Anastasiya Van Houten.
“ I have a file” I blurted out, barely concealing the desperation in my voice, watching slowly to see if he took the bait. He stared back at me, his face neutral, except for an eyebrow raise, urging me to speak with a wave of his gun. “It’s called Pandora. It contains files on every high end politician or royalty, every single crime they could have committed, every single person and action you can think of ranging from murder to even a mere speeding ticket”. The gleam in his eye could almost be seen from even where I stood despite how hard he tried to mask it. To others he came of as totally unconcerned- disbelieving even but I could tell that even the thought of having that file in his hands made him excited. “Where is this file you speak of” He asked, pointing the gun away from Valencia and towards me. Good. “It’s in my apartment at Fenchurch, I have the apartment keys on me at the moment”. I replied hastily. He nodded before cocking his head towards Agent Fourteen. I glanced to the side, watching as the stupid oaf trotted towards me. “He’s not going to be able to find it on me” I stated, stopping him right in his tracks. “And before I give you the key, you must let Valencia go first”. A sardonic laugh bubbled out of Malcom’s lips for a second before any sign of amusement disappeared completely. “It’s funny how you think you are in a position to negotiate, you either give me the key or I take it from you, dead or alive’. “Tell him where the fucking key is” Malcom gritted out, his voice dark and menacing. “With my experience as an Agent, do you really think I’m going to keep my key in a place where it can be found easily, especially when I have something so valuable in my house” I quipped sarcastically. “It’s in-between the folds of my fucking pussy and I’m pretty sure Agent fourteen wouldn’t fancy fishing for a key in my fucking Vagina. My chest heaved slightly with the intensity of my out burst.”So do me a fucking favor and uncuff me so I can bring the key out. Malcom stood rigid for a moment as if contemplating what to do before he spoke up, nodding at Agent Fourteen to uncuff me. “Any funny business and you are fucking dead”. My wrists trembled as i felt him turn around, the leaves behind me shifting as he crouched down to unlock the cuffs. I rose to my feet, my eyes meeting Valencia’s immediately, I knew she couldn’t hear me but I still spoke to her through my mind, hoping that my eyes could convey what I truly wanted to say. “Be calm” I reached down to undo the buttons of my cargo pants before reaching into my trousers, my hand immediately searched for the second knife I had hidden underneath my pants. Immediately, my hand reached for it, I didn’t hesitate. I flipped it out and with a fast and slick movement, I threw it directly at Malcom. All hell broke loose. The leaves around me practically exploded as my legs moved forward, trying to cross the distance between Valencia and I. I could hear her scream in fear and the rapid sound of gunshots fired at me but I didn’t stop, blood rushed through my veins, numbing everything and every sound. “Shoot her!” Malcom roared, his voice laced with anguish I had barely crossed half of the distance before something struck me, searing pain tearing through my side. I stumbled, but I didn’t stop. My only thought was getting to Valencia. A final shot rang out, the bullet slicing through the air with deadly precision. Time seemed to slow as I hurled myself in front of her with a guttural yell, shielding her with my body. The impact was like a freight train, pushing Malcom back and us forward. Off the cliff, directly into the sea. The air ripped from my lungs as the ground vanished beneath my feet. For a second, everything froze—just me, suspended in a void, before gravity yanked me down. Pain pulsed from the bullet wound, sharp and relentless, but the sensation of falling eclipsed it. The wind roared in my ears, cold and biting, tearing at my skin like claws. I tumbled, unable to tell up from down, the world spinning in a sickening blur of gray and sky. Rocks scraped against me as I hit the cliffside, jagged edges tearing through fabric and flesh. The impacts were brutal, rattling my bones, but the descent didn’t stop. The roar of water grew deafening, and then I hit—icy and unyielding, the river swallowing me whole. The freezing shock slammed into my body, stealing what little air I had left. Everything was dark, muffled, and distant, the pain dulled as I was pulled under, deeper and deeper. I fought for consciousness, but the current was too strong. I was too weak Before my eyes stumbled to a close, I felt a tear drip from my cheek, mingling with the icy seawater. I hoped Valencia would be fine.Anastasiya Van Houten“Anastasiya.”“Anastasiya.”The voice was faint but unmistakable. My head snapped around, searching desperately in the suffocating darkness, which pressed against my skin like a heavy shroud. I reached out blindly, but my hands grasped only empty air.I stood still, waiting for the voice to call out again, but the silence echoed like a drum.“Who’s there?” My voice trembled, barely a whisper, swallowed whole by the void.No reply. Just empty space.My mind whirled in confusion. Where was I?Wasn’t I supposed to be dead? ...Am I dead?Was this what it felt like to be dead?I was lost and confused, suffocating in a darkness that had no end and no beginning. My legs pushed forward—I didn’t know what to do but to keep going, hoping that the voice would sound out again. My skin prickled at the possibility of what lurked in the darkness.As time dragged on, I could feel each step getting heavier than before, so much so that I struggled to lift my legs. Huffs escaped my
Anastasiya Van Houten My breaths came out in harsh, heavy pants as I shot upright, my chest burning as I gulped greedily for air. I was drowning. My hand immediately reached for my throat, rubbing it furiously, trying to ease the burning sensation. My skin felt clammy, and my hair was all over the place—wild strands clinging to my face and slipping into my mouth. I swiped them all away, taking a moment to steady myself before my eyes finally focused, and reality came flooding back. It was a dream. All of It. A horrible nightmare. My hands shook as I rubbed my temples in a bid to ease my throbbing head. Where was I? What was going on? Despite the worry etched on my face, my instincts kicked in, and I found myself glancing around the room, eager to identify where I was, to keep myself grounded. I was at a hospital. The strong smell of antiseptics lingered, just as potent as the loud and obnoxious beeping of the heart monitor beside me. A dreadful thought rushed throug
Anastasiya Van HoutenMy vision blurred, the overlapping voices blending into a chaotic mess. I tried to latch onto one voice, but they all jumbled together into incoherence."It's me, Hannah.""What are you feeling, princess?""Could she have internal bleeding?""What's your full name?""Enough," I gritted out, my voice sharp with exasperation. The confusion was unbearable, my patience fraying by the second.The room fell silent. The expectant and curious looks on their faces dissolved into hesitation as if they could sense the frustrated energy radiating from me. I was seconds away from smashing something and forcing someone to explain why I was in this godforsaken hospital room."I'm sorry, Your Majesty. I just—" the crying woman began but was swiftly cut off by the doctor."Let's not overwhelm her with too much information," he said, stepping toward me with measured caution. "I understand what you're feeling, Miss Nightingale."I eyed him warily as he continued, "Do we have you
Anastasiya Van Houten"Come on Anastasiya" I growled, forcing my legs to take another step. How did someone like me, who leapt from crazy heights, who jumped meters in a single leap be reduced to this?? A bumbling and confused doofus who couldn't even take a fucking step toward a mirror that was less than ten steps away. The frustration and anger that I had been bottling up seemed to have found a way out of its lid and was now threatening to engulf me as a whole. My legs felt like jelly, the bandage around my head was constricting, I could barely see anything, Fuck. I was in the middle of nowhere. My fingers curled tightly around the bedpost as I leaned against it, taking a small breather. Beads of sweat dribbled down my face before falling silently onto the sleeves of this drab and dreary hospital gown. Where was Valencia? She is the only person that can clarify this misconception. Was she all right? I honestly didn't know why I was so worried about her, I didn't even know
Anastasiya Van Houten.Once again, i was lost. My reality sucked out of me and hurled into this nightmarish limbo, an eternal vortex of confusion...wonder, a grappling sense of loss of identity. I needed a line, a very broad one. One that explained where Valencia began and where i ended. I wasn’t a very religious person and i didn’t believe in miracles or special happenings that had no cause or explanation. Everything that happens around you, even down to the smallest detail was orchestrated by someone’s actions or words.Smart and Logical. It wasn’t until you were finally standing right infront of it, stuck in an endless road with zero possibilities, trying to make sense and put logic to words and try to create a plausible explanation that it finally hit you. Not everything has an answer or a cause. What ever you think you have figured out, that very answer you think you’ve found after years of searching.It’s always wrong.You’re always wrong.I stood rooted to the spot, my brea
Anastasiya Van Houten.Malcom Reece was holding me.Malcom Reece was holding me...His grip was firm but careful, as though he had caught me mid-fall and was still holding on.Why?How was he here? Why was I in his arms?My blood ran cold. Terror gripped me like a vice, tightening around my ribs, making it impossible to move. I couldn’t do anything but lay in his arms. I couldn't even breathe right without sounding like a dying and wheezing seagull.I should shove him away. I should run. But I couldn’t—not just because my body refused to cooperate, but because of the way he was looking at me.His expression was unreadable, but something flickered behind his gaze, something I couldn’t decipher.Softness.As if I were something precious to him.Hope. Care. Longing.The sheer audacity of it nearly knocked the breath from my lungs.I was paralyzed, not just from the shock of waking up in his arms but from the creeping realization that I couldn’t move.I had lost all feeling in my lower li
Anastasiya Van Houten He stood at the far end of the room, like a predator watching his prey, his keen interest could have easily been mistaken as concern. Even when the doctors and nurses rushed in to check on me, he remained. Back against the wall, watching me with beady eyes. Stepping up multiple times to remind the nurses to be gentle. The old Anastasiya would never have settled for this. Within minutes, there would have been a bloodbath—either Malcolm died, or we both did. No time for pretense. That Anastasiya had never felt this vulnerable before. It wasn't every day you switched souls with the fiancée of a man you had every intention of killing. Every inhale, every twitch of my fingers, every flicker of emotion that crossed my face—it was all being analyzed, dissected, and tucked away for later. He was testing me. And I couldn’t fail. So I played my part. I kept my shoulders slack, my expression carefully blank, my eyes clouded with just the right amount of uncer
Anastasiya Van Houten His answer settled bitterly in the room like a dark and heavy cloud.Something ugly slithered between us like a living thing. We were both wearing air tight masks despite how constricting it was for us to breathe, despite the fact that the mask dug into our faces, scarring the flesh beneath."What do you mean?" I asked tentatively, a true part of me was really scared to hear his answer. Was he giving up his façade already? Had he found out?His taut and broad back twitched as he palmed the door. But he wasn't debating his next move—no, he was calculating. Weighing his options. Waiting for me to slip up, just as he had been since the moment I opened my eyes in this unfamiliar body.Finally, after what felt like an eternity, he turned fully to face me. His lips parted, and when he spoke, his voice was calm, measured, like a man retelling a story he had rehearsed a hundred times before."You were attacked," he said, his gaze locking onto mine as his fist tightened
Valencia Nightingale.Anatoly didn't speak as he dragged me back through the pristine, endless hallways of Vladislav's villa— he didn't need to.His silence was loud enough to send his message clearly.His fury was evident, so visible, i could cut through it with a butter knife. It was practically vibrating from his massive body, as if every step he took barely contained the storm building inside him.I almost pitied him.Key word—almost.But right now? I was too high on adrenaline.And victory.A small, triumphant grin played at the corner of my mouth as I allowed myself to be dragged along. My shoulder still ached and after my scruffle with those guards earlier, the ache had intensified, spreading down my arm, numbing my forearm.But none of that mattered.I had done it.I had gotten Vladislav's attention.Not just a passing glance.Not just idle curiosity.But genuine interest.I had forced him to see meAnd Anatoly? He hated it.I could practically hear his teeth grinding behind t
Valencia Nightingale True to his words, I had no choice but to take in every crap and piss they gave me and swallow it without complaining. I spent my night pressed against the door, counting the number of footsteps that echoed as someone walked by, trying to keep the memory of the twists and turns that led to Vladislav’s office fresh and clear in my head. I even stole a paper off the desk and mapped the entire area I walked through with that brute in case I forgot anything. You know what they say? Two times the charm. I was going to put in all my effort to convince Vladislav again. Maybe my argument wasn't solid enough the last time. By the time dawn rolled in, I'd already memorized every inch of the room. Every crack in the walls. Every angle of the windows. Every guard rotation that I could hear just beyond the thick mahogany door. There was no clear path to my destination. If I was planning on escaping, it would have been much easier, but escaping was the last thing on my
Valencia Nightingale A soundless gasp escaped my lips as my back hit the bed, knocking the wind right out of me. Pain bloomed instantly around my shoulder, numbing my arm. I groaned through gritted teeth, trying to steady myself as my shoulder burned with raging intensity, every nerve screaming in protest. "Fuck," I seethed, tears stinging my eyes before they shot up to the looming brute hovering over me at the edge of the bed. "I'm going to—" "No," he growled, cutting my words in half. "You know what you're going to do?" His tone was sharp and direct, meant to slice. The question was rhetorical, the kind that didn't require an answer, just submission. And I definitely wasn't submitting to no man. Anger rolled off him in thick waves, raising the temperature of the already suffocating room. It pressed against my skin and seemed to block my airways. I inhaled slowly, tasting the faint metallic tang of blood on the back of my tongue. My pulse hammered in my ears, each beat a remi
Valencia Nightingale"You didn’t think I saved you because I wanted to help you, did you?"His words replayed in my head, dull and throbbing like a pulsing migraine, words uttered so carelessly that one wouldn't be able to detect the cruel intent behind them. I could almost taste the smirk behind his stone-cold face.Every ounce of the previous warmth I had so desperately sought out, in an attempt to make him appear more humane, vanished before my eyes.A cold sensation settled in my stomach. I couldn’t stuff down the bitter emotion rising to the surface of my throat.Disappointment."Then why did you save me?"Vladislav exhaled through his nose, the faintest trace of amusement flickering across his face. He tilted his head slightly, studying me as if I were an interesting puzzle piece that had landed in his lap.“To use you as an exchange for something I want from him.”The words were spoken with such nonchalance that it took me a moment to fully register them.I stared at him, my mi
Valencia Nightingale. The aroma of dark, rich, traditional coffee wafted through my nostrils as I sat stiffly opposite Vladislav in his office. The scent of coffee, though quite mouthwatering, did nothing to distract me from the undeniably and unreasonably attractive man before me. In all my twenty-three years of living, I had never once looked at a man and thought, "Wow, this man is attractive". But sitting here, despite fuming with anger, that very single thought kept running through my mind. His face was undeniably carved from stone, his features sharp and intimidating, but as I stared longer, watching him through keen eyes as he combed through a bunch of files on his desk, he looked somewhat softer. Maybe it was the bold ray of sun that reflected through the glass windows or the fact that I might have sustained a brutal concussion from that humongousaur attack, but I found myself noticing the way freckles danced across the bridge of his nose—slightly crooked. Long, shoulder
Valencia Nightingale.My mind churned with plans.I knew Valencia had given me the chance to live my life in her name, but the guilt clawing at my chest wouldn’t subside until I destroyed everyone who had hurt her.And my pride as well—I would never let Malcom and Maxwell Richter get away with what they did to me.The pieces were aligning, but not fast enough. I needed a strategy, a foothold—something to ensure that when I made my move, it would be absolute. Vladislav was the key, but the lock was still uncertain. How could I manipulate a man who had built an empire without ever picking a side?I could tell he wasn't the type of man to be swayed by carnal desires; otherwise, I could have used femininity to sway him.Bargain? I didn't even own shit.My mind was so lost in thought that I didn’t notice the shift in the room’s atmosphere.Not until a shadow moved.A presence, silent and dominating, filled the space.My eyes snapped up, landing on the massive figure standing near the do
Valencia Nightingale.An almost inaudible groan left my lips as I turned my head to the side, my eyes fluttering open. A thick fog clung to my consciousness, heavy and uneven. My mind felt slow, buffering up my memories as i lay still.I blinked a few times, my vision sharpening finally as I glanced around before latching onto the faint glow of the morning sun filtering through the tiny space between the heavy curtains on the left side of the bed.Where the fuck am I?I lifted my arm, fingers moving sluggishly to rub at my eyes, willing away the lingering itch of exhaustion. The feeling of silk on my bare skin was soft—too soft. A luxury compared to the life I had always been living.My brows furrowed as I finally took in my surroundings.I was lying in a bed. A massive bed.Massive enough that I felt like a grain of sand lost in a desert.I turned my head, my gaze trailing across the endless expanse of dark sheets, the plush pillows, and the intricately carved headboard that loomed
Hi, Lovelies. This is Rahma, the author of Retribution, and if you find yourself here, skimming through this authors note, then I'm really happy and grateful that you read my story. Please tell me what you think, what you find confusing, and your general thoughts about my book and your favorite characters so far. Thank you. *VERY IMPORTANT. MUST READ* As of this stage in the book, Anastasiya has fully accepted her role and her new life as Valencia. Anastasiya Van Houten is dead, and as that, I will no longer be writing in her point of view. She will now be addressed as Valencia as I continue with this book. Forever. I hope this clears the air, and you won't be confused when you read the next chapter, and it's in Valencia Nightingale's point of view. I love you all, and thank you for reading my book. Don't forget to give me a review and tell me your honest thoughts. With much love. Rahma♡
Anastasiya Van Houten.Have you ever been on meth before?That creeping sensation when the drug seeps into your system, twisting reality at the edges. Your vision distorts, colors sharpen, and suddenly, you’re soaring through galaxies—spinning, weightless, untethered. The world bends, warps, shifts into something unnatural.And yet, somewhere deep inside, you accept it.That eerie, almost serene acceptance.That was exactly how it felt now.And as I found myself, laying in the middle of a field, the rays of the warm yet blinding sun casting a golden hue across my face, obscuring my vision for a moment. The scent of wet grass, clung to my nose, wafting up my senses, providing a vivid imagery to the world I found myself in this time.I didn’t struggle, jump into a whirlwind of questions as I had done before, I silently accepted that I was in another dimension, maybe in the middle of the milky way, A dimension that was neither a dream nor reality. Despite the sheer absurdity, I felt that