Chapter 249: The Shadow Over the White House

The news hadn't broken yet.

Inside the White House, only a handful of people knew the truth—that President Chris Blackwood had been shot and was fighting for his life in a high-security hospital.

Tension was suffocating.

Ethan stood in the situation room, hands braced against the table, his jaw tight. Across from him, Cole leaned back against the wall, arms crossed, watching the room with cold calculation.

The silence was broken by the sharp voice of the National Security Advisor.

"We need to prepare for worst-case scenarios."

Ethan's eyes snapped to her. "Worst-case scenarios?" His voice was dangerously calm.

"If he doesn't make it," she continued, her expression unreadable, "the country will descend into chaos. His enemies will move, both inside and outside the government. We need to establish control before the wrong people take advantage of this situation."

Cole smirked. "Wrong people? Lady, I hate to break it to you, but we're the wrong people."

No one laughed.

Ethan exhaled slowly, his mind racing. Chris wasn't dead—not yet. But the fact that the President of the United States had been taken out by sniper fire inside a secured zone? That meant one thing.

This was an inside job.

Someone powerful. Someone close.

Ava's words came back to him: "The sniper wasn't working for me."

Then who?

His fists clenched. Who had dared to go after Chris?

A voice crackled through his earpiece. "Sir, update from the hospital. He's still in surgery, but…"

"But what?" Ethan snapped.

A beat of hesitation.

"The doctors are saying he shouldn't have survived this long."

Ethan's gut twisted.

Chris Blackwood wasn't just surviving. He was defying death itself.

And when he woke up?

God help whoever was behind this.