2: Revenge.

Delilah’s POV

Everywhere was calm and quiet but the pain I felt as I opened my tired eyes was no longer just physical. It was cosmic. It was a pain that fractured timelines and bent the soul. Why does my body ache so much?

Where was I? The last thing I remembered was going to his company… did I pass out?

Slowly my memories returned in fragments, causing my heart to lurch with pain.

Then the sickening antiseptic smell made me understand I was at the hospital.

I clawed at the sheets, trembling as I sat up. Oh no.

Something was wrong.

No.

Everything was gone.

I grabbed my stomach. It was soft. Deflated. Hollow.

Empty. No.. no this can't be. This isn't happening to me. I already bought a crib…I got clothes and toys he would need. I decorated his room. ..no! I can't lose my baby.

“No,” I croaked. “No, no—where is he?!”

The door burst open and a nurse walked in, followed by a man in dark clothes—one I never expected to see again.

Thorne Weston.

“Delilah—”

“Where is my baby?!” I screamed, voice raw, unrecognizable. “WHERE IS MY SON?!”

The nurse moved to touch me. I thrashed away. “Don’t touch me! Don’t come near me! Where is he?! I'll kill you all if you don't give me my son!”

The nurse looked at Thorne helplessly. He stared at me. Stone-faced but his eyes were red. Was he crying? Nevermind that, where is my child? Why are they all so damn quiet?

“He’s gone, Delilah.”

The world stopped. Then, the room spun as if gravity broke loose. I clutched my chest, my scream tearing through the walls of the hospital like shattered glass. My whole body caved.

So I've lost my child, huh? The son…I finally had after so many attempts. When I found out I was pregnant, it was the happiest day of my life. Although Estelle didn't stop with her hatred and venomous words, I was content because I believed a child would change things. Now?

Gone.

Gone.

My head started spinning, and I fell back weakly onto the bed.

“Delilah!"

Then I blacked out.

****

I woke again, still in the sterile quiet of the hospital room. My head throbbed, my body heavy, but my eyes immediately found him.

Thorne was still here, sitting across from me on the leather chair, elbows resting on his knees, calm, unreadable… but there was fire in his eyes.

“You stayed,” I rasped, my voice hoarse from the screaming that wouldn’t stop.

He nodded slowly. “You kept calling out for someone. In your sleep. You didn’t stop.”

I turned toward the window, forcing my gaze away from him. “My son…” I whispered, the word trembling on my lips.

He said nothing.

I glanced at him. “Why are you here, Thorne? Really? You hate me. You’ve haunted me, bullied me into nightmares, made my life hell. I thought you’d be the last person I’d see… here.”

“Don’t,” he cut in, “Don’t pretend you don’t know why I’m here. You’re not the type to forget what I can do.”

“I—” I began, hesitantly. “You can’t possibly be… helping me.”

Thorne leaned back, rubbing his jaw thoughtfully“Helping you? Maybe. Or maybe I’m fixing my mistakes. I’m trying to take back everything Caleb stole. From me… and from you.”

I frowned, suspicion twisting my gut. “I don’t need your help. And don’t act like you care. You’ve spent years ruining me.”

“I know,” he said quietly . “I know I’ve been your worst nightmare. And maybe I still am. But this isn’t about nightmares anymore. This… this is about survival. Yours and mine. Caleb took everything from both of us. And now, he thinks he can lie, cheat, and cover it up. I’m here to make sure he can’t.”

I wanted to tell him to leave, to push him back into the shadows where he belonged, but there was a raw intensity in his gaze, a fire that made my chest ache for reasons I couldn’t name.

“And what exactly… exactly are you suggesting, Thorne?” I asked cautiously, my hands trembling against the sheets. “That we… team up? That you’re suddenly my savior after everything?”

He stood then, walking toward the window with long, deliberate strides. He pulled a small USB drive from his coat pocket and turned, holding it out toward me. “This. Everything Caleb tried to hide from you. Bank records, transfers, shell corporations, fake charities, offshore accounts—money he funneled through your name. Lies upon lies upon lies. If the Feds come knocking, Delilah… you go down with him.”

I blinked, frozen. “What… What the hell are you talking about? Offshore accounts? My name?!”

“I’ve been investigating him for months,” he said with disgust.“He used you. That ethical prick used your identity for illegal things.. You’re sitting here wondering why your life is falling apart and I’m giving you the tools to fight back.”

Pour more fuel into the fire, you bastard! How dare Caleb do this?

My breath left my lungs. “You’re lying.” I tried, hopelessly.

He tossed the drive onto my lap. “I don’t need to lie. I’m trying to save your damn life.”

“No. No, Caleb wouldn’t…” I trailed off. But even as I denied it, my heart sank under the weight of truth. I remembered the business trips. The odd phone calls. The passwords he wouldn’t share. The way he’d kiss my forehead and tell me, Don’t stress over the numbers, sweetheart.

“I thought he was just busy,” I whispered. “Trying to build a future for us. I thought—”

“You thought he was loyal?”

I felt like a goddamn fool. All the signs I’d ignored, the excuses I’d made for him… and I hadn’t even realized this.

Thorne knelt beside the bed. His voice was quieter. “Now you know, I can help you, Delilah. I want to destroy him. Take back everything he stole from you… from me. This isn’t just revenge. This is reclaiming your life. Your power. Everything he’s built on lies… gone.”

My breath caught in my throat. “And… Why? Why are you doing this? After everything?”

“Because I can,” he said simply. “Because I’ve waited for years to fix what’s broken. Because Caleb… he’s taken enough. And because, Delilah, I’ve never stopped watching. Waiting. Learning. And now, I can finally step in and make him pay. And you… you can finally survive. Even if it kills you to admit it.”

My pulse raced. My chest ached with confusion and something darker—something dangerously thrilling. The idea of revenge is crazily intoxicating. I swallowed hard as he grabbed my hand.. “I… I don’t know if I can… if I should…”

“Then don’t decide yet,” he murmured. “Take two days. Five. A week. Heck, even a month, but I'll be here. I'm always here. And I would die before letting him break you again.”

He gripped my jaw softly, forcing our eyes to meet.."You want revenge… I want you. Be mine and I'll destroy him for you.” Thorne said coldly.