My Milf Conqueror System novel Chapter 163

Chapter 163: Twenty-Two Hours

[Jake’s POV]

We left Halcyon House with evidence, a stopped medical attestation, and twenty-two hours before Van der Meer opened its doors.

It did not feel like winning.

Winning had weight. Shape. A moment where the room shifted and everyone knew the board had changed. This felt thinner than that. We had stopped one pen, cracked one room, caught one doctor too proud to stay silent, and still Sofia was somewhere else, moved before we could reach her, leaving messages in cloth and knots like a queen forced to write orders from inside a cage.

The convoy pulled away from Halcyon under a sky turning pale at the edges. Morning was beginning to press against the trees, gray and cold. Claire sat beside me in the SUV with the evidence bag on her lap, her fingers resting over the sealed knot like she was afraid it might disappear if she stopped touching it. Evelyn was in the second car, already on the phone with judges, clerks, medical oversight, and people who probably regretted giving her their personal numbers.

Darius rode in front, silent.

Cassandra sat across from me, wrapped in her grey sweater, eyes fixed on the window. She had gone very quiet after finding Sofia’s room. Not frightened quiet. Processing quiet. Her mind was still inside Halcyon, measuring curtain weights, latch shapes, restraint angles, and all the small cruelties that made a room look gentle while it did terrible things.

"You okay?" I asked.

Cassandra blinked, as if surprised I had spoken to her.

"No," she said softly.

Honest.

Good.

"But I can work."

"That was not the question."

She looked down at her sleeves. "It is the answer that helps."

Claire’s face softened slightly. "Cass."

Cassandra shook her head. "Sofia left the knot because she knew someone would notice. If I stop thinking about it, then I am wasting what she risked."

That settled heavily in the car.

Sofia had risked more than pain. She had risked being understood too late.

My phone buzzed.

Nia.

**I am awake, furious, and holding the tower together with caffeine and spite. Tell me you got everything.**

I replied.

**We got the room, the knot, the cloth, the doctor’s mistake, and Vale’s arrogance.**

Her answer came fast.

**Excellent. Arrogance is my favorite evidence category.**

A second message followed.

**Ethan says ask if you got punched.**

I glanced at my hands.

**No.**

Nia replied.

**He says disappointing.**

Claire read over my shoulder despite pretending not to.

"He is bored," she said.

"He is injured."

"That has not stopped him from being annoying."

"Nothing has."

The System appeared.

**[Ding!]**

**[Mission Chain Updated!]**

**Mission: Find Sofia**

**Current Lead: Van der Meer Auction.]**

**Time Remaining: 21 hours, 41 minutes.]**

**Objective: Enter Van der Meer without triggering premature transfer.]**

**Reward: Sofia Location Fragment.]**

**Penalty: Sofia moved beyond current network.]**

I stared at the last line.

That was the true threat.

Not death. Not failure in the dramatic sense. Movement. Sofia being carried from one sealed room to another until every clue became stale and every rescue arrived late.

Late.

Her handwriting pressed against my ribs like accusation.

Claire noticed me stiffen. "What?"

"Nothing."

She gave me the look.

I sighed. "The clock changed."

"What clock?"

"The one I can’t ignore."

Her eyes held mine for a second. She still had questions. Too many. About what I saw, what I hid, what exactly had changed in me since Monaco. But she did not ask in that car. She only nodded once and looked back at the evidence bag.

"We are not going in blind," she said.

"No."

"You mean that?"

"I mean that."

Darius said from the front, "I will believe it when I see it."

"Your support is overwhelming."

"It is not support. It is history."

Fair.

By the time we reached Apex Tower, the city had fully woken. People were walking into office buildings with coffee cups and dead eyes, unaware that somewhere above them, a private war was being fought over signatures, medical lies, widow circles, and a woman who refused to become furniture.

The tower doors opened before we reached them.

Victoria was waiting in the lower lobby.

She looked like she had not slept and would punish anyone rude enough to mention it. Her black suit was perfect, her hair sharp, her eyes colder than the morning outside. Margaret Hale stood beside her, wearing a cream coat over a dark dress, older, elegant, and far too composed for someone who had arrived at dawn without warning.

I stopped.

"Margaret."

She smiled faintly. "Jake. You look terrible."

"Everyone keeps saying that."

"Then perhaps the problem is your face."

Victoria did not smile. "Margaret has information on Van der Meer."

Of course she did.

Margaret Hale never appeared unless the room had already become profitable or dangerous enough to amuse her. She moved through politics the way Aurelia moved through dinner tables, gathering secrets with one hand and offering help with the other while never letting anyone forget both hands had prices attached.

Claire stepped forward. "What information?"

Margaret looked at the evidence bag in Claire’s hand. "First, tell me whether Vale’s attestation is dead."

Evelyn walked in behind us and answered before anyone else could. "Temporarily buried. If he tries to submit it, I will exhume him with it."

Margaret’s eyebrows lifted. "I see the legal profession remains charming."

"Only when provoked," Evelyn said.

The two women looked at each other for a moment.

Older power recognizing older power.

Steel and silk.

Then Margaret turned back to me. "Van der Meer is not just an auction. It is a vote."

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