LOGINThe RansomAriana's POVThe flashlight shook in my hand. It wasn't from the cold, even though the canyon air had turned sharp and mean after the sun went down. I stood at the edge of the ravine and stared at the place where the search team found Marcus's jacket. The torn fabric and the dark stains showed clearly even from up here."No body," the lead officer said again as he climbed back up. Mud covered his boots. "Whoever was down there left signs of a struggle. I saw drag marks heading toward a service road on the other side. This wasn't an accident. Either was it a failed mission "Someone moved him," Kylan said before we arrived. He put words to what I already knew."Alive or otherwise, we just can't say yet." The officer's radio crackled. "We'll need daylight for a full search."My phone buzzed in my palm—unknown number.My chest tightened before I even looked at the screen. I held it out so Kylan could see. His jaw went hard."Pick it up," he said quietly. "Put it on Speaker."
Blood On The Canyon RoadAriana's POVThe flares came into view before the wreckage did. Orange light bled across wet asphalt where Coldwater Canyon curved sharply against the hillside. My stomach clenched the moment I recognised the spot—the same embankment. The same missing guardrail I'd stared down six years ago while my own brakes failed under my foot.Kylan parked behind two patrol cars. I set out of the car before the engine fully stopped.An officer stepped forward, hand raised. "Ma'am, this is an active scene.""I need to know what you found." My voice came out steadier than I felt. "Marcus Webb. Is he here?"His face softened slightly. "You know him?"" Yes, I do. He works with us. And He's missing."He glanced back toward the ambulance idling near the embankment, lights spinning red against the dark trees. "We found his car about an hour ago. Abandoned. The Driver's door open. No sign of him yet.""The blood," Skylar told me there was blood."I said."Yes, ma'am. On the dri
What Marcus KnewAriana's POVMarcus Webb looked like a man who hadn't slept in days.I found him in the security office downstairs, hands wrapped so tight around a paper cup that his knuckles had gone white. His eyes shot to the door every time it moved. Like he expected someone to walk through it and finish what they started."Mr Webb," I said, sitting across from him. "Skylar says you know what happened to me six years ago."His throat moved. "I need protection first. Real protection. Legal immunity. Security. Everything. What I know could get me killed."Kylan stood by the wall, arms crossed, watching him the way you watch a man you're not sure you can trust yet."We can talk terms," Kylan said. "But we need to know what you have. Now."Marcus set the cup down. His hand was shaking so badly."I used to work with the transportation team at FrosTech. Before finance. Before any of this mess with the theft." His voice cracked. "Six years ago, I was told to hire a private mechanic. Off
Someone Who Survived HerSebastian's POVI read the text again—someone who survived her.My hands were not steady when I picked up the phone to call my head of security."I need you to trace a number," I said. "It just texted me. Encrypted service.""I'll try, sir. They're usually hard to trace.""Try anyway." My voice came out colder than I wanted. "And find out everything you can about an accident involving Ariana Frost. Six years ago. Before the divorce."There was a pause on the other end. "Sir, I don't have anything like that on my file.""Then dig more on the search. Hospital records. Insurance claims. Police reports. Anything from that time.""Okay, I'll get on it, Sir."I hung up and sat there, not seeing the city outside my window anymore. An accident. Six years ago. Before she left.I tried to remember. Those last weeks with Ariana were a blur now; I was wrapped up with Camilla and my mother. Every excuse I gave that made me stop paying attention to my own wife. Is something
Chapter 41The Retrieval AttemptAriana’s POVThe drive to Jason’s school took eleven minutes. It felt like eleven years.Kylan drove with his hands locked on the wheel. His jaw stayed tight the whole way. Ariana kept the phone pressed to her ear. Patricia’s voice was sharp and fast on the other end.“Stay calm when you get there,” Patricia said. “Whatever papers they showed the school won’t hold up. But if you walk in yelling, you’d hand Sebastian the story he wants. And you will be tagged the Unstable mother. Big scene. Please don't give him that.”“Someone tried to take my son from his school.”“I know. Please walk in like a woman who has full custody and nothing to prove to them.”The parking lot came into view. She stepped out of the car before Kylan fully stopped. Her heels hit the pavement hard as she headed for the entrance.Principal Davies met her at the front office. Middle-aged, with kind eyes, the calm of someone who’d seen a hundred custody messes before.“He’s safe,” Da
Blood MoneySebastian’s POVSebastian didn’t sleep. He stayed in his office chair until the sky outside went from black to grey. The number of the fourth account sat glowing on his laptop screen. He couldn’t look away from it.Eight years.His mother had been taking money from the family for eight years. And he had given her access the whole time. He had trusted her the way a son trusts a mother who buried her husband and kept the company running through pure will.He thought about every talk they had ever had. Every dinner where she praised his choices and gently pushed him in certain directions. Those directions always seemed to help her more than the company. He remembered the ultimatum she gave him about Ariana. “Get rid of her or I’ll do it myself.”He had thought she meant public pressure. Manipulation. Cruelty dressed up as worry.He never imagined she had planned a full scandal. That she had framed an innocent employee. That she had paid a woman to stay close to him and drain
New City, New ProblemsAriana’s POV This city didn’t know me, and that was exactly why I had chosen it. Here, there were no scandals, no headlines, and no judging eyes following my every move.I stood by the small window of my tiny motel room, watching the unfamiliar streets below.Everything went
The Cheating Scandal Ariana’s POV Morning came too quickly.I woke up to the incessant vibration of my phone against the bedside table, the notification sound cutting through the little sleep I’d managed to steal.My head throbbed faintly as I reached for the phone, my eyes still heavy with sleep
The Elimination PlanAriana’s POV The first time I set eyes on Camilla Hernandez, I understood exactly why everything had fallen apart with Sebastian so easily.The lady didn’t just walk into the Frost mansion and our marriage… she arrived, and fully.Standing at the top of the grand staircase, my
The Loud Silence Ariana’s POVI didn’t realize at first when it all started. When the silence between Sebastian and I stopped being peaceful and started becoming suffocating.It was probably the night he first came back home late and didn’t even bother to talk to me.Or the morning after that, whe







