The sunrise cast golden threads across the Montgomery estate as Clair leaned against the balcony railing, her robe brushing against her growing belly. The revelation of an additional life to the twins had re-centered everything, deepened every breath, every beat of her heart.
Austin stood a few feet behind her, quietly observing her silhouette. For the first time in weeks, his soul wasn't at war. Peace, however brief, lived in the way she touched her stomach, the soft hum escaping her lips as she looked out into the horizon.
"We should pick names," she said suddenly, without turning around.
"Already?" he replied, amused.
"Yes," she nodded. "They need something to cling to, even in the womb. Something human. Something real."
He walked over, wrapping his arms around her from behind. "Okay. What about Adam?"
She smiled. "And for a girl?"
He kissed her temple. "You choose."
"Ava," she said. "Adam and Ava."
"What about the third?" He asked
"If it's a boy, Charles and if it's a girl Charlie" she said.
He closed his eyes. "Perfect."
But peace, as always, was fleeting.
Elias barged into the room without knocking. "We've got a situation."
Clair turned. "Isadora..."
"No," Elias cut in. "Her allies. There's still a pocket of them. And they're not happy she's been handed over. They think you..." he glanced at Clair "....are a liability."
Austin's demeanor shifted instantly. "Who are we dealing with?"
Elias handed him a dossier. "Interpol flagged a man named Lucien Voss. Eastern European. Former arms dealer turned political saboteur. He was one of Isadora's off-books investors."
Austin flipped through the pages. Lucien's eyes were dead, hollow. The kind of man who didn't just kill, he orchestrated fear.
"What's he planning?"
"Not sure yet, but he's arrived in New York. Under the radar. And he's made contact with someone inside the media."
Clair's heart dropped. "They're going after public perception again."
Austin shook his head. "This time it's deeper. Lucien doesn't just smear reputations. He destroys lives from the inside out."
Elias added, "We also found a bug inside the estate's tech wing. It wasn't one of ours."
Austin's voice darkened. "We have a mole."
It took hours, but the Montgomery security team swept through every room. In the hidden basement vault, they found another tracker placed on encrypted communication cables, technology only a few had access to.
"Internal betrayal," Austin muttered. "Just like before."
But this time, he wasn't letting anyone inside his circle slip away unnoticed.
He ordered a lockdown, not just of the house, but of the entire Montgomery network. Employees were vetted, interrogated, background-checked again.
In the shadows of this chaos, Clair returned to her private art studio, an unused guest house Austin had converted for her months ago. Painting helped her breathe, express. Today, she dipped her brush into a shade of twilight blue and swept it across the canvas.
A knock came at the door.
"Come in."
It was Elias.
"I didn't mean to interrupt," he said, eyes scanning the half-finished painting. It was a portrait of Austin holding their future children, faceless still, but glowing.
"I needed the quiet," she murmured.
"We found something. About Lucien. He's got an old vendetta against Austin. Years ago, when Austin took down that European syndicate, Lucien's brother was one of the casualties."
Clair frowned. "So this is revenge."
"Blood revenge."
She set the brush down. "Then we finish this before it begins."
That night, Austin sat in his war room, watching surveillance feeds. He was tired, but not weary. Instead, every new threat sharpened his focus.
His phone vibrated. A message from an unknown number.
It read: "Tick. Tock."
Attached was a photo of Clair walking in the hospital hallway earlier that week.
The angle was too close. Taken from within the staff.
Austin's blood ran cold.
"He's inside the hospital," he whispered.
The next morning, Clair walked into a seemingly normal staff briefing. But as she sat down, her instincts flared. Something was off.
A nurse she didn't recognize poured coffee for the table.
Clair watched her. Noticed the gloved hands. The way she avoided eye contact.
After the meeting, Clair followed her discreetly down the hall. When the woman ducked into a janitor's closet, Clair waited, then entered silently.
The woman spun around.
Not a nurse.
Not even close.
Before she could react, Clair swung a heavy mop bucket, knocking the woman back. They struggled, Clair fighting like she'd learned from weeks of danger.
The woman drew a syringe.
Clair kicked it out of her hand, then screamed. Security stormed in, tackling the intruder.
Elias arrived minutes later. "She's not just a spy. She's one of Lucien's people."
Austin arrived next, fury barely restrained. He pulled Clair into his arms, checking every inch of her.
"I'm okay," she whispered. "The babies are okay."
He kissed her forehead. "We're going on the offensive. Tonight."
By dusk, the Montgomery brothers were in a black helicopter above downtown Manhattan, heading toward an abandoned building Lucien had used as a front.
Inside, cloaked under false identities, Lucien and his guards waited.
Until the power cut.
"What's going on?" Lucien barked.
Smoke filled the room. Gas canisters rolled in. Shouts erupted. Then...
Austin stepped through the fog, flanked by Elias and a tactical team.
"It's over, Lucien."
Lucien snarled. "You should've killed me when you had the chance."
"Now I get to watch you rot," Austin said.
A brief, brutal fight broke out. Lucien lunged with a knife, slicing Elias's arm. Austin disarmed him with a gunshot to the shoulder.
Lucien collapsed, groaning.
"Take him," Austin ordered.
By midnight, Lucien was in custody. International news exploded with the arrest. The tides turned again. For the first time, the media hailed Clair as a resilient heroine.
Back home, Austin found her asleep on the couch, the faint sound of lullaby music playing from her phone.
He knelt beside her, gently lifting her feet onto his lap.
She stirred. "It's over?"
He nodded. "It's over."
"For now," she whispered.
He smiled. "Then let's make the most of now."
She sat up and pulled him into a kiss. It was long, deep, filled with all the things they hadn't had time to say.
Austin lifted her in his arms, carrying her to their bedroom.
That night, beneath stars and safety, Austin and Clair loved like it was their first time, and perhaps their last. Fierce and gentle. Desperate and patient. Surrounded by shadows, they found firelight in each other.
And for the first time in weeks, the world fell silent, if only for a night.