The Bond Between Us ( Anastasia and Herman) novel Chapter 1199

Mr. Walker waited up through the dead of night. Sure enough, Ross was taken away by his superiors—a top-level operation, strictly off-limits to everyone else. No one could even guess where they’d taken him.

This, Mr. Walker thought, was the end. He slumped into his chair, heart pounding, silently begging Ross to keep quiet. If Ross talked, every secret he’d ever buried would spill out. There’d be only one way forward: complete ruin.

That’s just how it goes—the higher you climb, the harder you crash.

Noticing the light burning in Mr. Walker’s room all night, Autumn finally twisted the knob and slipped inside.

“Did something happen to Ross?” she asked, her voice low. She always knew when something big had happened—Mr. Walker would get like this every time.

He sat hunched over, a cigar smoldering in his hand, the ashtray overflowing. His tired eyes were clouded and distant.

“If Ross talks, it’s over for us,” he muttered, taking a drag. “Doesn’t matter how much good you’ve done—one stain and that’s all people ever remember. They forget everything else you did for them.”

Autumn walked over and sat beside him. After all these years together, she’d never wanted to see him dragged down. But fate has a way of steering you straight into the storm, no matter how hard you try to turn away.

“Maybe we should just go home,” Autumn said quietly, but with a new certainty in her voice. “If we stay in Riverdale, sooner or later, everything will fall apart. Back in the country, life was hard, but people respected you. Things were simple. We were happy.”

He looked at her, remembering how quick Riverdale had swallowed them up in just two years—how far they’d wandered from who they were at the start. He’d come to the city for her, chasing something better, hoping to build a future. But everything had turned upside down.

“You’re giving up on Julie’s case?” he asked softly.

That was where all this trouble began.

Autumn was quiet for a long moment. “Yes. I’m done.”

Saying it out loud felt like dropping a heavy burden.

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