Chapter 125⟿❂⟾Nikolai⟿❂⟾“No,” she whispered. “No, he has to be here. He has to be—”“Sylvia, there’s no child here. My men swept the entire—”“Then where is he?” She was screaming again, clawing at her hair. “Where is Oliver? What did he do with him? Oh God, what if he already—”She couldn’t finish the sentence. She just collapsed against the wall, sobbing so hard she couldn’t breathe.I watched her fall apart, and something twisted in my chest. As much as I wanted to believe it, it was becoming clear that this wasn’t an act. This wasn’t manipulation. This was genuine terror for a child’s safety.“Who is he to you?” I asked again, more gently this time.But Sylvia was beyond words now. She was hyperventilating, her whole body shaking with the force of her sobs. She kept trying to say something, but all that came out were broken sounds.“I did lose my memory, Nikolai,” she finally managed to gasp out between sobs. “But it’s coming back. The treatment—it’s painful, but it’s working.
Chapter 124⟿❂⟾Nikolai⟿❂⟾Watching Sylvia cry had always been my weakness.Even now, standing in this sterile hellhole that Kaine called a home, watching tears stream down her face while she wore nothing but a towel and fresh bruises, I felt that familiar twist in my chest that made me want to burn the world down.But this time was different. This time, I was the one making her cry.And fuck me, but it felt good.“This isn’t a hallucination,” I repeated, letting my hands frame her face so she couldn’t look away. “I’m not a product of your guilty conscience or your medication. I’m real. I’m here.”The exact moment she realized I wasn’t lying was beautiful. Her eyes went wide, pupils dilating in shock, and all the color drained from her face like someone had pulled a plug. She tried to step back, but the wall was already against her spine.Nowhere to run this time, sweetheart.“How—” she started, then stopped, her breathing turning shallow and rapid.“How did I find you?” I smiled, an
Chapter 123⟿❂⟾Sylvia⟿❂⟾Dr. Bans had said the treatment might start making me hallucinate. It was happening already.I stepped out of the bathroom, steam still clinging to my skin from the scalding shower I’d hoped would wash away the phantom aches that had become my constant companions. The towel wrapped around me felt too thin, too inadequate, like everything else in this sterile place that was supposed to be healing me but only seemed to be breaking me further.That’s when I saw him.He sat on the bed—my bed—in that same casual way he used to lounge in my room uninvited back at the convent. One leg stretched out, the other bent at the knee, his arm draped lazily along the headboard like he owned not just the space, but me along with it. Like he wasn’t a product of my fractured mind desperately trying to cope with whatever was left of my sanity.Nikolai.The sight of him stole what little breath I had left.“No,” I whispered, my voice barely audible even to myself. “No, no, no
Chapter 122⟿❂⟾Nikolai⟿❂⟾Viktor arrived two hours after my text, carrying a duffel bag that clinked when he set it down.“You sure about this?” he asked without preamble, settling into the chair Chen had vacated. “Going after Kaine on his own territory is suicide. Even for you.”I poured him a drink—vodka, neat, the way he preferred it. “Since when do you care about my life expectancy?”“Since your death would leave me unemployed.” He took the glass but didn’t drink. “Talk to me, Nik. What’s the real play here?”I shrugged as casually as I could while my eyes made a dash for the window. The sun was setting, and for some reason, the sky color was all amber and blood. Fitting, considering what I was planning.“The real play is that Julian Kaine has something that belongs to me.”“The nun?”“Her name is Sylvia.” The correction came out before I could give it a second thought. Viktor raised an eyebrow but said nothing. “And she’s not really a nun. Never was, apparently.”“So? She lied
Chapter 121 ⟿❂⟾ Sylvia ⟿❂⟾ “Sylvia.” My name came out like a curse. “What the fuck are you doing?” I finally managed to get to my feet, blood dripping from my cut palms onto the marble. “I… I was looking for the kitchen. I was hungry, and I thought—” “You thought what? That you could just wander around my house like you own it?” “Who is this?” The Russian-accented voice came from behind Kaine. I could see the man now—tall, thin, with silver hair and cold blue eyes. He was studying me with the kind of clinical interest usually reserved for laboratory specimens. Kaine’s jaw tightened. “No one important. Just a—” “I’m his wife,” I said, the words tumbling out before I could stop them. I don’t know why I said it. Maybe because I was confused, maybe because I hoped saying it in front of his business partners would save me from beatings reserved for maids. Or maybe because I wanted him to be embarrassed to have a wife looking as scared,!tattered and battered as I was. The silence
Chapter 120⟿❂⟾Sylvia⟿❂⟾Three days had passed since Kaine’s brutal ‘reminder’ of my place in his house. Three days of barely being able to move without wincing, of struggling to eat through a split lip that refused to heal properly, of jumping at every sound in the hallway outside my room.The bruises on my ribs had turned a sickly yellow-green, and my left eye was still swollen enough to blur my vision. But I could walk now without doubling over, and that felt like a victory, however small.I’d been confined to my room since that night, meals brought on trays by silent servants who wouldn’t meet my eyes. No visits from Dr. Bans, no forced ‘therapy’ sessions. Just isolation and the endless loop of my own thoughts, trying to piece together fragments of memories that felt more like nightmares than reality.But today, something was different.I could hear voices downstairs—multiple voices, not just Kaine’s usual phone calls. The low rumble of conversation drifted up through the floor