Chapter 160: Courtship

A hundred billion dollars in assets, he handed them over without so much as a flinch.

She tossed the documents to Akin beside her and looked at Sean. "Fine. I'll take care of you."

Isabelle had never been indifferent to Sean.

The man was powerful enough to level anyone, yet he willingly dialed everything back around her.

She was used to going it alone, but if the person standing beside her was him, she was willing to give it a shot.

A week later, Eric was discharged from the hospital.

He took a cab to the villa in the western suburbs. The moment he stepped into the living room, he stopped dead.

In the open kitchen, Sean was wearing a dark loungewear set, head down, carefully picking crab meat and placing it into the dish in front of Isabelle.

Isabelle leaned against the kitchen island, her expression cool and detached, yet she ate the crab meat he offered without a second thought.

They barely exchanged a word, but the quiet intimacy between them shut the rest of the world out completely. There was no way in.

Eric stood there, a bitter feeling rising in his chest.

He had always carried a quiet thing for Isabelle.

From River City to Washington, he had thought he could stay by her side.

But at Industrial Zone No. 7, hanging upside down from a chain-link fence, watching Isabelle tear through Syndicate fighters just to save him, he finally woke up.

He was too weak.

He couldn't protect her. Worse, he would become her vulnerability.

Sean was different. That man could clear every obstacle in her path and stand shoulder to shoulder with her on the razor's edge.

They were the same kind of person.

"Eric?" Isabelle looked up and noticed him.

Eric snapped back, swallowed the ache in his chest, and walked over with a genuine smile. "Ms. Morgan, just came to check on you. I'm heading back to school tomorrow."

He looked at Isabelle, then at Sean standing beside her, the weight of his presence filling the room.

"Ms. Morgan, thank you for saving me." Eric took a slow breath, his voice steady and sincere. "And I wish you both nothing but happiness."

He envied Sean for winning Isabelle's heart, but he also knew himself well enough.

He meant every word of that wish.

Isabelle looked at him and gave a small nod. "Stay focused on school. If you need anything, just say so."

Back at Capital University, Isabelle became the talk of the entire campus.

Lila had dropped out. Claire was in prison.

The people who used to whisper about her behind her back now needed courage just to glance her way.

When she walked down the tree-lined path, the crowd parted three meters on either side without anyone saying a word.

Nobody dared mess with her. Nobody dared question her academic ability either.

Isabelle moved through her coursework at her own pace, occasionally holing up in the lab to work on projects.

Sean drove her to and from class every day.

Washington's elite had grown used to the sight, the decisive, iron-handed head of Everlight, leaning against his Maybach with easy patience, waiting for a girl to finish class.

The years went by fast.

Isabelle and Sean fell into a relationship the way things do when they were always meant to happen.

They showed up together at the top Wall Street galas, and they traced dark web data trails together in the basement.

The time they spent fighting side by side, day after day, only brought them closer.

Four years later, Isabelle graduated from Capital University with a perfect score in every subject.

The morning after graduation, they boarded a private jet and flew straight to Mexico City.

This was where Eternal Night was headquartered.

Syndicate's remnants had been fully absorbed, but Mexico's local gang networks ran deep, and the old cartel bosses had no respect for this newly risen Eternal Night.

Isabelle didn't bother with words. She let her actions set the rules.

What followed was years of blood and fire tearing through the Mexican underworld.

Isabelle ran everything from Eternal Night's headquarters, pulling the strings from the center.

Sean became the sharpest blade in her hand, leading the Shadeguard and Eternal Night's best fighters, sweeping through every major faction like a storm.

From the Sinaloa cartel's strongholds to the underground arms depots in Juárez.

Those who refused to submit were killed. Those who rebelled were wiped out.

Isabelle's iron grip combined with Sean's absolute force sent both the underworld and the authorities into a cold sweat.

In just three years, Eternal Night crushed every last pocket of resistance and locked down absolute control over Mexico's underworld.

Isabelle had become the undisputed ruler of that world, a queen without a crown.

Mexico City. The rooftop terrace of Eternal Night headquarters.

A night breeze moved through the air. The city's glittering skyline stretched out in every direction.

Isabelle stood in a black velvet gown, one hand holding a glass of red wine, leaning against the glass railing.

Years at the top had deepened the cool stillness she carried, a quiet force that made people instinctively lower their eyes.

Steady footsteps approached from behind.

Sean walked up beside her in a black bespoke suit.

He wrapped his arms around her waist from behind, rested his chin in the curve of her neck, and breathed in the cold, faint scent of her like he couldn't get enough.

"Mexico is completely locked down." His voice was low and rough.

"Mm." Isabelle swirled her glass and took a sip.

Sean let go and stepped around to face her.

He looked at this woman he loved to the bone, deep black eyes swelling with something he had never tried to hide.

Slowly, he dropped to one knee.

Just like that afternoon in Washington seven years ago, he held out the pink diamond ring again.

"Seven years, Miss Morgan." He looked up at her, his voice carrying a depth of devotion and surrender that left no room for doubt. "Have I been good enough for you?"

Seven years. He had handed over everything he owned, carved out half the underworld, all to be her most loyal and willing servant.

Isabelle looked down at him.

The breeze lifted her hair. The cool distance in her eyes dissolved completely, giving way to a wide, unrestrained smile.

She didn't reach for the ring.

Instead, she reached out, grabbed Sean's tie, and pulled him up hard.

Sean rose to his feet.

The next second, Isabelle kissed him, bold and unapologetic, with the full force of her.

The warm taste of red wine spread between them.

It was a kiss that staked a claim, carrying everything wild and untamed that was purely her.

Sean's throat moved. He reached up, cupped the back of her head, and took over, pressing deeper into the kiss.

The night settled heavy around them. Eternal Night's lights stretched endlessly beneath their feet.

She had taken over his world. And he had found his god.

Three months later. Bordeaux, France.

A medieval private estate spanning thousands of acres was completely sealed off and cleared.

Military airspace restrictions covered a fifty-mile radius. Hundreds of heavily armed Eternal Night fighters were stationed around the perimeter, every post locked down tight.

After Isabelle formally took over as head of the North American Morgan family, Sean made good on his promise.

He poured every resource Everlight had, along with his personal fortune, into throwing Isabelle a wedding inside that storied European castle. It was the kind of event that sent shockwaves through Western high society.

The castle's great lawn was blanketed in white roses flown in from the Netherlands.

Among the guests, beyond the top names in North American politics and business, sat a group of people with a very different kind of presence.

Caius was in a sharp tailored suit, seated at the front of the family and friends section.

Beside him was Mason, who had made the trip for the wedding, along with more than a dozen of the best killers and hackers who had once been part of the core team of Europe's Syndicate.