CEO loves me with all his soul.

Chapter 143: 143. No one can touch his children.
The screen blinked with the glowing timer —16:42:18″EVOLUTION OR EXTINCTION.”

The room spun.

Adrian couldn’t breathe.

Ethan was already moving.

The image of Mathew — loyal, calm, quiet Mathew — stabbing a needle into the control panel of the antidote vault, then walking away like nothing happened… it didn’t make sense.

Ethan’s jaw was tight, his entire body wound with the tension of a man who had spent too many years holding back rage. But now, that control shattered.

He grabbed a comms device from the hall.

“Emergency lockdown, Section A through G. Override all internal clearance. Priority Alpha. This is Ethan Levistis.”

Adrian stood frozen, mind whirring. “Mathew’s still in the manor. He wouldn’t run — not without finishing what he came for.”

Cain was already on his phone too, voice clipped as he ordered the perimeter teams into motion. Augustin and Leclair drew their weapons from hidden compartments in the wall.

And Jesper… Jesper clutched Adrian’s arm, silver eyes haunted. “He has the key to the antidote vault. But that’s not what he wants most.”

Adrian’s heart dropped.

The nursery.

“Seraphina—Aurelius,” he breathed. “No—”

But Ethan was already sprinting toward the eastern wing, where their children slept.

He didn’t yell. Didn’t shout.

He moved like a blade — silent, deadly, unrelenting.

Every second pounded in his ears. The polished marble corridor blurred. The only thing that mattered was reaching that room before Mathew could—

He turned the final corner, and his worst fear froze him.

Mathew stood just outside the nursery door, holding a vial filled with something viscous and purple — eerily similar to the test samples from Naehr’s lab.

And a hypo-syringe.

“No,” Ethan said.

Mathew turned his head slowly, his glasses glinting under the dim chandelier.

“Ethan,” he said calmly. “I asked you once — what would you do if your children were the key to peace?”

Ethan didn’t respond. He stepped forward, each movement controlled.

“Open that door,” Ethan said. “Step away. You can still walk out of this alive.”

Mathew’s hand hovered over the security pad. “You don’t understand. You were never meant to be their protector. You were just a prototype.”

He didn’t mean the twins.

He meant Ethan.

A low growl formed in Ethan’s throat. “You’re working with Naehr.”

Mathew smiled, strangely sad. “He’s the only one who sees the bigger picture. Equality through reformation. No more suffering. No more bloodlines deciding who lives and dies.”

Ethan’s voice turned into steel. “You’re about to find out what happens when someone threatens mine.”

Mathew pressed the pad.

But the moment the door hissed open, he was tackled from behind.

Adrian.

He’d come running after Ethan, despite everything — the fatigue, the vomiting, the data storm still flooding his brain. He couldn’t let Ethan face this alone.

Mathew stumbled back, the vial flying from his hand and shattering against the wall.

Purple liquid oozed down the wallpaper, hissing where it touched metal.

Mathew hissed and twisted, but Adrian’s grip was sharp and desperate.

That gave Ethan the second he needed.

One punch — brutal and fast — sent Mathew flying into the wall. Another disarmed him. By the third, Mathew coughed blood and dropped.

“Don’t kill him!” Adrian gasped. “We need answers—!”

Ethan barely restrained himself.

His vision tunneled, rage so complete it nearly devoured him.

But then—

A small whimper from inside the room.

Aurelius.

He rushed inside.

Seraphina and Aurelius sat upright in their crib, their small faces confused and slightly teary.

“Papa?” Seraphina called out, her soft voice trembling.

Ethan’s chest cracked wide open.

He dropped to his knees beside the crib and scooped both of them into his arms, hugging them so tightly it seemed like he’d never let go.

Adrian entered a beat later, breathless. “They’re okay?”

Ethan nodded. “They’re okay.”

The twins curled against his chest, small and warm and safe. For now.

“I swear,” Ethan said under his breath, “I’ll burn the world before I let anyone touch them.”

Adrian didn’t doubt it.

Interrogation Room, One Hour Later

Mathew sat bound and bruised in the west wing’s security chamber.

Cain, Leclair, and Jesper stood behind the glass, while Ethan and Adrian entered the room in silence.

Mathew lifted his head. His glasses were gone. His face swollen from the blow.

“You can’t stop it,” he whispered. “Naehr’s already started. The rain you’re watching for… it won’t come from the sky. It’ll come from the sea.”

Adrian frowned. “The sea?”

“Desalination plants,” Mathew said. “One of them has been compromised. Every drop of water fed to major cities—” He coughed. “Will carry the serum. It’ll enter the bloodstream within an hour.”

Ethan slammed a fist on the table. “Where?”

Mathew just smiled. “You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”

Cain’s voice crackled over the intercom. “Then let’s make him show us. We’ll use serum recall on his ID tag, trace his last route.”

Jesper nodded slowly. “There’s more. Sarn. He’s not Naehr’s enemy anymore.”

Adrian’s eyes widened. “They’ve joined hands?”

Mathew only chuckled.

Ethan’s heart raced.

They’d thought Naehr was the main threat. But now… it was worse. Two scientists — both obsessed with engineered equality. One to destroy, the other to rebuild.

And his children — Atop children — were the ideal prototypes for both.

“Where’s the facility?” Ethan repeated.

Mathew finally leaned in, blood running from his nose. “Offshore. Old facility. Once belonged to the Sebanil shipping company.”

Cain’s voice turned grim. “We sold it two decades ago to private research.”

Ethan turned to Adrian. “We need to get Lucas and Savas. You’ll need them to make a counter-agent. We won’t beat this with brute force.”

Adrian nodded. “Already notified them. Savas is sending over the synthetic buffer compound. It should be here in an hour.”

Ethan looked at the clock. Less than fifteen hours left.

Mathew, breath ragged, whispered, “Even if you make the antidote, you’ll never spread it in time.”

Ethan stood, slowly. “Then we’ll change the whole game.”

One Hour Later

The entire core team assembled.

Lucas — pale but upright, rested after his recovery.

Savas Faust — eccentric, brilliant, and already halfway through a formula written in six languages.

Jesper and Cain.

Augustin and Leclair.

Diana and Yuin.

Even little Jaya stood beside them, eyes serious.

“Here’s the plan,” Ethan said, unrolling the blueprint of the offshore plant. “We go in with two teams. Adrian, Lucas, and Savas head for the lab to reverse the serum. My team heads for the filtration controls.”

Cain raised an eyebrow. “And if they’ve booby-trapped the controls?”

“Then I’ll cut the supply at the source.”

Jesper’s voice broke slightly. “Don’t throw yourself away.”

Ethan looked at his uncle.

“At this point, I’d rather die than let them grow up in a world built on blood and manipulation.”

Adrian stared at him, silent.

He knew that look.

That steel in Ethan’s voice meant he had already prepared for the worst.

“Just promise me one thing,” Adrian said quietly.

“What?”

“That you come back.”

Ethan leaned forward and kissed his forehead. “Only if you do too.”