Sophia's POV I stared at the computer screen, my eyes burning from how hard I was concentrating on the numbers. Zero. Zero dollars and zero cents. The account that was supposed to save our lives was completely empty. "This can't be right," I whispered, clicking the refresh button for what had to be the twentieth time. "There has to be some mistake." The page reloaded with the same devastating result. Account balance: $0.00. "Where is it?" Isabella screamed from her chair, leaning across to me to see the computer screen for herself. "Where is the fucking money, Sophia?" "I don't know!" I screamed back, my voice cracking with panic. "It was here! I swear to God, it was here!" Victor moved closer to the desk, his cold eyes scanning the computer screen. "Are you telling me that this miraculous solution to your debt problem is an empty bank account?” "Marcus gave me the password himself," I said, more to myself than to anyone else. "He wrote it down on a piece of paper and mad
Isabella’s POV The warehouse smelled like motor oil and fear. I could hear water dripping somewhere in the darkness, each drop echoing off the concrete walls like a countdown timer. Victor's men had separated Sophia and me into metal chairs that had been bolted to the floor, but they spared us by not putting on the leather restraints attached to the chairs. "Please," I whispered to Victor, who was sitting behind a desk like this was some kind of twisted business meeting. "There has to be a way to work this out reasonably." Victor's laugh was cold and humorless. "Reasonable? Your brother borrowed five million dollars from me. There's nothing reasonable about that kind of debt." "We understand the debt exists," I said, trying to keep my voice steady. "But we need time to…" "Time is a luxury you don't have," Victor interrupted. He stood up from his chair and walked over to a table in the corner where various tools were laid out in a neat row. "You see, Isabella, I've been in this b
Dr Parker's POV My hands were shaking as I paced across my office floor for what felt like the hundredth time in the past hour. The elaborate plans we had were certainly not going as we wanted. I couldn't sit still. Not with everything that was happening. Marcus should have been awake by now. That was the plan. Give him the drug to make him appear dead, let Elena have her moment of grief, make her sleep with the drugged coffee, then wake him up and he will disappear with Sophia before Elena could wake and tell her he was cremated. Clean, simple, and profitable. Instead, he was lying in the morgue like a ticking time bomb, and I had no idea what was going on anymore. I stopped pacing and checked my watch again. 12:15 PM. The dose I gave Marcus was supposed to last twelve hours, which meant he should have been awake even without the antidote since evening of the day he supposedly died. What if he was dead for sure? What if he woke up and ran away alone without giving me the balanc
Elena's POV I settled into my favorite armchair with a steaming cup of chamomile tea, watching the steam curl up from the delicate porcelain as I replayed the day's events in my mind. The apartment felt so peaceful now that Isabella and Sophia were gone, dragged away by Victor's men into whatever nightmare awaited them. Perfect. Absolutely perfect. I took a slow sip of tea, savoring both the warmth and the satisfaction that filled my chest. In my previous life, I had sat in this same chair on countless sleepless nights, broken and destroyed, wondering how my perfect marriage had crumbled into such devastating betrayal. I trusted Marcus completely, believed in our love story, never suspected that my own step-sister was sharing his bed while I planned our future together. The irony was delicious. Isabella and Sophia thought they were so clever yesterday, manipulating me into signing those divorce papers with their fake pregnancy story and their crocodile tears about Marcus' suppose
Sophia's POV The leather seat beneath me was cold against my back, but not as cold as the fear spreading through my chest. I moved more towards Isabella, trying to put as much distance as possible between me and the mountain of muscle sitting next to me. He was steady and calm as if kidnapping people was just another Tuesday night for him. I couldn't stop replaying the last hour in my head, trying to figure out where everything went wrong. Just this morning, Isabella and I were celebrating our victory. Now we were prisoners in the back of a gangster's SUV, owing six and a half million dollars to a man who obviously collected what he was owed with a gun. "This can't be happening," Isabella whispered beside me, her voice was so quiet I barely heard it over the engine noise. "This can't be real." She was hyperventilating and she kept clenching and unclenching her fists like she was trying to wake up from a nightmare. "Isabella," I hissed under my breath, "you need to calm do
Isabella's POV "No, no, no!" I screamed, digging my heels into the carpet as Victor's man dragged me toward the door. "This is insane! You can't do this!" The man's grip on my arm was like steel and no matter how hard I struggled, I couldn't break free. Behind me, I could hear Sophia sobbing seriously as another one of Victor's thugs manhandled her toward the door. "Elena!" I twisted around to face her with desperation in my voice. "Don't let them do this! We're family!" Elena stood by the couch, her arms crossed, watching our struggle with an expression that was completely calm. Too calm. Like she was watching a movie instead of witnessing her sister-in-law and step-sister being kidnapped by dangerous criminals. "Elena, please!" Sophia wailed, tears streaming down her face. "Help us! Tell them the truth!" "The truth?" Elena tilted her head and raised a brow. "The truth is that you two convinced me to sign those divorce papers for reasons best known to you. The truth is tha