Chapter 223: GHOST

"I have always been afraid of needles." That was Layla's response.

One would think Zaley is worried for nothing.

"That's all?" He asked her.

Layla shrugged.

"Did you remember any of those incidents shown in the video, or who took that?"

She shook her head, leaning against his chest. "It still feels surreal to remember something happened when I was three. Not everyone remembers that."

His fingers threaded through her hair, stroking the deep purple strands she’d dyed last week.

Lilly had thrown a full-blown tantrum over it, demanding the exact same colour as her mother.

"Lilly says otherwise," Zaley murmured. "She told me that she remembered being inside your tummy."

Her head fell back as Layla laughed, "When did she tell you that?"

"She is filling me in on everything that happened in my absence, and that started when she first landed in your tummy. Apparently, it was very warm that she decided to come out."

Her smile softened into something wistful, "I think it's a week before you left, I started experiencing nausea and other symptoms. You were with me when Lilly made that landing in my tummy."

His lips curved, but his eyes stayed shadowed.

"Why didn't you tell me? I wouldn't have left you, then. I would have stayed. Emma can go to hell for all I care. I never would have left your side. You know that, right?"

Layla’s gaze flickered upward, almost flinching. “I regretted it. I told myself it wasn’t the right time. I wasn’t even sure I was pregnant—we always used protection. I didn’t want to add to your worries. I thought… I thought I’d tell you when you came back.

“But then… not a single day passed without wishing I could undo it. We were scared of some goons when we could have done things differently. We could’ve hidden. We could’ve fled. We could’ve blamed Emma and made her pay. Back then, I wanted nothing more than to forget everything that happened.”r

His voice was quiet when he asked, “And now?”

"I don't wish to forget anything. There is no need now. Because, that pain, that past became bearable. Because you are here with me and Lilly, I can think about those days and don't feel a thing."

He brought her hand to his mouth and kissed her knuckles. "I wouldn't want to forget anything either. Not again."

Layla laughed, "Because you want revenge and punishment."

He looked at the city through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows. "It's peaceful today." He murmured

And his phone rang.

The video they received, the first call Noah made, the new assassin training centre or whatever the fuck it is called...All are tied to one word.

Verricks.

The only problem is that they are strangers to Zaley.

He can't blindly provoke them.

Getting them to know would take so much time.

There are another three weeks until Lilly's birthday.

They already started making the guest list and realised Lilly has more than ten best friends.

There was only one practical option.

Get the proof against Verricks about their involvement in this Project.

Single them out by unaliving the remaining families.

Very simple.

Kirill is taking care of Noah.

Zaley went out to meet Arthur.

Just like he has assumed, the snipers are in place, aiming at the head of the ghost he has prepared.

Arthur’s polished shoes crunched over the frost-kissed grass, each step echoing too loudly in the winter silence. The park stretched around him like an empty stage—bare trees standing like watchmen, benches leaning under the weight of last night’s rain.

He scanned the shadows. Nothing but wind and the faint hiss of distant traffic. And then—

“Arthur.”

The voice.

Jeremy’s voice.

It came from ahead, steady, casual, carrying that same rough edge he remembered from years ago. Arthur’s pulse stumbled. He followed the sound to the clearing.

Jeremy stood there.

One of his hands was in his coat pocket, and the other sleeve hung, swaying in the air. A faint, almost mocking smile on his lips.

Arthur stopped just out of reach, his trained eyes cataloguing details, posture, height, the way the man’s breath fogged in the cold air. Perfect. Too perfect.

“I thought you were dead,” Arthur said slowly, gauging his words.

“Rumours have a way of… exaggerating,” Jeremy replied, his tone warm but edged with something unreadable.

From a rooftop a hundred meters away, Zaley sat behind a thermal scope, his gloved hands adjusting the controls of the holo-projector at his side. The artificial figure flickered imperceptibly with each gust of wind, masked well enough by distance and shadow.

Arthur didn’t know it yet, but he wasn’t talking to a man.

He was talking to a ghost Zaley had built.

"Why didn’t you come home?" Arthur’s voice cracked. "Why did you pretend to be dead?"

Jeremy shifted his weight, the faintest crunch of gravel underfoot, but never closed the twenty feet between them. His voice, low and uneven, carried just enough pain to hook into Arthur’s ribs.

"I can’t. Not when the children are still haunting me."

Arthur blinked, a flicker of something — fear, confusion — passing over his face.

"I knew, Grandpa," Jeremy continued, words steady now. "I knew about the experiments. I knew the farms. I knew the mad scientist. I knew the four families."

Arthur’s breath hitched. His hands went to his mouth, his shoulders curling in as though to shield himself.

"That… that can’t be true."

"The world will know what you did," Jeremy pressed, his voice thickening with urgency. "Killing Noah won’t bury it. There are still the Verricks."

Arthur staggered back like the name itself struck him. "How? How did you know… how do you—"

"I’m trying to save you. But you have to come clean. You have to stop this, Grandpa."

From a dark van parked fifty yards away, Kirill leaned back in his seat beside Zaley, watching the park through a scope-mounted tablet feed.

"That was way too dramatic," Kirill muttered, deadpan.

Zaley didn’t take his eyes off the flickering figure. "Drama’s the point."

"They are the last ones, aren't they? The Verricks. They can't save you either. Veyrith is compromised. There is no one to protect you anymore." Jeremy said, and Arthur got up and started walking to him.

"We are going to get caught," Kirill murmured.

Zaley smirked, "We have to. I have to see the reaction on his face when he finds that he was fooled."

Arthur's face became serious. "Jeremy never cared about his family. You are not him. If he finds out about this, he would try to use it as leverage, not save us. Who are you?"

Zaley groaned in frustration. "I will never get to see his I-am-played-I-was-such-a-fool face."

"That's not important. He is getting closer." Kirill warned.

"Then I will move our boy farther."

So, Jeremy did.

And slowly vanished into this air.

Arthur blinked.

Looked around.

Took his gun out and shot at the place where Jeremy had stood before.

He blinked again.

His bodyguards ran to him, standing around him like a wall to protect him from potential danger.

With his trembling hands, he took out his phone and started dialling.