Novel-novel oleh Confidence Chigozirim Emeka

The street was too quiet.As soon as Xavier closed my car door, sealing me inside the faint smell of leather and gasoline, a cold stillness spread across the night. My pulse raced, my hands trembling as I pressed them into my lap. Through the windshield, I watched Xavier circle around the hood of the car like a predator scanning for threats. His every movement was sharp, honed—his eyes flicking between shadows, streetlights, and rooftops, searching.When he slid into the driver’s seat, the car seemed to exhale with me, the familiar weight of him both comforting and terrifying.“Seatbelt,” he said, his voice clipped.I fumbled for it, my fingers clumsy. The belt clicked into place, but it did nothing to ease the storm inside me.Xavier’s jaw was locked tight, his knuckles pale as he gripped the steering wheel. He didn’t start the car right away. Instead, he sat in silence, watching the rearview mirror. Watching the street. Watching everything.I opened my mouth to speak, but he lifted

The silence after the fight was heavier than the crash of the window, thicker than the sound of shattering glass. It clung to the walls of my bedroom, clung to my skin, clung to the very air until it was hard to breathe.Xavier’s arms were still wrapped around me, anchoring me to the ground, but my whole body trembled like I’d been dropped into freezing water. My ears rang with the ghost of that laugh, that distorted sound the intruder had left behind.He wasn’t just here to scare us. He was here to claim something.Me.The baby.Us.Xavier’s chest heaved against my cheek as he held me close. I could feel his heart pounding steady but hard, a drumbeat of rage barely contained. His voice when it finally broke the silence was raw.“He won’t get near you again,” he muttered, low and vicious. “Not while I’m alive.”My father’s bat clattered to the ground. The sound jolted me. When I looked up, he stood there pale and shaking, his fists opening and closing like he didn’t know what to do wi

The crash reverberated through the room, shattering the fragile standoff we’d been locked in. My heart thudded against my ribs so violently it hurt.Xavier moved like lightning, one arm sweeping me behind him, the other braced as if he were ready to strike at whatever came through that window. His body was taut, every muscle wired, every sense alert.For the first time, I saw my father’s expression falter. His fury wavered beneath something I hadn’t seen in him for years—fear.The glass trembled again, a shadow shifting beyond it. Slow. Deliberate. Watching.“Who the hell is out there?” my father hissed, his voice low, almost strangled. His earlier authority cracked like thin ice.Xavier didn’t answer. His eyes narrowed, trained on the window, his stance wide, protective. I could feel the heat of his body in front of me, steady and immovable, like a shield.The silence stretched too long. My breath came in shallow bursts. ThenTap. Tap. Tap.Knuckles, or claws, dragged across the glas

The night was still, but my heart wasn’t.I lay on my bed, staring at the ceiling, one hand instinctively resting on my belly. The quiet thump of life inside me was both a comfort and a terrifying reminder, my secret was growing every day, becoming harder to hide.I’d convinced myself I could keep it under wraps until I figured out a way to tell Xavier, but his persistence lately was making that almost impossible. He kept showing up, kept trying to break down the walls I was desperately patching up.And I hated myself for craving him despite everything.The sound of my phone vibrating on the nightstand made me jolt. My pulse quickened when I saw his name on the screen.Xavier.I let it ring. My hands shook, betraying me.The vibration stopped. Relief barely settled in before it buzzed again. Another call. He wasn’t giving up tonight.“Arielle, please pick up,” his voicemail bled through after the third missed call. “I know you’re awake. I just… I can’t sleep without hearing your voice

The words had barely left Xavier’s mouth when the first sound hit wood splintering, sharp and violent, from the rear of the cabin.Not a polite knock this time.A full-force assault.My pulse roared in my ears. The instinct to run fought against the fact that there was nowhere to go. The cabin was small, surrounded by dark woods, and the storm earlier had turned the ground into mud slowing, trapping.Xavier shoved the shotgun into my hands. “Hold it steady. If someone gets through that door, you shoot first. Don’t wait.”“Wait, what about” My free hand instinctively went to my stomach.“I know,” he said sharply, but his voice softened in the next breath. “That’s why you stay behind me. Always behind me.”Another crash rattled the back wall. The monitor was now a useless strobe of red beeps.“Front window,” Xavier hissed. “Go.”I moved, every muscle trembling. The shotgun felt too big, too heavy, but Xavier’s instructions echoed in my head—Don’t wait.Glass shattered behind us. I flinc

The Polaroid was still warm.I knew because when Xavier held it out, my fingers brushed the glossy edge and felt the faint residual heat from the camera’s internal flash.That meant whoever took it… had been here moments ago.My eyes darted to the cabin windows, the shadows in the tree line. My skin prickled with the suffocating certainty that if I looked long enough, I’d see them still standing there, smiling in the dark.The storm’s drizzle had tapered off, leaving the night unnervingly still. Even the pine branches, heavy with moisture, seemed to hold their breath.“They’re close,” I whispered, my voice barely audible.Xavier’s gaze was locked on the photo, his jaw set like stone. His thumb traced the edges before he slipped it into the inside pocket of his jacket, along with the note and my house key.When he finally looked at me, his expression was unreadable. “Inside. Now.”I wanted to argue. I wanted to demand answers—how they’d gotten my key, how they’d managed to sneak up wit