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The Aftermath
Last Updated:
2025-10-22 13:16:23
Latest chapter
ONE WILD NIGHT The False Victory
Alex’s POVThe email arrived at 6:47 AM, right before my alarm. The soft chime felt louder than usual, sharp in the quiet morning room. I reached for my phone slowly, trying not to wake Maya, but she already moved. Even half-asleep her hand went to her belly, as if guarding our daughter.“What is it?” she mumbled, eyes still shut.I didn’t answer right away. I read the email once. Then again. My heart sped up.Finally, I whispered, “Pemberton Industries wants to hire us.”Her eyes opened at once. “The Pemberton Industries?”“Yes,” I said, hardly believing it myself. “They want a six-month consulting deal. Fifteen thousand dollars.”Maya blinked, then slowly sat up. “Fifteen thousand?” she whispered. “That’s almost two months of income for us.”I nodded, feeling something warm rise in my chest — hope.“Roberto must have recommended us,” I said. “He worked with them before.”Fifteen thousand meant we could pay Caroline back. Finish the baby room. Cover medical bills. Breathe again.“Whe
ONE WILD NIGHT The Meeting
Alex’s POVCaroline arranged the meeting in a cold, quiet law office in Hartford — neutral ground.No Stone power.No FBI control.Just sterile walls, strict neutrality, and the promise that whatever happened inside here could change everything.I woke early that morning feeling a knot in my stomach. I hadn’t slept. I kept staring at the ceiling all night, thinking about what Richard wanted to say. Thinking about David. Thinking about Maya and the baby and the life we built from ashes.Maya watched me dress slowly, her hand resting on her belly, the curve of our child’s future under her palm. She looked tired — bed rest had made her restless, anxious, trapped.“You don’t have to go,” she whispered. “Alex, please. You don’t owe him anything.”Her voice was soft, worried. There was fear in her eyes — not for herself, but for me.I brushed my hand across her cheek.“I need answers. If he knows something about David “Or he’s manipulating you again.” Her voice cracked. “That’s what he doe
ONE WILD NIGHT The Quiet Before
Maya’s POVIf someone had told me months ago that bed rest would be one of the hardest battles of my life, I would have laughed. But here I was — sitting on the couch Caroline insisted I stay on, surrounded by pillows, wearing the loosest dress known to mankind, and feeling like both a prisoner and a ticking time bomb.Thirty-eight weeks and five days pregnant.Nine months of fear, hope, pain, terror, love — all boiling into this aching, swollen moment where everything was finally still.And I hated the stillness.The house was too quiet.My thoughts were too loud.And my body felt like it belonged to someone else — heavy, slow, unpredictable. Every time the baby shifted, I held my breath. Every time a contraction fluttered and died, frustration clawed up my throat.False alarms were cruel. You brace for battle, and then the battlefield dissolves into emptiness, leaving only adrenaline and exhaustion.Alex walked in with my lunch — again.For two weeks, he hadn’t let me lift anything
ONE WILD NIGHT The Labor Scare
Maya’s POVMidnight.Ninety minutes after we agreed to release my father’s evidence to the Attorney General, it began.A sharp pain hit my lower belly, then another a few minutes later. Tight, strong, real.Not like the false alarms.Not like the practice contractions.Real.I grabbed the sheets and breathed hard.“Not now,” I whispered. “Please not now.”Alex sat up instantly. “What is it? Contractions?”I nodded, teeth clenched as another hit.Three minutes apart. Fast. Too fast.He didn’t hesitate.“Hospital. Now.”“We can’t,” I gasped. “Walsh is still sending the files. We have to—”Another wave of pain bent me in half. Breath gone. Words gone.Alex grabbed my shoes, my bag, his keys.“I don’t care if the world collapses tonight. We are going.”Walsh followed us in her car, laptop open on her knees even at red lights. Every second felt like fire inside my body. My vision blurred. My breathing turned to tiny gasps.When we reached Hartford General, nurses rushed us through the do
ONE WILD NIGHT The Discovery
Jake’s POVI’d never driven this far alone,two hours to Grandma’s farm through winding country roads that barely counted as roads anymore.Maya had given me explicit instructions: “Find the old barn foundation. Northwest corner. Stone cellar. Hidden compartment Dad built.”Simple. Except nothing involving my father’s secret evidence had ever been simple.The farm looked different than I remembered. Grandma had died three years ago, and the property sat abandoned. The main house was boarded up, the fields overgrown. The barn had burned down like Maya said, leaving just the stone foundation jutting out of the earth like broken teeth.I parked and pulled out my phone. No signal. Of course.The barn foundation was bigger than I expected—maybe thirty feet square, with stone walls still standing about four feet high. The interior was filled with debris from the fire: charred wood beams, melted metal, five years of weather damage.Northwest corner. I climbed carefully over rubble, testing ea
ONE WILD NIGHT The Pressure Mounts 2
Maya’s POVThe contractions started at two AM, irregular but persistent enough to wake me.I lay still, timing them. Eight minutes apart. Then twelve. Then six. My body apparently couldn’t decide if it was ready or just practicing.“Not yet,” I whispered to my belly. “We need the insurance to clear first. We need money in the account. We need—”Another contraction cut off my thoughts. Stronger this time.By three AM, they were five minutes apart. I finally woke Alex.“Hospital or wait?” he asked immediately, already reaching for his phone.“I don’t know. They’re regular but not overwhelming.” I breathed through another one. “Maybe we wait an hour? See if they stop like last time?”“Your call. But if they get worse—”“Then we go. I know.”We sat in the dark, timing contractions, both of us silently calculating what another hospital visit would cost. Dr. Chen’s office visits were covered by insurance, but emergency room visits had a fifteen hundred dollar deductible we couldn’t afford.
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