LOGINJosie’s POVThe safe house felt different after the leak. The air was lighter, like the storm had finally broken. I sat at the small kitchen table with my laptop open and watched the news ticker scroll across the screen. Victor’s face was everywhere. The old photos from his military days. The leaked documents showing the payment to the fixer. The witness statement that placed him at the hunting lodge the night his father died. I had sent it all. No more hiding behind anonymous tips. I signed the email with my name.Josephine Hart-AlexanderThe vengeful architect was back. I wasn’t hiding anymore. I was done being the woman who waited for the next knife. I was the one holding the blade now.By noon the stock had stopped bleeding. By three it was climbing again. Board members who had been whispering on the side lines started calling to congratulate me. I answered every call with the same calm voice. The empire was ours. The name was ours. Victor was the one running now.Alexander came i
Josie’s POVThe safe house felt different after the leak. The air was lighter, like the storm had finally broken. I sat at the small kitchen table with my laptop open and watched the news ticker scroll across the screen. Victor’s face was everywhere. The old photos from his military days. The leaked documents showing the payment to the fixer. The witness statement that placed him at the hunting lodge the night his father died. I had sent it all. No more hiding behind anonymous tips. I signed my name to the last email and hit send. The vengeful architect was done playing defense.By noon the stock had stopped bleeding. By three it was climbing again. Board members who had been whispering on the side lines started calling to congratulate me. I answered every call with the same calm voice. The empire was ours. The name was ours. Victor was the one running now.Alexander came in from outside. His shirt was unbuttoned at the collar and there was a smear of dirt on his jaw. He had been with
Josie’s POVThe safe house felt smaller every day, the walls were thick and the security was tight but I could feel the pressure building outside like a storm that refused to break. Lily had started therapy the morning after the attack, a quiet woman named Dr. Elena came to the estate twice a week and sat with her in the sunroom, I stayed close the first time just in case but Lily asked me to wait outside, I paced the hallway the whole hour and when she came out she looked lighter somehow, she climbed into my lap and rested her head on my chest.“I told her about the bad man” she said softly. “And how Mommy shot him to save me. She said it’s okay to feel scared and okay to feel proud of Mommy too.”I hugged her tight and felt the tears prick my eyes, my eight-year-old daughter was already learning how to carry the weight of what I had done, she looked up at me with those big eyes that saw too much.“Mommy can we have another baby after the twins? I want a big family, so no one ever fe
Josie’s POVThe safe house wasn’t safe anymore, the bedroom still smelled like gunpowder and blood even after the bodies had been dragged away. I sat on the edge of the bed with Lily curled in my lap and Alexander kneeling in front of us. His hands were steady when he checked us both for injuries but his eyes were wild. Lily had stopped crying but she kept her face pressed into my neck like she was afraid to look at the world, I stroked her hair and tried to breathe through the cramps that were coming back stronger now, the babies were moving fast inside me like they knew something had almost gone very wrong.Alexander stood up and pulled us both into his arms. “We’re leaving tonight” he said, his voice was low and hard. “Somewhere even deeper, somewhere they can’t reach us, my men are already clearing the next location.”I nodded against his chest. Lily didn’t say anything. She just held on tighter, the little girl who had laughed at the lake this morning was gone, in her place was
Josie’s POVThe safe house had started to feel almost like home. Lily woke up every morning and ran straight to the lake to throw stones with Alexander. She laughed louder here than she had in the city, she called him Dad without thinking twice and she kept asking me to tell her more stories about when I was a little girl. I told her the happy ones, the ones before Julian and Sarah and all the pain. She listened like they were the most important stories in the world and then she would climb into my lap and put her hand on my stomach so she could talk to the babies.“Hi little brothers or sisters” she would whisper. “I’m your big sister. I’m going to teach you how to skip stones and draw pictures and eat ice cream for breakfast when Mommy and Dad aren’t looking.”Alexander and I would smile and hold her tighter, the cramps had eased and the babies were moving more every day, in strong little flutters that reminded me why we were here and why we were fighting. The estate felt safe, hig
Josie’s POVThe third night at the estate felt heavier than the first two, Lily had fallen asleep between us again, her small hand resting on my stomach like she was guarding the babies too. Alexander’s arm was around both of us his breathing slow and steady. I layed there listening to the quiet sounds of the house the distant footsteps of security outside and the soft flutter of the twins moving inside me. They were more active at night now like they knew something was coming.I closed my eyes and tried to rest but the dream came again.This time it was worse.I was in the alley rain pouring down cold and sharp. The knife was in my chest but it wasn’t Sarah holding it, it was Victor. He smiled, the same cold smile he had given me at the dockyard. Behind him stood Alexander on his knees hands tied blood on his shirt. He was screaming my name trying to reach me but the ropes held him back. Then the scene shifted and I saw Lily running through the garden at the estate. Men in dark







