7. The Vanishing

​Sara no longer cried. Her eyes, once filled with fear, had turned hollow. Revenge was the only fuel left in her soul after her father was ripped away.

​Roger walked into the room without knocking. He watched Sara packing her meager belongings into a small bag, her hands no longer shaking.

“Damon will never admit it,” he said quietly, flicking his lighter. “But you and I know the truth. He orders his servants to dispose of your father whenever he grows bored with his toys. You’re just a toy he’ll discard soon.”

​Sara froze. Roger’s lies masked the fact that Iris was the true mastermind.

“What do you want?”

“I have an escape route,” Roger continued. “Tonight, I will fake your death in a dockyard accident. You will have a new identity and vanish forever. In return, I will frame your departure as a kidnapping by an enemy organization. Damon will lose face, and his reputation in my father’s eyes will be ruined.”

​Sara was now certain of Roger’s intent. He wanted Damon’s destruction, just as she did.

She looked at her flat stomach. She would not let this child grow up as a tool for her husband’s torment. 

“I agree. I want to disappear completely from that monster's sight.”

“Good.” Roger smirked thinly. “Follow my instructions. When the sirens blare at the harbor, slip through the underground logistics tunnel. The cargo ship departs at exactly 2:00 AM. Don't look back... or you won't make it out alive.”

The hours that followed felt like a slow, agonizing countdown. Left alone in the dim room, Sara didn't dare to rest. 

Every tick of the wall clock echoed in her chest like a heavy thud, a reminder of the dangerous gamble she was about to take. She left her own things behind, choosing only to clutch a few precious keepsakes left by her late father. 

Her gaze remained fixed on the window as twilight bled into a pitch-black midnight. Outside, the pavilion was suffocatingly quiet, but she could feel the underlying tension. Roger’s men were moving in the shadows, executing a plan that would either buy her freedom or seal her doom. 

She took a deep, shaky breath, pressing her palm against her stomach one last time to draw strength from the new life inside her. There was no room for hesitation now.

Exactly at midnight, the fragile silence shattered.

The sky above the Moretti logistics port was ripped apart by a massive explosion. Roger had intentionally sabotaged the armory, forcing Damon’s entire intelligence unit to rush to the scene.

​Amidst the chaos, Sara ran through the darkness as instructed. She passed the pavilion's back gate, which had been tampered with by Roger’s men to look like an intruder's entry point. There, among the bushes, she tore the hem of her dress and left it near the gate—a silent piece of evidence of a forced struggle.

​She ran until she reached the iron shipping containers where the cargo ship waited. As soon as her feet hit the deck, the engine roared to life, cutting through the dark sea.

She stood at the stern, watching the lights of the Moretti stronghold shrink until they were swallowed by the night. She gripped her stomach tightly, feeling the faint pulse of life within. A secret her father had never lived to know.

‘​I will protect you, even if I have to become a monster,’ she thought coldly.

—

​Damon returned just before dawn, his rage overflowing. He kicked Sara’s bedroom door off its hinges, intent on venting his fury on her.

​The room was empty.

​Damon stepped inside, his gaze locking onto the nightstand. Her wedding ring sat there, glinting in the dim light. But when he discovered the broken back door and the scrap of Sara’s dress snagged on the splintered wood, his jaw tightened.

“Find her!” he roared at the terrified guards at the threshold. “Check the perimeter CCTV! Those intruders made a grave mistake if they think they can touch what's mine!”

​Damon snatched up the piece of fabric. His fury peaked. He didn't think Sara had run away. In his eyes, she was too cowardly and too bound by the marriage contract to flee on her own.

​The abandoned ring—placed there by Roger’s scheme—and the fact that Sara’s belongings remained untouched, led Damon to the conclusion that she had been dragged away by force. 

He stood at the window, staring toward the distant, smoking harbor. His eyes no longer burned with lust, but with a far more terrifying, blood-soaked obsession. If they had taken her, he would burn the world to ash just to drag her back.

Damon wouldn’t let her vanish until his revenge was complete. 

But now, she was adrift in the middle of the ocean. The cargo ship pressed on, carrying a woman who had gone numb toward a new fate.

Behind her, the dark silhouette of the Moretti empire faded into the fog. She was no longer Damon’s captive. She was a ghost now, carrying a secret that would one day tear his world apart.