Chapter: Chapter one hundred and forty sixTheo’s POVEvening came too soon.Sofia was already ready, baby Martha bundled up in her arms. The sight of them by the door, prepared to leave, made something in my chest tighten. I wasn’t the type to dwell on emotions, but this—this was different.I couldn’t believe this was happening. I couldn’t believe I wouldn’t get to watch my daughter grow.I might miss her first babbling, the first time she sits up, the moment she learns to crawl, her first steps—every milestone, every little thing that parents are supposed to witness. I might miss all of it.And the worst part? I had no one to blame but myself.Sofia adjusted Martha’s blanket, making sure she was warm. She hadn’t said much since we got back from the hospital. She barely looked at me unless necessary, keeping her focus on Martha. I understood why. I hadn’t given her much reason to believe in me—to believe in us.But now, with them standing at the door, ready to leave, I felt something close to desperation clawing at my chest.
Last Updated: 2025-07-03
Chapter: Chapter one hundred and forty fiveThe next morning, I woke up feeling like a stranger in my own life. The weight in my chest hadn’t lifted. It was still there, heavy and suffocating, but I had to keep moving. I couldn't afford to stop.I dragged myself out of bed, my body aching as I made my way to the bathroom. The shower water hit my skin like a cold reminder of everything I was leaving behind. I let it run over me, trying to wash away the exhaustion, the pain, the fear. It didn't help.Once I was done, I dressed quickly. A simple outfit, nothing too fancy. I didn’t have the energy for anything else.The hospital. I had to get Martha. She was strong now. No longer in the NICU. She was ready to leave.I picked up my phone and called a cab. I couldn’t drive, not with the way my hands were shaking. The thought of Theo following me made my stomach tighten, but there was nothing I could do. He was a part of this now.I heard a knock on the door just as I was finishing up. I opened it to see him standing there.He didn’t
Last Updated: 2025-07-03
Chapter: Chapter one hundred and forty four Sofia's POVManchester.A fresh start. A life away from the blood, the lies, and the war that had shaped every part of me.It was what I wanted.Wasn’t it?I looked down at my hands, my fingers still curled into fists. I forced them to relax.I should have been relieved. The contract was over. The chains that had bound me to him were gone. I could walk away, take Martha, and never look back.But instead of relief, all I felt was… empty.I lifted my eyes to him. His expression was blank, but I knew him well enough to see what he wasn’t saying.He meant it this time. He was letting me go.No more fights. No more power plays. No more waiting for him to change the rules.I swallowed, my throat tight.This was it. The moment I had fought for, the moment I had dreamed of.So why did it feel like my chest was caving in?I forced myself to speak. “You really set everything up.”His nod was almost imperceptible. “You and Martha will have everything you need.”I hesitated. “And you?”He exhaled
Last Updated: 2025-07-03
Chapter: Chapter one hundred and forty threeThree Days LaterThe air was thick with grief. The cemetery was silent except for the occasional rustle of wind through the trees, the distant sound of birds chirping—too peaceful for a day like this.Two graves.Two names carved into stone.Martha Rodriguez.Javier Vargas.One was my mother. The other was the man I had killed.Sofia stood beside me, dressed in black, her face unreadable. She hadn’t spoken much since I told her we would be burying them together, giving her father the funeral he had been denied. I wasn’t sure how she felt about it.Maybe she didn’t know either.She had barely looked at me since that night in the NICU. Since I had finally let her go.I glanced down at the caskets. One was polished mahogany, sleek and expensive—exactly what my mother would have wanted. The other was simpler, darker, almost as if it carried the weight of the sins attached to it.Javier Vargas had died a traitor. A man I had buried in secrecy.Now, he was finally being laid to rest.Sofia
Last Updated: 2025-07-03
Chapter: Chapter one hundred and forty twoOne Week LaterMartha was still in the NICU. She was stronger than she had been, her tiny body fighting every single day, but she was still so fragile.Sofia never left her side.She sat in the recliner beside the incubator, eyes locked on our daughter. Her body was still recovering, her movements slow and careful, but she didn’t seem to care. The doctors and nurses had to remind her to rest, to eat, but she only did so reluctantly, as if every second away from Martha was a second wasted.And me?I stood just outside the room, watching.I had been inside, had held Martha once under Sofia’s insistent gaze, but I still couldn’t shake the fear that gripped me whenever I looked at her.She was so small. Too small.What if I wasn’t enough?What if I failed her, the same way I had failed Javier?The guilt sat heavy in my chest, an anchor I couldn’t shake.“Rodriguez.”I stiffened at the voice behind me and turned to see Dr. Reyes watching me with a knowing expression. He was an older man, h
Last Updated: 2025-07-03
Chapter: Chapter one hundred and forty oneTwo Days LaterSofia had improved. Her color was better, her strength returning bit by bit. She still moved slowly, but there was determination in her every action.And today, she was ready.I had done everything to delay this moment. Avoided every conversation about when she could see the baby. But the doctor had given his approval this morning, and there was no stopping her now.Me?I hadn’t even gone to the NICU.I told myself it was because Sofia should see the baby first. That she should have that moment before anyone else.But deep down, I knew the truth.I couldn’t bring myself to face the child.Because what story could I tell them?That they were born from violence? That their existence was a cruel twist of fate? That the first breath they took in this world was surrounded by tragedy?I didn’t even know the baby’s gender.Sofia didn’t notice my hesitation. She was too focused on getting out of bed, on making it to the wheelchair the nurse had brought in. Her fingers trembled
Last Updated: 2025-07-03
His Terms, My Surrender: Unfinished Surrender
Five years ago, Sofia walked away, vowing never to look back. She built a life of her own—one filled with freedom, color, and the one person who truly matters: her daughter, Martha. A little girl who only knows her father through a screen. FaceTime calls filled with awkward silences, a man who feels more like a shadow than a parent.
But now, Theo Rodriguez is here. In the flesh.
For the first time, Martha will see her father face-to-face.
For the first time, Sofia will have to confront the man who once owned her body and nearly broke her soul.
Theo says he’s here for their daughter, but Sofia knows better. He has always played by his own rules—dangerous, possessive, and unwilling to let go.
She thought she had escaped his grasp.
She thought the past was behind her.
But when an ominous message arrives—You think this story is over?—Sofia realizes some devils never truly let go.
And Theo Rodriguez might be the only man who can keep her and Martha safe.
But at what cost?
Will she surrender to him again… or finally break free?
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Chapter: Chapter Forty"You have twenty-four hours to decide. One day. You will follow the easy route—on the plane with Martha, willingly, to a secured residence in New York—or we go the hard way. The paperwork is already drawn up for the emergency protective custody order. I simply sign it, and you lose everything. Choose wisely, Sofia. This is the last choice you get to make."He didn't wait for my response. He shoved himself away from the wall, his power suddenly massive and overwhelming, and stalked away, his long strides carrying him down the stairs. The heavy thud of the front door closing moments later was the only sound, leaving the entire house to vibrate with the residue of his anger.I stood there, paralyzed, listening to the silence.Twenty-four hours.He had given me a deadline, a terrifying window of control before he erased my entire world. He didn't know that twenty-four hours was all I needed.My breath finally hitched, but I wasn't crying. I was calculating.New York. The word felt like a
Last Updated: 2026-01-27
Chapter: Chapter Thirty NineSofia’s PoVThe question—a choice between two nightmares—hung in the air, thick with the scent of his cruel authority. My lungs burned, but before I could summon a retort, before I could choose a lesser evil, a sound cut through the toxic silence.Soft, sleepy footsteps padded down the wooden stairs.“Mummy? Daddy?”My head snapped toward the sound. Martha.She stood halfway down the staircase, rubbing her eyes with the heel of her hand. Her face was pale, and her brow was furrowed with the kind of confusion only a child detects when the adults are playing a dangerous game.“Are you fighting?” she whispered, her small voice terrified and small in the expansive, angry hallway.The sheer, immediate terror on my face must have been enough.Theo recoiled instantly, stepping back from me as if scalded, the cold mask of the predator cracking to reveal the anxious father underneath. He didn't want her to see this. He never wanted her to witness his control, only his protection.I didn't wai
Last Updated: 2026-01-27
Chapter: Chapter Thirty EightThe word hung there, massive and devastating.“I have the resources, Sofia. I have the power, the connections, the demonstrable ability to provide protection, security, and a permanent, safe future in a city where I can personally ensure nothing touches her. You are fighting to keep a temporary life in a place that has already proven unsafe. You think a judge won’t look at the threats, the warnings, and see a mother whose emotional trauma is clouding her judgment about her daughter’s safety?”I watched the color drain from her face. I knew what I was suggesting was monstrous, a self-immolation that would destroy any faint hope of reconciliation. But if it meant Martha and Sofia lived, I would burn everything down, including us.But then, the chilling reality of the threat hit me, too. If I went through with this, I would win the battle for safety, but I would lose Sofia forever. I would shatter the fragile, tentative truce we had established, the careful co-parenting life we had buil
Last Updated: 2026-01-27
Chapter: Chapter Thirty SevenThe house stayed quiet for the next hour.Too quiet.I sat on the edge of the couch, elbows resting on my knees, the letter crumpled in my fist. I kept replaying everything—Martha crying, Sofia’s shaking voice, the way the words on that paper laughed at us. At me.Every second that passed only made the anger rise higher, tighter, hotter.I checked my phone twice.No reply yet.But he would call.He always did.Footsteps sounded upstairs—soft ones, tired ones. Sofia was trying to comfort the kids while keeping herself together. I could hear her murmuring quietly to Martha, telling her she was safe, telling her Daddy was here.I clenched my jaw so hard I felt it in my teeth.Daddy was here… but it wasn’t enough today.Then the doorbell rang.I stood up immediately, expecting a message from him to follow, but nothing buzzed on my phone.Right.Aire’s driver.Sofia came down the stairs holding Aire gently by the shoulders. He looked calm now, tired, but okay. She walked him to the door an
Last Updated: 2026-01-27
Chapter: Chapter Thirty SixTheo’s PovI kept driving, but my mind wasn’t on the road anymore. It was on that letter. On Martha crying. On Sofia shaking beside me. On the fear I saw in both of their eyes.Something inside me snapped the moment I saw that paper in her hands.The old part of me.The part Sofia hopes never comes back.I’ve spent years keeping that side under control—calm, careful, measured. I’ve tried to be better. I’ve tried to keep my head down and live a quiet life for them. For Sofia. For Martha.But this?Scaring my daughter?Making Sofia believe our child was taken?Laughing about it?No.No. That crossed a line no one should ever cross.My fingers tightened around the steering wheel until my hands hurt. I could barely see straight from the anger building in my chest. I wanted to slam my fist through something—anything—but I kept myself steady because Martha was in the back seat… and Sofia was holding her so tightly.I swallowed hard and kept my voice low.Not now. Not in front of them.But t
Last Updated: 2026-01-27
Chapter: Chapter Thirty FiveWe didn’t make it to the ice cream place. The cheerful plan, the little reward we had promised them, felt impossible now, dissolved by the sting of that cruel, mocking letter. Theo’s hand found mine, his grip tight, grounding me, but even that comfort felt fragile under the weight of everything. Martha’s small fingers clung to mine, trembling slightly, her little body stiff with lingering fear. Each step back to the car felt impossibly heavy, every sound from the school—the laughter of other children, the shout of a teacher, the clang of a playground swing—echoing through me like it carried some hidden threat. The memory of her crying, the terror in her voice as she told us about the ghost and the letter, replayed relentlessly in my mind.Tears blurred my vision, and I forced myself to swallow back a sob. How could someone do this to a child? To my child? Even the thought of it made my chest tighten so sharply it was hard to breathe. Martha’s innocence, her excitement about the play,
Last Updated: 2026-01-27
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