LOGINThe room erupted in a surreal, ethereal glow, as if the very air had ignited with collective shock. Fluorescent lights flickered wildly overhead, casting an otherworldly halo across the chaos. "Cierra! Cierra!" The screams tore through the space like a primal roar, echoing off the walls, a cacophony of horror and disbelief.Bodies pressed forward, hands reaching out in futile desperation.Cierra staggered, her eyes widening in shock as the bullet's impact slammed into her.She dropped to her knees, blood blooming across her chest like a dark rose. As her body pitched forward, Dominic exploded into motion.He surged through the crowd with raw fury, his fellow officers clawing at his trousers, their shouts blending into the pandemonium.He broke free, and headed before the trembling security guard who had pulled the trigger."I'm so sorry!" the man wailed, hands clasped together, tears streaming down his face. "I swear I did not know what came over me! I thought she was about to run off
I pulled the first trigger to the sky as a warning.My hands wouldn’t stop shaking, but I kept the gun steady, fingers locked around the grip like it was the only thing anchoring me to this world. Sweat mixed with dried tears on my face as I swept the barrel across the room, eyes burning with fury and terror.“Nobody come near me!” I shouted, my voice hoarse but sharp enough to slice through the heavy silence. “I swear on everything I have left, if anyone takes one step closer, I’ll shoot every single one of you and then turn this gun on myself! Back off!”The guards froze in place, their faces pale. Dominic stood in the middle of them, his broad shoulders tense, eyes wide with a fear I had never seen in him before.“Cierra, please,” Dominic begged, his voice cracking. “Don’t do this. Think about Greg. Think about what this will do to him. We’re not your enemies. Put the gun down, baby. Please.”Others joined in, their voices overlapping in desperate pleas. “Ma’am, please… we don’t wa
Cierra's POV A gentle tap on my shoulder pulled me out of the darkness.I blinked slowly. My eyes felt heavy, swollen, and blurry, like someone had poured sand into them.The world refused to come into focus at first, everything was soft and hazy around the edges. I blinked again and again, trying to clear the fog.My head pounded with a dull, relentless ache and when my vision finally sharpened, I realized I was in a small, sterile room.It looked like a private ward, cold and impersonal....White walls, a single bench I was lying on, no other furniture, no windows, just a heavy metal door.There were no personal things here. No flowers, no cards, nothing that said “home” or even“hospital.”. Just emptiness.A tall man dressed in a security uniform stood a few feet away, arms folded, staring down at me with a blank expression.I shot upright so fast that dizziness hit me. “Where am I? Where the hell am I?” My voice came out hoarse and cracked. “Greg! Greg! Where is my son? Greg!”The
Cierra's POV “What have you done, Yonda? What have you fucking done?!”The words ripped out of my throat before I could stop them. My voice was raw, shaking with rage and disbelief as I watched the horror unfold.Greg’s body jerked violently.For one terrifying second, his eyes widened in shock, and then he collapsed to the ground like a rag doll. Blood immediately began spreading beneath him.“Baby! Oh my God… Greg!”I rushed forward, my heart slamming so hard against my chest I thought it would explode. I dropped to my knees beside him, my hands desperately grabbing his shoulders, trying to shake him awake.“Greg! Greg, no! Please, no! Somebody help! I need attention! I need help right now!” My voice cracked, desperate and broken.Tears were already burning my eyes. This was my son. My only son. The boy I had carried, protected, and loved with every piece of me. And now he was bleeding out on the floor because of… because of her.I looked up at Yonda, fury and pain twisting inside
Cierra's POV I hit the wall hard as Yonda held me firmly in place with one hand gripping my shoulder tightly and the other pressing the cold barrel of the gun right against my chest.My heart was beating so fast it felt like it would burst out of my body and I could barely catch my breath in the heavy silence of the room.“Yonda no... Yonda hold on, hold on, don’t do that what are you trying to do!” I said quickly my voice shaking with panic as fear started to rise inside me like a wave.She laughed softly at first then had a low cold sound that echoed slightly off the high ceilings and made my skin crawl because it did not sound like my sister at all.Her eyes looked wild and distant like something inside her had broken and I no longer recognized the person standing in front of me.“Okay so let me explain myself well” she said still smiling in that twisted way that sent chills down my spine. “I am Yonda you definitely know me as your sister right?..”I stared at her completely confu
Cierra's POV The moment I saw him, everything inside me stopped working the way it should have. My thoughts froze, my breath caught somewhere in my chest, and for a few seconds, I simply stood there staring as if my eyes were betraying me.It didn’t make sense. It couldn’t make sense. Because the man standing a few steps ahead of me, dressed like a groom, calm and composed beside my sister, was someone I had already buried in my past.Jamal.I blinked, hoping the image would shift into something else, someone else, but it didn’t. He remained exactly where he was, his posture straight, his presence commanding in a quiet way that I knew too well.The same face. The same eyes. The same man I had once loved so deeply that losing him had almost destroyed me. But he wasn’t supposed to be here. He wasn’t supposed to be alive.My chest tightened painfully, and before I could stop myself, my body began to move. It wasn’t a decision. It was instinct.My feet carried me forward quickly, pushing
Cierra's POV Dominic’s hands were firm on my shoulders, gripping me so tightly that I could feel the strength of him pressing against my ribs, almost like he was trying to squeeze the words out of me before I even spoke. His face was storm-dark, eyes flashing with a mix of fury, disbelief, and… s
Cierra's POV My hands wouldn’t stop shaking.It started slowly, just a tremor in my fingers, but by the time the call ended, it had spread through my entire body like a fever. The phone buzzed once, the line going dead, and then… silence. Thick. Heavy. Deafening.I stared at the screen, my breath
Chaos erupted the moment Cierra hit the floor.For a split second, no one moved, shock froze the room, disbelief rooting everyone to the spot. Then Samantha screamed.“CIERRA!”Her voice cracked through the workroom like shattered glass. She rushed forward, dropping to her knees beside the pool
Cierra's POV I stared at the strip, my hands trembling violently, my heart thundering so loud I thought it might burst from my chest. Two bold, cruel lines stared back at me. Positive. My breath caught, my stomach lurched, and my knees felt weak.I leaned heavily against the sink, gripping it l







