MasukJason POVAmber fell asleep not long after she woke up, and for the first few minutes, I couldn't bring myself to move away from her bedside. I kept watching her chest rise and fall beneath the blankets, listening to the steady rhythm of the monitors while Emory checked her one more time. When he finally stepped back, he gave me a reassuring look. "She's okay," he said quietly. "She's just exhausted. Her body has been through an incredible amount of stress, and waking up after everything she's been through has taken what little energy she had left." I nodded, but I still couldn't stop looking at her. After everything that had happened, hearing the words she's okay felt almost impossible to believe.The doctors decided that she was strong enough to breathe without the ventilator. They carefully removed the tube from her throat while I stood beside the bed, watching every movement. Amber barely stirred, too exhausted even to fully wake, and once the tube was gone, the medical team monit
Amber POVThe first thing I noticed when I woke up was the tube in my throat. For several seconds, I didn't understand what I was feeling. My mind was heavy and strangely distant, as though I were trying to wake from a dream I couldn't quite remember. Then I felt the hard plastic pressing against the back of my throat and the strange sensation of air being forced into my lungs, and panic immediately tried to take over. My first instinct was to reach up and pull it out. I wanted it gone. I didn't care what it was or why it was there. I just wanted to breathe on my own.My body, however, refused to cooperate. I tried to lift my hand, but it barely moved, and the effort sent a wave of exhaustion through me before my arm dropped back onto the bed as though someone had tied weights to my wrist. I forced myself to stop fighting. I had no idea how long I had been unconscious, but some distant part of my mind understood that fighting the machine wasn't going to help me. So I concentrated on b
Jason POVSeveral hours passed before the recovery team finally returned to the hospital. I had been expecting a call the entire time, but when the doors at the end of the corridor finally opened and I saw Mr. Stait walking in with several soldiers around a stretcher, my heart immediately started pounding. Jasmine and Noah were with them, both looking exhausted, and between them was Adrian.He was unconscious.For one horrible second, I thought he was dead. Then I saw his chest move beneath the blanket. Barely. His breathing was shallow and irregular, and an oxygen mask covered his face as the medical team rushed him toward the nearest treatment room."What happened?" I asked.Mr. Stait stopped only long enough to answer. "He was alive when we found him. He hasn't regained consciousness.""Why isn't he breathing properly?""We don't know yet."Before I could ask anything else, Emory appeared and took control of the medical team surrounding Adrian. He immediately began issuing instruct
Jason POVMr. Asher was already furious enough to personally tear River City apart, and I wouldn't have been surprised if seeing that photograph resulted in him trying to commandeer a military vehicle."Are the Wyatts definitely connected to the property?" I asked."Yes."There was no hesitation in Mr. Stait's answer this time. He took the phone back and explained that they'd established connections through the property's control structure, vehicles and personnel associated with the Wyatt branch. Jasmine's photograph had now given them something even more important: confirmation that Adrian was physically being held at the location."So they kidnapped their own family.""That's what the evidence indicates."I looked toward Amber. Mrs. Wyatt had allegedly ordered her poisoned, and now we had photographic evidence that her own grandson had been left unconscious inside a warehouse connected to the family. Adrian had refused to abandon Amber when his father pressured him to leave Asher Co
Jason POVAdrian was her grandchild.That fact kept circling through my mind.Whatever disagreements existed between them, whatever Adrian had done during the Heir Trials, he was still her grandson. Yet someone had created a fake work trip, removed him from his wife and baby and hidden him somewhere in River City while Clara continued believing her husband was away on business.Then there was Amber.Her own blood.Mrs. Wyatt had allegedly gone even further with her.Someone had arranged access to Amber's hospital routine, compromised her food and used a nurse who had already earned our trust. Amber had been given a powerful sedative, botulinum toxin and aconite, while another part of the plan had apparently included a syringe containing penicillin—a substance capable of killing me because of my allergy.That wasn't anger.It wasn't a family argument that had gone too far.It was an operation.And that left one explanation that made more sense than the others.The Wyatts hadn't suddenl
Jason POV Everything inside me stopped. "What?" Emory turned toward me. I put the call on speaker. "Say that again." "We found Adrian," Jasmine repeated. "Alive?" A pause. Too long. "Jasmine." "We believe so." I closed my eyes for half a second. "Where?" "River City." That made no sense. "They took him out of River City." "No," Jasmine said. "That's what they wanted everyone to believe." I looked toward Emory. "What about the work trip?" "Fake." Noah took over. "We've been going through the surveillance information with the team. Once we knew what to look for, we started tracking movements connected to Adrian's family instead of trying to follow the supposed travel itinerary." "And?" "They never left River City." I gripped the phone tighter. "None of them?" "Not the people we're tracking," Noah said. "There are records designed to make it look as though some of them moved around, but the physical surveillance doesn't match." Jasmine came back onto the call.
I didn’t cry. I didn’t shake. I didn’t look back, or mourned the life and the years i will never get back, lost forever. I just went home, time to pack and say goodbye to my old life. The penthouse doors opened with biometric recognition the moment I stepped inside. Floor-to-ceiling glass. Marb
We moved quickly through the hallway. Adrian walked behind me, gun raised, covering the corridor while I forced Henry Watson forward. The mansion was quieter than expected. Too quiet. Which meant either the guards were regrouping… or Jason was already on his way. I glanced over my shoulder.
Jason POV Marcus nearly slammed the brakes. “She shot the camera!” I leaned back slowly. Marcus looked at me. “What the hell was that?” I ran a hand over my face. “She said hello husband before she shot it.” Marcus stared. “…Okay.” Silence filled the car. “…What does that mean exactly?”
Family drama. Honestly, I was getting tired of it. I shifted slightly in the chair, letting the ropes around my wrists rub just enough to make the guards think I was uncomfortable. In truth, they had tied them loosely—political kidnappers rarely knew how to do proper restraints. Across from me,







