LOGINI don’t speak. I simply watch the way Daniel’s chest heaves, savoring the gasp of his failing lungs. He might die of infection if not starvation and dehydration—yet all he cares about is his mother. What a good son he is. Barbara's bloodshot eyes stare wildly around, settling on the CCTV at the corner of the ceiling. “Psycho! Just send us to the police! We’ll confess! We’ll sign whatever you want! Just put us in a cell instead of keeping us here... give us water... please...” I lean into the microphone. “The police, Barbara? Now why would I outsource a personal matter to the state?” Daniel weeps, his hands pressing against the glass he can’t see through. “Zayn, I beg you! I didn't let Damon have her! I hesitated! I told her I loved her! Jade knows... Jade knows I didn't want to hurt her! I care about her.” “You put your filthy hands on my wife. You made her cry, Daniel. You made her believe, even for a second, that help wasn't coming.” “We’re sorry!” Natasha shrieks from the
I run out of the warehouse. I realize it’s night. The cold air is cutting into my lungs. I try to take in steady breaths as I sprint, but breathing is just too hard. It begins to rain. The storm is blinding, driving needles of freezing precipitation straight into my eyes as I stumble across the muddy gravel of the yard. I can’t see what’s ahead of me. I can only hear what is behind—the terrifying thud of heavy boots tearing through the puddles.“She went toward the perimeter! Split up and find her!”Damon’s men. They are right on my heels. My foot catches on a rusted piece of rebar hidden in the mud. I gasp, throwing my hands out as I go crashing into the wet gravel. Pain flares in my knees, but the adrenaline overrides it. I must escape. I need to survive. I scramble back up to my feet, my breath hitching in my throat, sobbing from exhaustion. I can’t go back into that cage. I can’t let them hand me over to Damon. I don’t want to die in his hands.I round the corner of a rusted meta
“Jade—” “No,” I say, shifting back as Daniel stretches his hand to reach out to me. “What happens to me?”He slides to the very edge of the mattress, dragging his split plaster cast with a low hiss of agonizing pain. He reaches out again, his trembling hand hovering over mine, desperately wishing he could touch me, but stopping just short when he sees the dead look in my eyes.“Please, Jade,” he begs, his voice cracking into a heartbreaking sob. “Just tell me you understand. Tell me you see why I have to do this.”“I don’t understand.”“I don't want you to die. I still love you.”I scoff. “Do you really?”“God help me, I love you so much it’s killing me. Everything I did... taking you from St. Jude’s, bringing you here... I just wanted a chance for us to be what we used to be. But if I don't give you to Damon, Zayn is going to kill us within the hour. I’m trying to save my family.”“You’re not saving anyone,” I say, my voice steady, refusing to give him the comfort he’s begging for.
JADEI don’t know why my mind chooses this exact moment to remind me of the time I could taste freedom like honey and breathe it in like air. It was sweet, I can’t even lie. Freedom is something you don't know how much you cherish until it’s stripped from you.And love… genuine love is one of the good things that make one feel truly free. Because tell me why every image that’s pulsing through my mind is of Zayn? Why do I think of only him? The metal on my wrists bites deeper into my skin every time I draw a fresh breath. But memories of Zayn cut deeper than anything else. I wish I’d looked at him far longer than I did before he left.I wish I’d memorized the ink on his skin and asked him what they meant. I wish I… I wish I’d said ‘I love you’ even if I wasn't sure if he’d say it back. A stray tear escapes my eye. The concrete floor beneath me is freezing, bleeding a numbing chill straight through my clothes and into my bones.I use the back of my hand to wipe away my tears. I should
~DANIEL~ Pain is the only thing keeping me conscious. Every time the rusted springs of the mattress shift, an intense agony shoots up my broken leg, radiating from the fractured tibia that is currently held together by nothing but sheer will and a messy layer of gauze beneath my split plaster cast.Yanking that IV out at St. Jude’s had been a mistake. My veins feel like they’re filled with battery acid, and my forehead is slick with a cold, feverish sweat. But we had no choice. Zayn would have torn me apart in that hospital bed if I’d stayed any longer. He would have found me.I look around the room. It’s suffocatingly small. We’re holed up in an abandoned warehouse near the industrial edges of Queens—a property my mother’s family used to lease decades ago before the business went under. No active deeds. No digital footprint. Just cracked concrete, boarded-up windows, and the distant, muffled roar of the expressway.“Drink this,” my mother commands, pressing a lukewarm bottle of wate
~ZAYN~The meeting with my grandmother took longer than I expected. Immediately after, I call Jade, but her cellphone is switched off. It’s never off. So I check the tracking application on my phone, but it doesn’t blink. It sits entirely still like a solitary blue dot glowing against the digital map of Manhattan.What’s she doing in Manhattan? She’s supposed to be at home in Westchester.Five hours of a high-speed hunt through the rain-slicked streets of New York led blindly by a satellite signal brings us here. To the edge of nothing. “Boss,” Dave whispers, his voice cutting through the steady drum of the freezing downpour.I don't look at him. My boots are buried in the mud of a secluded, rotting shipping pier off the West Side Highway. The black water of the Hudson River churns angrily below us, swallowing the city's filth.Two of my private divers break the surface, their heavy breathing echoing under the concrete overpass. One of them climbs up the slippery rocks, his gloved ha
If looks could kill, I’d be dead, buried, and haunting this building. Victoria’s trembling, her designer handbag clutched so tightly her knuckles are white.“Morning, Ms. Victoria.”She says nothing. Her eyes refuse to leave Zayn. “Have a great day, babe,” he says before turning to her. “Hello, Vi
The gates slide open before us. I don't ask how. The place looks magical. It isn't a New York high-rise. It’s a sprawling, modern estate tucked away behind high walls. The mansion is in the middle of green lawns. The glass windows reflect the moonlight. “You live here with your family?” I whisper
My father’s voice is sharp with fury. “You shameless girl!” I taste blood in my mouth. “Look at what she’s wearing,” Natasha sneers. “She was with that man. She’s been having an affair with him even before the wedding.” My mother’s eyes fill with rage. The old me used to hide under oversized
I’m naked inside the robe. Zayn had undressed me last night while I was… Nope! I don't wanna imagine that. My brain wants to explode. I grab my phone and sprint for the door before he wakes. I don't know if I can face him. I don’t want to see him again. Not today. Not ever. Especially not with tha







