Chapter 24~ Mirabella ~The interrogation room was cold—too cold.Not the kind of cold that brushed your skin and made you shiver a little, no.This was bone-deep, cement-floor, metal-chair, no-windows kind of cold. The kind that crept into your soul and settled there like it owned the place. Like it had been waiting for you all along.A single fluorescent light buzzed above me, flickering faintly every few seconds, like it was mocking my sanity with each blink.I sat there with my hands cuffed to the metal loop drilled into the tabletop. My wrists ached, but I didn’t complain.Not yet.Not when I still had a thousand questions spiraling in my head.Not when my son was lying in a hospital and Ethan had tricked me again.Not when I had been dragged out of that room like some kind of murderer.The door swung open for what felt like the tenth time.Two officers walked in—one tall and broad with a neck thicker than my thigh, the other leaner, with a clipboard he seemed to be using to mea
Chapter 23~ Mirabella ~I hung up before it beeped.Called again.And again.Same result.I wanted to scream. To hurl my phone at the airport walls until the screen shattered and the voicemail with it. But I didn’t. I just gripped the device so tightly my knuckles paled, and hurried toward the main exit, my legs moving like they were no longer mine.“Taxi!” I flagged the first one I saw the moment I stepped outside, yanking the door open and tossing myself and my suitcase in. “Drive—please. Out of here. I’ll give you the address once I have it.”The driver gave me a look but didn’t question me. He simply nodded, pulled away from the curb, and slid into traffic.The city blurred past. Lights, people, signs—none of it made sense. It was like I was moving through static. My fingers hovered over my phone the entire time, eyes flicking to the screen every few seconds. I checked for a missed call. A text. Anything.Nothing.Still nothing.Ethan better not be kidding with such a news.Then,
Chapter 22~ Mirabella ~The airport was unusually quiet for a Thursday. Or maybe it wasn’t. Maybe the noise was there and I just couldn’t hear it—like the world was moving and I was stuck in between seconds, standing still in a place that no longer felt like mine—alive.I clutched the handle of my one suitcase, the same one I brought when I came back to Switzerland a few weeks ago with dreams packed between layers of baby onesies and sleepless hope. It felt heavier now, but not because of what was inside.Because of what I was leaving behind.My fingers tightened around the grip. My heart hollowed out somewhere beneath my ribs, yet my chest still carried something stubborn—something foolishly hopeful. A small whisper that maybe, just maybe, this was what starting over multiple times looked like. Not brave. Not perfect. Just… necessary.The glass windows beside me overlooked the runway, planes gliding across it like clockwork. I followed their movements with my eyes, but in my mind, a
Chapter 21~ Mirabella ~Mr. Richard laughed.Not the kind of laugh that lightened the mood. Not the kind that made you second-guess your anger. This laugh? It was sharp, mocking, and it scraped across my skin like sandpaper.I didn’t find it funny.My eyes narrowed, cutting through the air between us. “What’s so funny?”He tilted his head, still grinning, and parroted my words back to me with a sneer. “‘Everything,’” he said, mimicking my tone. “‘I want everything.’” His voice was high-pitched and dramatic, a mockery of what I'd just declared. “You make it sound so... poetic.”I didn’t smile. Because nothing was worth beaming my pearly whites.“I can’t give you everything, sweetheart,” he said with a shrug. “This isn’t a fairytale. You have to choose. One thing. Not all.”I leaned in slightly, voice firm as I repeated. “I want everything.”He chuckled again, deeper this time, like I’d just confirmed every twisted thing he thought of me. He relaxed into his seat, folding his arms, eye
Chapter 20~ Mirabella ~I didn’t need a pigeon to flap around chirping nonsense to figure out the message Mr. Richard was delivering. This wasn’t his first threat—just the first time he actually meant it.“I’ll make sure Cole doesn’t recover from this,” he said, each word cold and slow, like a bullet slipping into a chamber. “I’ll make sure you never get near him again. I'll make sure your son will be raised far from your shadow, and you’ll live the rest of your life choking on every regret.”I didn’t flinch. My hand curled beneath the table, pressing against a belly that hadn’t begun to show.“No, you won’t,” I said calmly. “Cole is my fiancé. And I’m carrying his child. I’m pregnant, Mr. Richard.”Let him stew on that.Just because he had wealth, power, and a contact list that could end nations didn’t mean he could stomp through my life and call the shots. I wouldn't let him. Not when I had already lost so much. Not when I loved Cole. Not when this baby—our baby—was growing inside
Chapter 19~ Mirabella ~The hospital’s sterile air pressed against my skin like a second layer of ice. I didn’t know what I was hoping for when I came here, but each footstep felt heavier than the last. My phone was clenched tight in my hand, the text from the unknown number still glowing on the screen, its words burning into my thoughts:He never stood you up. Check the hospital.So I ran to the one hospital Cole and I were accustomed to.I couldn’t breathe—not from fear, not from panic, but from the sheer weight of something I couldn't place. Maybe everything.The receptionist gave me a strange look as I approached the desk, her eyes flicking down to my unsteady hands and then back up to my face. I must’ve looked a mess—my hair tangled and unkempt, my eyes bloodshot from crying, from trying to be strong for a fight I’d already lost.“I need to see Cole Carter,” I said, my voice hoarse from the desperate calls I’d made to his phone this morning.She blinked at me, an uncomfortable p