Evelyn felt the world tilt beneath her feet. Her breath came in short, sharp gasps as her mind raced, struggling to process the words that had just left Lilly’s mouth.What does she mean by ‘I raised her’? Evelyn’s fingers trembled as she clutched at her dress, her heartbeat thundering in her ears. My Lilly died. I buried her. The memory flashed in her mind like a cruel ghost—the small, lifeless body, the burial, the grief that had consumed her. I buried her. My baby is dead.Her throat closed up, panic clawing at her chest. What the fuck is going on?Her eyes locked onto Lilly, searching for a lie, for some twisted explanation. She said she’s Lilly… not Liliana. How is that even possible? Evelyn’s mind spiraled further. Is she trying to claim her twin’s identity? Is this one of the side effects of what David DeLuka did to her?The room felt like it was closing in on her.“No…” she whispered, shaking her head, her hands curling into fists. “No, this isn’t possible.”But Lilly’s gaze d
Ray’s heart pounded so violently against his ribs that he thought it might break through his chest. His hands curled into fists at his sides as his mind struggled to wrap around what he had just heard.No.No, this wasn’t happening.It couldn’t be happening.“So you’re telling me—” His voice was dangerously low at first, almost eerily calm. But then, all at once, the dam broke.“You’re telling me that you’re not my wife?!” Ray’s voice shot up, raw with disbelief and something dangerously close to panic. His eyes burned into Lilly as though searching for any sign that she was joking, that this was some cruel, twisted prank.But Lilly didn’t waver.Ray let out a harsh, humorless laugh. “Baby girl, are you sure you’re alright?” His jaw clenched so tightly it ached. “Because none of this shit makes any sense!” He ran a frustrated hand through his hair, pacing back and forth like a man trying to outrun his own thoughts.“Lilly and Liliana are the same person!” he snapped, turning back to h
Lilly’s breathing was uneven, her hands trembling at her sides. The frustration, the helplessness, the sheer disbelief on everyone’s faces—it was suffocating.But Ray’s reaction? That cut the deepest.She looked at him, her eyes dark with hurt. “Are you seriously using this as an excuse to make me forget about you cheating on me?” she demanded, her voice raw with emotion.Ray’s eyes widened in shock. “What?” His voice cracked slightly, but then his expression twisted into something both pained and frustrated. “Baby, what the hell are you talking about?”Lilly took a shaky step forward, her hands clenched into fists. “You don’t believe me,” she choked out. “You think I’m insane. So what’s next, huh? You’ll start looking for comfort somewhere else? Someone more stable?”Ray’s chest tightened.How the hell had things gotten to this point?“Wifey, I didn’t cheat on you,” he said, his voice low but desperate. He took a step closer, but Lilly took one back, and it was like a knife twisting
But before he could finish, Lilly flinched and slapped his hand away.“Stop touching me,” she said, her voice colder than he expected.Ray blinked, taken aback. “Lilly…”She took a step back, shaking her head. “I just—I need to go for a walk right now.”Ray frowned, his gut twisting uneasily. “Baby, come on, don’t do this—”But Lilly was already turning away.Evelyn’s voice, soft yet firm, stopped her in her tracks.“Liliana.”Lilly closed her eyes briefly at the sound of her full name, inhaling sharply before turning back.Evelyn stepped closer, her gaze heavy with something unreadable. “Baby, look into my eyes and tell me…” Her voice wavered slightly. “What happened on your tenth birthday?”Lilly frowned. “What?”“If you’re really my Lilly,” Evelyn said, her voice thick with emotion, “tell me what happened that day.”Lilly’s chest tightened. She let out a dry, humorless laugh. “Really now, Mother?”Evelyn didn’t answer.Lilly looked away, her fingers curling into fists at her sides.
A thick, suffocating silence.Evelyn let out a shaky breath, nodding slowly, tears still dripping down her chin. “You are really my Lilly,” she choked out. “Oh my God.” She covered her mouth with both hands, her body shaking. “No one else knew. It was just us. Just me and you.”Lilly’s lips parted, but no words came out.Ray, however, took a sharp step back. His head spun.What the hell was happening?A heavy silence pressed down on the room like a thick fog, suffocating, unrelenting.Mitchell leaned back slightly, exhaling through her nose. Her sharp eyes flickered between Evelyn and Lilly before she gave a slow nod.“With the way she told that story, the details, the raw emotion…” Mitchell shook her head. “It’s obvious she’s telling the truth. Someone who wasn’t there wouldn’t have known all that.”Evelyn’s breath hitched, fresh tears sliding down her already damp cheeks. She pressed a trembling hand to her mouth, barely able to contain the sob threatening to break free.“I had two
Ray’s hands clenched into fists, his entire body thrumming with frustration. He didn’t care who was in the room or what anyone else had to say—he needed answers. His voice, when it finally broke through the heavy silence, was sharp, demanding.“I get that she has a story to tell. Everyone has a damn story to tell.” His eyes burned into Evelyn before flickering toward Lilly, searching, pleading. “She’s been through hell, I get that. But my concern—no, my main concern—at this very moment is this: How the hell is this even possible? How is my wife claiming to be her own twin?” His voice cracked slightly, but he pushed forward.“Because it’s obvious, isn’t it? Her twin was Lilly.” He turned to Mitchell, as if waiting for her to confirm the obvious truth. “And the woman I knew, the woman I fell in love with, the woman I married—” His voice softened, almost breaking. “She was Liliana Anderson.”His gaze swung back to Lilly, a storm raging behind his eyes. “So how is this possible?” He took
Ray flinched.Lilly blinked.Evelyn wiped at her tears, but even she looked taken aback by the question.Mitchell wasn’t done.She pinched the bridge of her nose, muttering under her breath before shaking her head. “No, no. Let me get this straight.” She turned fully toward Lilly now, eyes narrowed in confusion. “You died. Then you woke up in another body. But that body also belongs to you because it was your twin’s. So technically, you’re alive.”Lilly hesitated before giving a small nod.Mitchell’s eye twitched.“So then…” she exhaled sharply, rubbing at her temples. “Does that mean my grandchild is going to come from a dead woman? Or a half-dead woman? Or… wait, are you dead or alive?”Ray let out a slow, suffering breath.Lilly pressed her lips together tightly, but inside her mind, Lia lost it.“Oh my god, I told you she was funny!” Lia cackled.Lilly nearly choked trying to suppress a Lia. Her laugher was kind of annoying, does she know that she even in someone’s body damn it?M
Lilly’s pulse thundered in her ears. The hand on her shoulder felt heavier than it should, as if it carried the weight of something beyond the physical. She couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think.Lia.Nothing.Lia! she screamed internally, panic lacing every syllable.Silence stretched.Then, finally—“He’s the master. The psycho scientist.”Lia’s voice was barely above a whisper, but it carried the weight of something dark.Lilly’s stomach twisted. Master?She swallowed hard, her gaze locking onto the man before her.His face. His eyes. His presence.Recognition slammed into her like a train wreck.David Deluca. The name Evelyn uttered earlier.A name she had only heard in hushed tones, wrapped in secrecy and fear.The man who played god with human lives.The scientist who had turned bodies into experiments. Who had engineered horrors beyond comprehension.Lilliana’s nightmare.Who had, in some way, been connected to everything.Her lips parted, her breath shallow. “You—”David smiled. A
Fairy tales didn’t exist. Ray had always known that. And yet, he had let himself believe. Believe that after everything, he could finally have his happy ending. That Lily would come back, that they would put all the chaos behind them and just… be. But four months had passed. Four months, and she was nowhere to be found. And in those four months, she had caused more destruction than she probably even realized. The Anderson family was gone. The Manchester family had been silenced. The power structures that once dictated everything had crumbled beneath the weight of her actions. And yet, the world had gone eerily quiet. The media barely spoke about it. There were no reports, no scandalous headlines, no outrage. It was as if the universe had conspired to erase all traces of her, making her untouchable. He couldn’t reach her. He couldn’t speak to her. He couldn’t even see her. It was hell. And the worst part? It was starting to feel like the version of hell he had
The silence stretched between them.Lilly and Jerry—two people who had seen death, caused death, lived among death—now sat here, unable to make sense of the one loss that actually hurt.Lilly swallowed the lump in her throat.“I thought I could tell you that time would heal this. That one day, you’d wake up, and the pain would be gone.”Jerry gave her a hollow stare, waiting for her to continue.“But that would be a lie.”Her voice broke slightly, but she pushed through.“The truth is… you won’t wake up one day and magically feel okay. You’ll carry this pain with you. Every damn day.”Jerry’s jaw clenched. He knew that already, he knows deep down he will never get over losing his love right before it could even blossom.Lilly reached out and placed a hand over his.“But you’ll learn to live with it,” she whispered. “Because that’s what Chloe would have wanted. She didn’t fight this hard, endure this much, just for either of us to fall apart when she’s gone.”Jerry let out a ragged bre
Ray stared at her, his heart pounding in his chest.“One… m-m-month?” His voice cracked. “That’s too much, wifey.”His grip on her hands tightened, as if afraid that if he let go, she would disappear before his eyes.Lilly’s lips trembled, but she held her ground.“At least this way, you won’t be married to a woman who is mentally unstable, Ray,” she said softly. “And worse—a woman who shares her new body with her dead twin’s split personality.”Ray’s body stiffened.“Split what?” His brows furrowed, convinced he had misheard.Lilly sighed, wiping the stray tear that escaped her eye. “I’m sure you’ve already guessed it, Ray. You’ve seen it. You’ve felt it. Lia and I… we aren’t just one person. And I need to do this—for myself, for you, and for our baby.”Her voice wavered.“I need to be able to give you the same love you’ve given me. To birth our baby in a safe place. Please, Ray… please.” She squeezed his hands, her tears falling freely now.Ray felt something twist in his chest.Lil
The room felt unbearably heavy.Jerry sat still, his elbows on his knees, his head in his hands.And then, without warning—A sob tore through him.“Haaaaaa~~~” he yelled out. For the first time in life he felt like someone was trying to zap life out of him.The kind that clawed out from the depths of his soul, ripping past the walls he had spent years building.Tears streamed down his face. He didn’t even bother to wipe them.This wasn’t grief.This was devastation.This was an unbelievable moment, it was only aFew days ago that he realized the extend of his live for Chloe and now she dead.Dead just like that.This was the feeling of watching the one person who made life feel like more than just blood and war—slip through his fingers.He had lost Chloe.And now, what was left of him?Nothing.Nothing but this unbearable silence, this emptiness that no amount of vengeance could ever fill.He clenched his fists.He had always thought himself untouchable, someone who laughed in the fa
The room was too quiet.The kind of silence that made the air feel heavier, pressing against their chests like an unbearable weight.Lilly sat frozen, her eyes staring into nothing.She wasn’t crying. She wasn’t speaking.She just sat there, lost in the void.Ray was right behind her, not touching, not speaking just there.Because what could he say? What could he do?There were no words for grief like this. No bandage for wounds that cut this deep.On the other side of the room, Jerry knelt beside Chloe’s bed, his hands gripping hers with a desperation that made his knuckles turn white.His lips moved, whispering something under his breath.A prayer.Jerry Manchester the man who had never feared death, who had laughed in the face of danger—was now begging.To a God he didn’t even believe in.“Please—”His voice cracked, his fingers tightening around Chloe’s.“Please, don’t take her.”Tears burned at the corners of his eyes, but he refused to let them fall.He didn’t cry. Not Jerry Man
The scent of iron was thick in the air.Lilly’s eyes, cold and unyielding, swept across the men standing by. Their hesitation irritated her.“What the hell are you all waiting for?” Her voice cracked through the tense silence, sharp as a whip.The men snapped to attention.“Get him out of there. Now.”She didn’t need to say it twice.Two men rushed forward, reaching into the trunk and dragging David Deluca’s battered body out. His weight was dead, limp, his blood smearing against their gloves.“Take him to Damon.”Her tone left no room for argument.The men moved swiftly, disappearing into the building with their barely breathing cargo.Lilly stood still, her breathing measured, her fingers clenched so tightly her nails bit into her palms.She should feel satisfaction.But for some reason—She didn’t.Inside, the air was suffocating.The rhythmic beeping of the life support machine filled the room—until suddenly, the sound changed.The sharp, rapid BEEP—BEEP—BEEP sliced through the ai
Lilly inhaled sharply.Ray cursed under his breath.Jerry looked up, his expression wild, desperate. “We need to stop the bleeding!”But his hands were unsteady, his mind a mess.Lilly took over.“Move,” she ordered, her voice firm.Jerry hesitated, unwilling to let go, but Ray grabbed his shoulder, pulling him back.“Let her work.”Lilly worked fast, grabbing supplies from the medical kit. She cut away the fabric around the wound, assessing the damage. The bullet hadn’t passed through it was lodged inside.“Shit.”With gloved hands, she cleaned around the wound, applying pressure to slow the bleeding. Her movements were steady, precise years of training kicking in.Jerry could barely breathe.“Is she going to be okay?” His voice cracked.Lilly didn’t answer immediately. She grabbed a hemostatic gauze and pressed it firmly against the wound.“This will slow it down until Damon gets here,” she murmured.Ray kept his focus on Jerry, who looked like a man on the verge of breaking.“She’l
The shockwave rattled the car, and Chloe instinctively ducked.“What the fuck—?!” Jerry shouted, glancing at the rearview mirror.One of the enemy vehicles was now a burning wreck.And behind it—The Alpha Team had arrived.Meanwhile, in the Shooter’s Car…Matt watched in horror as one of their vehicles went up in flames.He gritted his teeth, his fingers digging into the seat.“Stop shooting!” he roared.His men hesitated, confused.But one look at Matt’s expression—twisted with fury and frustration—was enough to make them obey.Clark, sitting beside him, turned with a scowl.“Boss, I thought you said they wouldn’t have backup until we reached the city.”Matt’s jaw clenched. His hands balled into fists.“Well, are you fucking blind?” he snapped. “Or just too dumb to realize we’re already in the city?”Clark stiffened.“They own this place,” Matt muttered, his voice low and furious. “This is their fucking territory.”Clark exhaled sharply, running a hand down his face.“Then why the h
Jerry’s hands gripped the steering wheel tighter, his knuckles turning white. His mind was spinning, Chloe’s words echoing in his head.“You never miss a chance to make me feel like an object.”“But guess what, Jerry? I’m not an object.”His jaw clenched.“When have I ever treated you like an object?” he asked, his voice unusually quiet—almost confused.Chloe scoffed, rolling her eyes.Jerry, however, wasn’t done.His mind raced, trying to piece together where the hell he had gone wrong. Is that why she won’t give me a chance? Does she really think I see her that way?For the first time in his life, Jerry Mancini found himself questioning his own actions.And in doing so—He completely forgot they were being followed.A loud bang erupted behind them, and the car jolted violently to the side.Chloe snapped her head around, eyes widening as she saw the dark SUV gaining on them, its headlights like glowing eyes in the night.“Jerry, focus!” she shouted.Jerry’s head whipped back toward t