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 0048.CAUGHT IN THE THE STORMELENA,The Reykjavik air was sharp, cutting through my coat like ice-cold daggers, seeping into my skin despite the layers I wore. A gust of wind howled through the narrow streets, rattling the café’s windows behind me as I stepped onto the sidewalk, cradling a steaming cup of coffee in my gloved hands. But the warmth barely touched me. Not the cold, not even the wind, was what unsettled me most. It was the feeling curling in my stomach like a viper coiling tight.Something was wrong.The streets were quiet, the kind of eerie silence that stretched beyond the usual hush of winter nights. A few pedestrians shuffled by, wrapped in thick scarves and heavy coats, heads bowed against the wind. Reykjavik was the perfect city for anonymity, for slipping into the shadows and being no one. That was why I had chosen it. A place where people minded their own business, where I could blend into the background, unnoticed, unseen.But I didn’t feel invisible now
Chapter 0049 BACK HOME. EVAN, She thought she had won. She thought she could disappear, slip away into the world and build a life where I couldn’t reach her. Foolish. I had let her go once. I had watched her run, convinced that if I gave her space, if I let her think she had control, she would come back to me. She hadn’t. And I had spent every second since then making sure that when I finally found her, there would be no more escape. No more running. No more hiding. Now, she sat beside me in the passenger seat of the car, her breath still coming in short, panicked bursts. But before this—before we were on this dark highway leading home—I had found her. She had been halfway across the world. Iceland. A place where she thought I’d never look, where she could vanish in a sea of strangers and cold, endless landscapes. But I had found her anyway. It had taken time, patience, careful planning. A sighting in Reykjavik. A friend who slipped up and mentioned an apartment just outs
Chapter 0050 LET HER GO.... RYAN, I hadn’t heard from Elena since she left. I told myself she was safe, that she had reached wherever she was headed without trouble, but the silence gnawed at me. I had expected at least a message, a call—some sign that she was okay. But there was nothing. School had become an afterthought. I couldn’t concentrate, couldn’t focus on anything other than the growing sense of unease twisting in my gut. I had called my investigator, but she was too far away now, beyond his reach. She had vanished. And my life, once again, felt like it was slipping into misery. Then, out of nowhere, a message came through. Elena: I’m in New York. Meet me at this address. An address followed. My fingers trembled as I read it over and over, my heart hammering in my chest. She had returned? Why? There were so many questions, but I didn’t waste a second. I jumped into my car, gripping the steering wheel so tightly my knuckles turned white. My pulse was racing as I
Chapter 0051 WHERE SHE BELONGS EVAN, The house was silent, save for the rhythmic tapping of rain against the windows. It was the only sound that filled the empty space, the only thing that marked the passing of time. I stood in the hallway, staring at the closed bedroom door—the same one she had locked behind her the moment we stepped inside. She had once called that room her sanctuary. Now, it was a prison of her own making. I could have forced it open. The key sat in the drawer of my study, untouched but always within reach. I had kept it all these years, just in case. A precaution. A promise. It would have been easy to take it out, turn the lock, and end this illusion of control she was clinging to. But I didn’t. Let her have this moment. Let her believe she still had choices. She would come out eventually. With a sigh, I turned and walked toward the bar cart in the corner of the living room. The weight of the whiskey bottle felt familiar in my hands as I poured my
Chapter 0052BETRAYED FOR LOVING..RYAN,The gunshot rang out, deafening in the stillness, cutting through the thick tension like a blade. The sound seemed to echo, stretching time into something slow and distorted. For a second, everything stood still—then Elena gasped, her body jerking violently as the bullet tore through her arm. A sharp whimper of pain escaped her lips as she staggered, clutching her wounded limb. Blood bloomed against her sleeve, dark and spreading fast, staining the fabric in a way that sent panic surging through me.My heart stopped.“Elena!” I lunged forward, catching her just as her knees buckled beneath her. She collapsed into my arms, trembling, her breath coming in shallow, ragged gasps. Her face twisted in pain, her skin already losing color. My hands instinctively pressed against the wound, desperate to stop the bleeding, but the warmth of her blood seeped between my fingers. It was too much. Too fast.Above us, Evan stood with the gun still raised, his
Chapter 0053NOT THE END.RYAN,The sound of Evan’s laughter followed me long after I left. It didn’t just echo in my ears—it crawled under my skin, twisting into something corrosive. It poisoned my thoughts, turned my stomach, and left a bitter taste in my mouth.I had lost everything.Not just my money. Not just my pride.I had lost her.Every step away from that house felt like trudging through quicksand, each movement dragging me deeper into the realization that nothing I had fought for mattered anymore.She had been the only thing that mattered.And she had chosen him.My hands shook as I reached for the car door handle. I could still see her standing there—shoulder brushing against Evan’s as he unraveled the bandage on her arm. The intimacy of the gesture made my chest clench.She had looked at me as if I were nothing.Not the man she had once whispered her secrets to in the dark. Not the man who had risked everything for her. Not the man who had bled for her.Just nothing.A ra
Chapter 0054.THE SEARCH FOR CLOSURE..RYAN,I sat in my car for what felt like hours, staring at nothing, the city lights bleeding into a haze of color through the windshield. The streets outside pulsed with life—cars sped past, their headlights streaking white and red through the rain-slick pavement, and pedestrians huddled under umbrellas, moving through the night without a care. But I was frozen, locked in a moment that refused to let me go.My mind was a storm, tangled in too many thoughts, too many unanswered questions. The betrayal still burned like an open wound, but beneath it was something worse—something deeper.Evan had used me.Not for my money—not really. That had just been a distraction, a trick to keep me looking in the wrong direction while he moved unseen. He had played a bigger game, one I hadn’t even realized I was a part of until it was too late.And Elena…She had been with him the whole time.The thought made my grip tighten on the steering wheel until my knuckl
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
CHAPTER 0078GETTING HER BACK AGAINEVANThe city never truly slept. It breathed, pulsing beneath the surface—hidden in the shadows of back alleys, behind tinted windows, between whispered deals exchanged under flickering neon lights. The underworld never stopped moving.Right now, neither could I.Rage burned through me like wildfire, scorching, relentless. Every inhale stoked the flames, every exhale carried the heat deeper into my bones. My hands ached from clenching my fists too tightly, my jaw locked with barely restrained fury.Elena was gone.And someone was going to bleed for it.I forced my fingers to loosen, letting the weight of the gun in my lap center me. Cold metal. Familiar. An extension of myself, something I could control. But it wasn’t enough—not when fury clawed inside me, desperate to be unleashed.My mind raced through every possibility. Every name, every face that might have dared to take her from me.The list was short. I had made sure of that over the years.Wh
CHAPTER 0077KIDNAPPEDELENA,Darkness. that was Alli saw when I woke up, Thick, suffocating, absolute.Pain radiated from the back of my skull, a deep, pulsing ache that sent nausea rolling through my stomach. It wasn’t just pain—it was a heavy, consuming fog, pressing in from all sides, making it impossible to think clearly. My body felt like dead weight against the cold, unyielding floor, my limbs sluggish and weak, as though I had been unconscious for hours—maybe longer.I tried to move, but every shift sent sharp jolts of agony through me. My fingers twitched against the rough, icy surface beneath me, and a shiver tore through my body. I wasn’t just cold—I was freezing, my thin clothing offering no protection against the chill that seeped into my bones. The air around me was stale, thick with a metallic tang that sent a warning bell ringing in the back of my mind.Blood.The realization sent a fresh wave of panic surging through my veins, tightening around my chest like a vice.
CHAPTER 0076LOST AGAIN.EVANThe rhythmic tap of my fingers against the polished wood of my desk was the only sound in the room. A slow, deliberate beat, like a clock ticking down to some inevitable moment. The air was thick with the scent of expensive leather and aged whiskey, but my mind was elsewhere, sifting through a web of problems that needed solving.Elena was a problem.Evelyn was an even bigger one.And I needed to find a way to silence them both—permanently.The screen of my phone lit up beside me, the faint glow cutting through the dimness. A vibration followed, a subtle hum against the heavy stillness. Business. A distraction. I glanced at the message—a confirmation of a deal that had taken months to close. Millions in negotiation, countless hours spent maneuvering, and now it was mine. A victory, yet it left me hollow. There was no satisfaction, no surge of triumph. Only the gnawing sense that something more pressing loomed in the background, something unfinished.Then
CHAPTER 0075 IN THE DARKNESS. ELENA, The whisper coiled around me like a breath against my skin. "You should have stayed asleep." My stomach clenched, and every muscle in my body locked into place, frozen by something more powerful than fear—dread. Deep, bone-deep dread. The kind that sinks into your marrow and holds you captive. I had tried to turn on the light, but it wasn’t working. I flicked the switch again. Nothing. My fingers trembled as I reached for the lamp instead, its glow weak but steady. It wasn’t much, but it was something. I gripped the lamp tightly, holding it close like a lifeline, my fingers aching from how hard I clutched the ceramic base. The air had changed. Heavy. Humming with something unseen, something wrong. I swallowed hard, forcing a breath into my lungs, but the simple act of breathing felt unnatural. Like I was inhaling something thick and tainted. Maybe I was imagining things. Maybe exhaustion had finally taken its toll, twisting reality into nig
Chapter 0074A LINGERING WARNINGELENA,I pushed the door open, stepping into the dimly lit hallway, my thoughts tangled in the web of lies I had once believed. The house was silent—too silent. The kind of quiet that doesn’t feel natural, like something was missing or waiting, holding its breath in the darkness.Shadows stretched long across the wooden floors, twisting unnaturally under the faint glow of the moon filtering through the windows. The air held a strange stillness, thick and suffocating, as though the walls themselves knew something I didn’t.For the longest time, I had pitied Evan. I had seen him as weak—a man drowning himself in alcohol, retreating into the haze of liquor to forget whatever haunted him. Broken beyond repair. A hollow version of himself.But that had all been a carefully constructed illusion.Evan was never helpless. He was never lost.He had been in control all along.A shiver ran down my spine, curling around my ribs like an unseen hand squeezing until
CHAPTER 0073THE GAME BEGINSEVAN,I heard her leave the house.I had been waiting for this moment. Sitting at the dining table, fingers tapping the polished wood in slow, rhythmic motions, I maintained the illusion of stillness. If anyone had been watching, they would have thought I was lost in thought, perhaps brooding over something entirely unrelated to her. But every breath I took, every fiber of my being, was tuned to her movements.I had known she would try again. It wasn’t a question of if—only when. Elena was many things: stubborn, reckless, restless. But above all, she was predictable when cornered. She hated being caged. She might have convinced herself she needed the walls I had built around her, might have played along for a while, but deep down, she would always test the limits.I had been waiting for the unraveling to begin.It had started in subtle ways, the way all things did with Elena. The way her pacing grew tighter, more erratic. The way her fingers twitched when
CHAPTER 72THE ARRIVAL.ELENA,The car rolled to a stop two blocks away from the house, just outside the range of the security cameras Evan had installed. The ones meant to keep intruders out. The ones that really kept me in.I clenched my hands in my lap, my fingers cold despite the warmth inside the car. Outside, the street was quiet—too quiet. Not the peaceful kind of silence, but the eerie, suffocating kind that filled the air before something terrible happened.Even in the dim glow of the streetlamps, I could still make out the cracks in the pavement, the familiar bends in the sidewalk, the warped wooden fences lining the yards of houses I once thought of as ordinary. But tonight, everything felt different. Foreign. Like I was walking into a place I no longer belonged. Maybe I never truly had.I swallowed hard and reached for the door handle, but hesitation kept me frozen.Evelyn exhaled beside me, her fingers drumming against the steering wheel in a slow, deliberate rhythm. “You