thinks... she thinks there's a connection to the breach."

Jedidiah looked back at the screen. Julian looked smug. Like he had won a prize.

A cold, competitive rage filled Jedidiah's chest. Julian had been in Beirut the day the car bomb went off. Julian had always wanted what was Jedidiah's.

"Prepare the car," Jedidiah said.

Quentin blinked. "Sir? You haven't left the estate in three years."

"I said prepare the car," Jedidiah snapped. He wiped the sweat from his face with a towel. "I think it's time I congratulated the happy couple. I want to meet my future... neighbor."

He looked at the image of Evita again.

"If she's the spy," Jedidiah whispered to the empty room, "I'm going to break her."

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