Chapter 40FREEDOM OR IS IT? ELENA, "Where are you headed, Elena? You know you can’t leave me."Evan's voice sent a shiver down my spine, freezing me in place. My blood ran cold as I turned to face him. Evan stood there, his dark eyes locked onto mine, his expression unreadable yet filled with something sinister. My heart pounded against my ribcage, my breath coming in shallow gasps. Ryan, who was standing beside me, stiffened at the sight of him. He had known Evan was dangerous—I had told him so many times. I had warned him that Evan was a man who cared for no one but himself, a man who saw people as possessions rather than individuals with free will. And now, here we were, caught in the very nightmare I had tried to escape. "Evan," I whispered, trying to mask the fear in my voice, but he heard it. He always did. He took a slow step forward, his movements calculated, as if he were a predator approaching his prey. Then, with a snap of his fingers, several men in black suits—his s
CHAPTER 0041THE ESCAPE..ELENA,The airport pulsed with life—hurried footsteps echoing across the polished floors, the chaotic hum of overlapping voices, the rhythmic beeping of security scanners. But for me, the world had narrowed into one singular sensation: the relentless pounding of my heart, each beat hammering against my ribs like a war drum.Ryan’s grip on my wrist was firm but not painful, an anchor keeping me tethered as we weaved through the throngs of travelers. My fingers trembled as they clutched the sleeve of his jacket, still haunted by the phantom weight of the gun that had been in my hands minutes ago. It was gone now, but I could still feel the cool metal pressing against my palm, the power of it, the fear of it.What had I done?No, worse—what had I almost done?My breath hitched, but there was no time for hesitation, no room for guilt or second-guessing. The moment I stopped to think, to feel, it would consume me. And if I let that happen, I wouldn’t survive."Whe
CHAPTER 0042THE CHASERYANThe moment Elena disappeared into the crowd, my entire body screamed at me to turn back, to chase after her, to make sure she made it out safely. But I couldn’t. If I followed her, they would catch us both. I forced myself to move in the opposite direction, every muscle coiled tight with tension. The airport was a battlefield, and we were the prey. Evan’s men weren’t searching blindly—they were hunting. Their formation was meticulous, their movements sharp and purposeful. They had eyes scanning every terminal, every waiting area, every possible escape route.I kept my head down, my steps measured, ignoring the pounding in my chest. If I ran too soon, I’d give myself away. I needed to slip through the cracks, to find a way out before they spotted me. But luck wasn’t on my side.“There! That’s him!”The shout cut through the noise of the airport, and every instinct screamed run. I bolted, desperate to find refuge anywhere. A startled businessman yelped as I s
Chapter 0043 GETTING BACK WHAT IS MINE EVAN, Fury burned through me, raw and consuming, an inferno raging in my veins. This wasn’t just anger—it was something darker, something more vicious. A relentless, gnawing force that refused to be silenced, clawing at the edges of my restraint like a beast desperate to be unleashed. She had escaped. Again. The realization hit me like a blade, sharp and unyielding, cutting deeper with every second that passed. My fists clenched at my sides, nails biting into my palms so hard that a sharp sting sliced through my skin. The pain was nothing. It barely registered against the inferno surging through my chest, against the violent pulse of rage pounding through my skull. Elena was gone. The airport terminal stretched around me, a cacophony of movement and sound—boarding calls droning overhead, hurried conversations, the rhythmic clatter of luggage wheels against polished floors. The scent of coffee, fuel, and sweat mixed in the air, creating a
CHAPTER 44 FOUND AGAIN ELENA I could still feel him. Evan. Even when he wasn’t there, his presence clung to me like a second skin, unseen but suffocating. It wasn’t just a memory or a lingering ghost of fear—it was something deeper, something that had settled inside me like a parasite, feeding on my terror. I felt it in the stiffness of my shoulders, the tight coil of anxiety in my stomach, the way my breath came too fast, too shallow. It lived in the way I flinched at sudden sounds, in the way my fingers curled instinctively into fists, as if preparing for a fight that had no end. But just because I couldn’t see him didn’t mean he wasn’t there. The airport hummed around me, a chaotic symphony of movement and voices—families reuniting with tearful embraces, business travelers moving with impatient efficiency, children laughing, flight announcements droning overhead. A world so oblivious to the fact that a hunted woman stood among them, heart pounding like a war drum. The ordi
CHAPTER 45NO WAY OUT.ELENA,I couldn’t breathe.The air around me thickened, crushing my ribs like a vice. My mind screamed at my body to run, to fight, to do something—but I was frozen.Trapped.His smirk widened as he took a slow step forward, deliberately closing the space between us. The murmur of passengers gathering their bags, the shuffle of feet, the hum of the plane’s engines—it all faded into a dull, distant noise.All I could hear was my heartbeat. Loud. Erratic.“Nothing to say?” he mused, tilting his head. “That’s unlike you, Elena.”I forced my feet to move, stepping back, but the aisle was crowded, passengers impatiently shifting forward. The press of bodies behind me made it impossible to escape.He knew that.That smug, knowing look in his eyes said he had planned this moment down to the second.I clenched my teeth. No. He’s not taking me back. I won’t let him.I inhaled sharply through my nose, schooling my expression into something blank, something unreadable. If
CHAPTER 46 TRAPPED ELENA The moment we stepped out of the restroom, a suffocating dread coiled around my throat like a noose. I was trapped. The crowds had thinned, the usual bustling chaos of the airport reduced to an eerie calm that offered no comfort. The security officers I had silently counted on were nowhere in sight, their absence a cruel betrayal. The air buzzed with the hum of distant conversations, the shuffle of luggage wheels against polished floors, the mindless routine of travelers going about their day—completely oblivious to the fact that I was being dragged toward a fate worse than death. I dug my heels into the floor, my pulse hammering against my ribs, each beat screaming for escape. “Let me go,” I hissed, my voice raw with panic, desperation bleeding through every syllable. His fingers tightened around my wrist, a silent response that chilled me to the bone. He didn’t speak. He didn’t need to. His grip alone was a message—one I couldn’t afford to misunderst
Chapter 0047NO MORE ESCAPE..EVAN,I was pouring myself a drink when the question left my lips, casual in tone but weighted with expectation."Where is Elena?"I had sent a few of my men to keep an eye on her, to report back the moment they had something. Now, standing in my office with the faint clinking of ice against crystal, I waited for their answer.A heavy silence settled over the room. The men before me exchanged hesitant glances, their hesitation a clear sign that I wasn’t going to like what I was about to hear.Finally, one of them stepped forward."Boss," he began, his voice laced with unease, "we’re sorry. We approached her at the airport, but we lost her again."I stilled. The words echoed in my mind, each syllable sharpening the edges of my temper like a dull blade against stone.Lost her. Again.The glass in my hand trembled ever so slightly before I tipped the drink back, letting the burning liquid slide down my throat in one swift gulp. It did nothing to temper the f
Chapter 0087SAVED BY A STRANGERELENA,The man’s words hung in the air, charged with something I couldn’t quite place. They were heavier than I expected, their weight sinking into me like the last moments of a storm, just before the rain finally stops. I was still trying to process everything—his speed, his power, the way he shifted the entire atmosphere with just his presence. Every inch of the room seemed to bend toward him, and for a moment, I couldn’t remember how to breathe. But then his gaze lingered on me, and I noticed a subtle shift in his expression. It was fleeting, but it was there: a flash of something I recognized. Something so familiar, so deeply embedded in my memory that it made my heart skip. It wasn’t a flicker of recognition—no, this was deeper. It was more like a pull in my chest, a tug at my soul. I stared at him, blinking rapidly, trying to make sense of what I was seeing. The man in front of me—his sharp jawline, the intensity of his gaze, the way he stood l
Chapter 86RENEWED HOPE...ELENA,The air grew thick with tension as the man stepped into the dim light. At first, he was just a shadow, a silhouette cutting through the haze, but as he moved closer, his features sharpened. He was tall, broad-shouldered, with sharp, angular lines carved into a face that seemed both familiar and foreign. My eyes struggled to place him, to dig through the haze of memory and confusion and fear. Something about him triggered a strange feeling deep in my chest—a jolt of recognition that didn’t make sense. Who was he? Why did he feel like a name I had once known, spoken in the dark?But more than anything, it was his presence that unsettled me. His very energy thrummed with something primal, dangerous. The way his storm-grey eyes locked onto Jonathan was terrifying—cold, calculating, but also burning with something deeper, something older. I felt it in my gut, like an instinct carved into bone: this man was not to be underestimated. And yet, I wasn’t afraid
Chapter 0085THE END BEGINSELENA, The warehouse was cold—bone-deep, soul-sinking cold. The silence stretched around me like a noose, thick and suffocating, wrapping tighter with each passing second. I sat in the hard metal chair, my wrists bound, the coarse texture of the chains biting into my skin. My hands trembled, though I tried desperately to still them. The faint clinking of the chains echoed off the concrete walls, too loud in the oppressive stillness.Jonathan’s presence loomed before me, his tall frame casting an elongated shadow beneath the flickering overhead light. His gaze, piercing and merciless, landed on me again. I could feel the chill of it against my skin, like ice sliding down my spine. But I refused to look at him. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. Instead, I focused on the shadows pooling in the corners of the room—dark, yawning stretches of black that seemed to breathe with silent menace.Time blurred. Seconds bled into minutes, minutes into a dragging, di
CHAPTER 0084FREEDOMELENA,The car engine rumbled beneath me, its sound a low growl that matched the dark promise in Jonathan’s eyes. The night outside blurred into streaks of black and gray, the headlights cutting through the darkness like a razor. We were speeding away from everything I thought I could trust, everything I once believed was safe.I could still feel the blood on my hands—Evan’s blood. The weight of it was unbearable, as if it had soaked into my very soul. The sensation of his dying body in my arms, his breath faltering as his life drained away, haunted me. The last words he had whispered to me before he died echoed in my mind."Run."But where was I supposed to run now?Jonathan’s gaze was steady, almost predatory, from where he sat across from me. His presence loomed over me, cold and calculated, like a predator studying its prey. His fingers rested casually on his knees, his posture relaxed, as though none of this—none of the devastation he had caused—bothered him
CHAPTER 0083 THE MAN BEHIND THE MASK ELENA, Blood. It hit me first—sharp, metallic, unmistakable. The air thickened with it, seeping into my lungs, into my senses, suffocating. I didn’t need to look to know that Evelyn had cut me. Just enough to hurt. Enough to remind me this nightmare was real. But even that pain didn’t seem to matter. Because standing before me, materializing from the darkness like a ghost, was him. Jonathan. Alive. Smiling. I couldn’t breathe. My body trembled, not from fear, but from the shock of seeing him. This wasn’t possible. I had watched him fall. Watched his world burn to ashes. Yet there he was, standing in front of me, his eyes drinking in my disbelief. “Hello, sweetheart,” Jonathan said, as if nothing had changed, as if years hadn’t passed, as if he’d just returned from a casual business trip and not from the grave. I could barely keep my grip on consciousness. My body was stiff, frozen in place, caught in some cruel illusion.
Chapter 0082ELENA'S PAST.ELENA,Still lost in my thoughts, I noticed a shadow passed behind Evelyn.A tall figure stepped into the light, the realization made my heart stopJonathan.i recognized him in that instant, he had been here before and now here he was again. Tall and broad-shouldered, dressed in charcoal gray, his black hair still sharp at the edges, his jaw just as defined as the day I walked away. But it was his eyes that undid me—icy blue, like a frozen lake just before it shatters. Calculating. Cold. Dangerous.“Hello, Elena,” he said, his voice smooth like silk pulled too tight over a blade.I couldn’t move. I couldn’t think. Every nerve in my body was screaming—but I was frozen in place, trapped in a nightmare that had come back to life.He looked me over slowly, like a collector appraising an artifact he thought lost.“You look… different,” he said with a smirk. “But then again, so do I.”The words, his tone, the very air around him—it all cut deeper than I wanted t
CHAPTER 0081BETRAYED AGAINELENA,The cold had seeped into everything. Not just the air around me—it was inside me, coiled around my ribs, buried deep in my muscles, swimming through my blood like ice water. It had been hours. Or maybe longer. Time had unraveled, stretched thin and meaningless, and I was left trying to grasp onto something real—some thread of thought that could anchor me.But there was nothing. Only pain and silence.The ropes binding me to the chair were no longer just restraints; they were part of me now. Twisted into my flesh. My wrists had gone numb long ago, but I could still feel the phantom pulse of pain where the coarse fibers had carved their signature. My ankles were just as bad—throbbing, raw, and heavy. I’d tried to shift, to move, but even that slight defiance had drained what little energy I had left.I was beyond exhaustion. Dehydrated. Starving. My lips were split open, my throat a desert that begged for water. My head throbbed with a dull pressure, a
CHAPTER 80UNDER ATTACK.ADRIAN,"Boss, maybe we should confirm before heading to the docks—" I said to Evan skeptical about going into the docks without full information."Just drive," Evan barked, cutting me off.His voice was sharp, tight with urgency, leaving no room for argument. The air in the car was thick, charged, and heavy with something just shy of violence. My fingers curled into fists as I stared out the windshield, my heart hammering like a war drum, each beat a reminder of how much time we were wasting.I didn’t argue after that.The tires screeched as he swerved through the late-night traffic, weaving between cars like a predator hunting in the dark. Streetlights flashed past in bursts of white and gold, the reflection shimmering on the wet pavement as we tore forward, leaving nothing but the roar of the engine behind us.I pulled out my phone, fingers moving fast as I dialed.One ring.Two.Three.And then it went up to voicemail.Damn it.I muttered a curse under my
Chapter 0079 A GHOST ELENA, I laid down in the room, my mind filled with who the man was and what he wanted from me. For the first time, I wanted Evan to be here. If he was, he would be able to get me out of here. I was Evan's captive, but I wasn’t locked up with darkness crawling up over me. The darkness had been there, but now— The darkness was worse this time. It wasn’t just an absence of light—it was a presence. Heavy. Watching. I could feel it pressing in, curling around me like an unseen force, suffocating yet intangible. My breath came in shallow gasps, each inhale filling my lungs with the taste of dust and fear. The cold slithered over my skin like skeletal fingers, wrapping around me in a suffocating grip. I drew my knees to my chest, tucking myself into the smallest space possible, as if that could protect me from whatever lurked beyond the void. I didn’t know how long I had been here. Time had ceased to exist in this place. The silence stretched endlessly, coiling