LOGINLucas stood in the middle of the dimly lit room like a man unraveling at the seams. His eyes were wild, bloodshot, and sunken. Days of barely sleeping and tearing the city apart had left him a hollow, dangerous version of himself hair unkempt, clothes wrinkled, fists clenched so tightly his knuckles had gone white.Antonio watched him carefully from across the table.“Lucas… is there a reason why you went to the hospital?” he asked.“It’s one of the few places you frequented,” Lucas muttered hoarsely, voice rough from shouting orders and screaming her name into the night.“I had to check.”Lucas was having lots of people watched now. Barging into their spaces if he had even an inkling of suspicious He had gotten into several fights and cross shots in just few days but he didn't seem to care He was willing to create more chaos. Antonio leaned back. “You had me followed.”Lucas’s head snapped up, eyes flashing with something feral. “You’re one of the many who want to hurt her.”“Sh
“I’ve got her where you want her now,” Don Antonio muttered into the phone, his voice low and edged with satisfaction.“You remember your end of the bargain?” he barked a moment later.“Yes. Definitely,” Tatum replied smoothly. There was a faint smile in his voice. “I must admit, I’m impressed. Your role was impressive and very believable, by the way. I must commend you.”Their collaboration wss cold, precise, and mutually beneficial — each man using the other as a perfect instrument to achieve his own dark aim.---**A few nights earlier**The heavy doors to Don Antonio’s private residence opened. One of his scarred underlings stepped inside, bowing slightly.“Don, there’s a visitor. He insists on meeting you personally. Says it’s urgent and that you share common interests.”Antonio’s eyes had narrowed. More so one to come with such confidence. Moments later, the stranger entered the dimly lit study. He moved with calm assurance, stopping a respectful distance away. The lights cast
Arabella The walk on the main road felt like ice against my bare, bloodied feet. I had made it. I was shaking so violently that my teeth rattled, the oversized lab coat soaked through and heavy as lead. I didn't know where to go. I had walked until my legs gave up. The hospital might notice I was gone by now. Far off in the distance, the headlights of a vehicle cut through the curtain of rain.My heart stopped and I scrambled looking for a place to hide. The vehicle—a nondescript black van—screeched to a halt just yards away. The sliding door hissed open.I took a step back. Three men stepped out. They weren’t wearing uniforms. They moved with a terrifying, practiced efficiency, their faces obscured by the shadows of their hoods.“Miss Montague,” one of them said, his voice flat and robotic. “Time to go back.”“No!” I screamed, stepping back, but my twisted ankle buckled. I hit the wet pavement, scrambling away on my hands and knees. “Get away from me!”They lunged. One grabbe
The room was silent now, but the air still vibrated with the echoes of Lucas’s recorded voice. I remained on the floor, my cheek pressed against the cold tiles, staring at nothing.Nothing was real.The warmth of his bed, the way he tucked my hair behind my ear, the fierce way he had protected me from the Society, it was all a curated performance. A stage-play with a cast of one, and I was the only one who didn’t know my lines. He hadn't been saving me all those years; he had been *preserving* me. Like a specimen. Like a trophy.A fresh wave of agony bloomed in my chest. *Her* heart. I clutched at the scar through my gown, my fingers trembling. It felt heavy now. Borrowed. Stolen. I couldn't even find the strength to resent Lucas for hating me; how could he not? I was the living, breathing evidence of his family’s slaughter. I was the girl who had thrived while his twin was buried.My hand drifted down, instinctively finding the slight curve of my belly.“Why?” I whispered to the em
I reached out with a trembling hand. Two identical, smiling faces sat between a happy couple. A family. A life. All gone. Lucas was the only survivor.“Lucas has always been obsessed with you,” Antonio continued. “I don’t expect you to believe me, so I brought proof. Technology is a wonderful thing.”He to the large screen on the wall. A grainy, shaky video began to play. It was chaotic, the camera swung wildly, held by the small, unsteady hands of a child. The footage jolted, blurred, and dipped, capturing the floor and the ceiling in a dizzying loop.“He used to love cameras as a little boy,” Antonio sighed, almost wistfully. “He was obsessed with capturing everything. Thankfully, I was able to retrieve this from his old kid-camera. It was what kept him focused all these years.”The video was a mess of motion blur. A little girl in a party hat was pulling a boy, the one holding the lens down a long, sterile white corridor.“Come on, Lucas! You need to see the girl that looks
"What changed was only his approach,” Don Antonio said, his voice low and venomous. “Not his plans. He simply saw a more effective path and took it.”He sneered the next word slowly, deliberately. “Doll.”I flinched as if he had struck me. The pet name sliced through me. That was what Lucas called me. Only Lucas. Hearing it from this man’s mouth felt like a violation.“I haven’t even hurt you yet,” Antonio continued, watching me with cold, predatory satisfaction. “I haven’t laid a finger on you, and still your chest hurts so much it’s hard to breathe, doesn’t it? Heartbroken already, aren’t we?”“You’re a liar!” I lashed out, my voice cracking as my world splintered into jagged pieces. Tears burned hot and thick behind my eyes.Antonio chuckled. “That kind of pain is exactly what he was talking about.”“No,” I whispered, shaking my head frantically. “Lucas wouldn’t… Bring him to me. Take me to him! He doesn’t know you have me. He’ll come for me—”“You know, I don’t have the best memo
“Arabella,” Lucas rasped, glancing down at her limp body sprawled across his chest, her head resting against him as he sped through the darkened highway. The dashboard lights flickered against her pale skin, her breathing shallow, uneven.“Hold on, please, doll,” he begged, his voice breaking as h
Lucas was running out of time.Every move he made now felt like tightening the noose around his own neck. His mansion in the city had become porous. Too many eyes, too many mouths loyal to someone else. Don Antonio’s men were everywhere He needed to get Arabella out.Far away from the city.Back
Arabella “I found..…” I began, my voice shook a bit as I held the note between my fingers.“I’ve been waiting for your call,” came the calm, almost expectant reply on the other end.He was? My grip tightened around the phone. "You slipped this into my clothes that day. Why?" I asked him. “I thou
Arabella She had come into his life and like a storm, changed everything again.Years ago and even now. Every plan he’d made, every vow he’d sworn to the man who’d made him what he was, had been blown to pieces, shattered like glass underfoot, as though they had never mattered at all.And now, sh







