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CHAPTER 26 — THE FIRST BREATH

Penulis: Blessing
last update Tanggal publikasi: 2026-07-21 19:10:52

POV: Laurabeth

The world had narrowed down to two things: the white-hot agony in my core and the cold, unyielding reality of the duct tape over my mouth.

I was in a shipping container. I knew this because every time the wind howled outside, the metal walls groaned like a dying beast. It was dark, except for the flickering light of a single dying bulb, and the air was thick with the smell of rust and motor oil.

My son. I had to think about him. Not the pain. Not the fact that my wrists were rubb
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  • OWNED AT 18, CLAIMED BY 28   CHAPTER 59 — WHO FUNDED IT

    POV: VinicioThe note in my pocket felt heavier than paper had any right to feel.She’s not the only one who knew you were alive. Check who funded my apartment, Vinicio.I didn’t wait until we reached the car. The moment we cleared the hospital grounds I had my phone out again, thumb already scrolling to the one number that never failed me when money needed to talk.Marcus answered on the first ring. My personal accountant. The man who had kept the Rossini ledgers clean through blood and fire for fifteen years.“Vinicio. It’s late.”“I need Vanessa’s apartment records. Lease, payments, every transfer in and out of the account that covered that address for the last four years. Now.”There was a short pause, the sound of a keyboard already moving. Marcus never asked unnecessary questions when my voice sounded like this.“Pulling it up. Give me sixty seconds.”Laurabeth walked beside me in silence, Thomas’s sneaker still clutched in one hand. She didn’t interrupt. She understood that s

  • OWNED AT 18, CLAIMED BY 28   CHAPTER 58 — LOADING DOCK

    POV: VinicioThe loading dock still smelled of diesel and damp concrete. The laundry cart sat abandoned near the edge, sheets spilling out like a body that had been left behind. Red emergency lights from the hospital painted everything in short, ugly flashes.I already had the phone to my ear.“Alex. Partial plate from the black sedan. Run it through every traffic camera, private security network, and toll reader in the city. I want a continuous track from the moment it left this dock. No gaps.”Alex’s voice came back tight and focused. “On it. Partial is already pinging two hits on the industrial connector. Working the next three intersections now. I’ll push live updates to your phone.”“Do better than updates. Find the car.”I hung up and kept moving. Laurabeth was already ahead of me, phone still open, scrubbing through the last external feeds she could access. Her coat was open, hair coming loose from the knot she had worn all day, but her hands were steady. The same steady hands

  • OWNED AT 18, CLAIMED BY 28   CHAPTER 57 — RUNNING

    POV: LaurabethI didn’t wait for the elevator.The service stairwell was faster. Concrete steps blurred under my shoes as I took them two at a time, coat flying open, phone already in my hand. The hospital security app loaded in three seconds. I had clearance. I had designed half the access protocols myself under the name Elena Voss. Now those same systems were going to help me take my son back.Vinicio stayed right beside me. He didn’t ask where we were going. He didn’t slow down. His breathing stayed controlled, jaw locked, eyes fixed forward. Ten years apart and we still moved like we had never stopped running together.The app pulled the camera grid. East service corridor. Laundry wing. Loading dock approach. I scrubbed backward through the timestamps with my thumb while my feet kept pounding down the stairs.8:41 p.m.The first alarm—the one Teresa had staged—flashed across every feed. Staff scattered exactly the way they were supposed to. Toward the pediatric ward. Away from the

  • OWNED AT 18, CLAIMED BY 28   CHAPTER 56: HER TERMS

    POV: VinicioThe black screen of the phone still reflected my face when Laurabeth lowered it. One hour. That was the window Vanessa had given us. One hour to decide whether to hand her everything or watch our son pay the price.I took the phone from Laurabeth’s hand before she could tighten her grip further. My thumb hovered over the recent calls. The unknown number was still there, waiting.“Call her back,” Laurabeth said.“I am.”The video request went through on the second ring. Vanessa answered immediately, as if she had been staring at her own screen the entire time. The same concrete room. The same single bulb. Thomas still bound to the chair behind her, eyes locked on the camera the moment it connected.Vanessa’s smile was softer this time. Almost intimate.“I knew you’d call back, Vinicio. You never could stand being given an order without answering it.”I kept my voice level. “Put the camera on Thomas. I want to see that he’s unharmed.”She angled the phone without argument.

  • OWNED AT 18, CLAIMED BY 28   **CHAPTER 55: MISSING**

    **POV: Laurabeth**The loading dock door still swung gently on its hinges, letting in the cold night air and the fading growl of an engine. The unmarked van was already gone. Taillights had vanished around the corner before either of us could reach the fence.Thomas was gone.The knowledge hit me like a physical blow. My knees threatened to give out, but I locked them and forced myself to keep standing. Panic was a luxury I could not afford. Not when my son’s life depended on the next decisions I made.Vinicio stood beside me, gun still raised toward the empty street, breathing hard. The muscle in his jaw ticked once, twice. When he finally lowered the weapon, his voice was pure ice.“Alex. Full lockdown on every exit. Pull every camera feed from the last fifteen minutes. East service corridor, laundry dock, parking structure. Now.”Alex’s voice came through the earpiece, strained and bloody. “Already on it, boss. Head’s ringing but I’m functional. Pulling footage now.”I turned back

  • OWNED AT 18, CLAIMED BY 28   **CHAPTER 54: SYRINGE**

    **POV: Vinicio**The second alarm was sharper than the first. Closer. Wrong.I didn’t look back. I couldn’t. Teresa stood ten feet in front of us with an uncapped syringe and a sleeping child who was not ours, and every instinct I had screamed that this was the opening move, not the endgame.“Drop it,” I said.My voice came out flat. The kind of flat that used to make men empty their pockets before I finished the sentence. Two hospital security officers flanked the doorway, weapons drawn but uncertain. This was a children’s ward. No one wanted to fire.Teresa didn’t drop it.She looked at the little girl in the bed, then at me, then at Laurabeth, and her expression softened into something almost pious.“I came to make amends,” she said. “I know what I took from you. I know what the fire cost. I thought if I offered myself first, perhaps God—or whatever is left of this family—might consider it payment.”Laurabeth stepped forward before I could stop her. “Get away from that child.”Tere

  • OWNED AT 18, CLAIMED BY 28   CHAPTER 4: THE PRICE OF SILENCE

    VINICIO POV“Are you alright?” I finally broke the tension immediately we got to the car. I knew how to handle boardrooms and blood-feuds, and a part of me wanted to simply crush whatever was eating her up so I could have my wife back to her normal self.“Yes-”“No. You’re not coming out of this ca

  • OWNED AT 18, CLAIMED BY 28   CHAPTER 3: CONTROL

    VINICIO POVI knew striking a deal with this delicate young girl was a bad idea but she was fiery, as expected, as her father warned me two years back, in a party at her house, I guess she doesn’t recognize me. However, I was out of time and options; I needed to be able to access my inheritance and

  • OWNED AT 18, CLAIMED BY 28   CHAPTER 2: WEDDING NIGHT

    LAURABETHThe moment he shut the door with his foot, he dropped me like frilled lace onto the bed; carefully, as though I were fragile. My thoughts were interrupted by the beige coloration of the room. It made the dim light from the window reflect effortlessly against a large portrait of Vinicio ha

  • OWNED AT 18, CLAIMED BY 28   CHAPTER 1: WEDDING

    ELARA“Do you take Vinicio Teo Rossini as your lawfully wedded husband, to have and to hold, in sickness and in health?”I stared wordlessly at the priest, lost in thought. How did I get here?I felt my heart burst in pain when I found our belongings piled outside the doorpost; my mother clinging t

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