LOGINKai’s phone rang back just as he reached the ballroom entrance. He glanced at the screen, expecting a message from one of his business associates. Instead, Elara’s name appeared. He had trying reaching her earlier but she didn’t answer so he assumed she was busy.He answered immediately.“Baby, I’m at the entrance. Have you changed your mind about joining me? I can ask them to—”“Come home.”Kai stopped walking.“What?”“Please, Kai. Come home.”Something about her voice made his smile disappear. Elara sounded as though she had been crying for hours. Her breathing was uneven, and she struggled to get the words out.“Baby, what happened? Are you all right?”“Just come home!”The call ended. For two seconds, Kai stared at his phone. Then he turned to his driver.“Back to the house. Now.”He called Elara again. No answer. He called Alex. No answer. Then Lucas. Still nothing. His chest tightened.“Drive faster!” he barked.He had no idea what awaited him at home, but he knew his wife. Ela
The internet had found a new obsession. Alex and Lucas Lennox and they seemed to no longer remember the names Yasmin, Damien and Victor. Every morning, there seemed to be another video. Another photograph. Another gym clip. Another reason for people to talk about them.Alex's videos usually came first. He had developed the habit of recording short clips after his workouts, sometimes standing in front of the gym mirror, sometimes walking out with a towel around his neck, sometimes laughing with Lucas. Lucas had started appearing beside him more frequently and the internet loved it.**Arlene:**“Those Lennox brothers are actually dangerous. 😭”**TeeInTiktok:**“Why are they always sweaty? Who approved this content?”Reply: Dhurrr! They are in a gym. People swear when they work out. **Kardashiiiiiyan:**“Alex is fine but Lucas is catching up FAST.”**Margo:**“The Lennox genes need to be studied.”**Phoebe22:**“Lucas after the accident looks stronger every week.”**Erich_Norman:**“M
Elara woke up screaming. Again. Her hands flew to her chest as she sat upright in bed, breathing so hard that her entire body shook. For several seconds, she did not know where she was. The room was dark. Quiet. Safe or at least, it was supposed to be safe. She looked toward the other side of the bed. Empty. Kai had gone downstairs. Elara swallowed. Her eyes burned. She pressed both hands over her face and tried to slow her breathing.“It was a dream,” she whispered.But the words did not comfort her anymore. The nightmares had started several weeks ago. At first, they had been vague. A dark hallway. A locked door. Someone screaming her name. Then they became clearer. Too clear and lately, they had centered around Alex and Lila. She hated herself for it. Alex was her son and Lila was her daughter. There was nothing in reality that should have made her think such things about them. Incest? Never! Yet the nightmares kept returning, leaving Elara waking with terror lodged inside her ches
The first thing Lucas noticed when he opened his eyes that morning was sunlight. Not the harsh white hospital lights. Not the blinking monitors. Not the nurses moving quietly around his bed. Sunlight. It came through the curtains in a thin golden line, falling across the blanket covering his chest. He stared at it for a while. Then he smiled. It was small. Weak but real.Across the room, Lila was awake too. She was propped up against several pillows, her hair slightly messy, her face still pale from the weeks of pain and medication. She looked toward her brother.Lucas noticed.“You're staring,” he whispered.Lila rolled her eyes.“You're alive. I'm allowed to stare.”Lucas smiled wider.“You missed me.”“Unfortunately.”“You cried when I went into surgery.”“I did not.”“You did.”“You were unconscious.”“I have sources.”Lila laughed softly, then immediately winced and placed a hand against her ribs.Lucas's smile disappeared.“You okay?”“Yeah.”“You sure?”“Yeah, Lucas.”He watche
Four days had passed since the night that had nearly broken them. Four days since the hospital corridors had been filled with panic, hurried footsteps, whispered prayers, doctors rushing in and out, and the kind of silence that made every second feel dangerous but that morning, something was different.There was peace. Not complete peace. Not yet but enough. Lucas was awake. Lila was also awake. They were both still weak, both surrounded by machines and tubes, both looking far more fragile than the two eighteen-year-olds who had climbed into their Lamborghini days earlier with laughter and excitement but they were alive and for the first time in days, nobody in the room was afraid of receiving another terrible phone call.Kai sat beside Lila's bed. He had barely left her side. His hand rested gently over hers as he watched her sleep. She had been awake for most of the morning, asking for water, complaining about the hospital food, the ugly hospital gown, and repeatedly insisting that
The clock seemed to have stopped.For nine hours, the hands on the hospital wall had moved, but time itself had refused to move with them.Kai had walked the same corridor so many times that the soles of his shoes seemed to know every crack in the polished floor.Back and forth.Back and forth.Sometimes he stopped.Sometimes he turned sharply and walked in the opposite direction.Sometimes he stared at the closed operating-room doors as though sheer force of will could make them open but they remained closed.Behind those doors was his son. His eighteen-year-old son. His boy. Lucas. Somewhere else in the hospital, Lila was lying unconscious in an induced coma, her life depending on machines and the doctors watching over her.Kai dragged a trembling hand over his face. He had not sat down properly in hours. He had barely spoken. Every time the operating-room doors opened, his head snapped toward them. Every time a doctor walked down the hallway, his heart jumped and every time the doc





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