04

Audrey fled into the darkness of the night, carrying a double secret that not even the relentless Alessandro Di' Giovanni had managed to tear from her. The medical report she crumpled in her fist before escaping the clinic did not lie; her fainting spell wasn't just from stress, but because her body was working double time to carry twins. They were expecting two babies. That revelation gave her the strength needed to bypass security and flee the city.

As the taxi pulled away from the mansion, Audrey watched through the window as the iron gates blurred into thin lines. The knot in her throat uncoiled, allowing tears to fall freely. She felt utterly alone, yet a profound certainty comforted her: she had saved her children from becoming mere clauses in a waiver contract. Her parents would hate her for losing the golden ticket, and Alessandro—her pulse raced with terror just imagining him. The man who thought he had her cornered would go mad discovering his prey had slipped right through his fingers.

They aren't a transaction; they're mine, Audrey swore to herself, turning off her phone after receiving a desperate text from her mother. She would not allow Alessandro to steal her babies in exchange for millions.

Arriving at the train station, the bustle swallowed her up. She handed over her ticket with her heart hammering, terrified a heavy hand would land on her shoulder. Only when the train lurched forward with a metallic groan did she allow herself to breathe. She was heading toward a coastal village, a blank canvas where no one knew the heavy weight of the Di' Giovanni surname.

Meanwhile, back at the Sullivan mansion, the air had turned unbreathable. Alessandro stood in the center of the foyer with an expression foretelling a storm. His dark eyes shifted from Eliot to Olivia, who stammered incoherent excuses regarding their daughter's whereabouts.

"Are you telling me your own daughter vanished without you even noticing?" the dark-haired man asked. His voice was a dangerous whisper that cut sharper than a shout.

He didn't trust them; he suspected it was a strategy to renegotiate. He strode back to his office where his head of security was already waiting with the footage. On the screen played the grainy image of Audrey at the train station, glancing over her shoulder with eyes full of panic.

"She ran like a child," he muttered, clenching his jaw. "She'll regret making me waste my time with this game."

He stepped up to the monitor and paused the frame. It wasn't just the contract at stake, but the fact that she was the first person in his life daring to defy him.

Alessandro stared at the medical report in his hand, his mind drifting back to the cold hallways of his childhood. He remembered his grandfather, a man who died in ruin and shame due to the Sullivan family's betrayal. He hadn't been born a monster; they had forged him into a weapon of retribution.

Justice, not vengeance, he repeated to himself like a mantra. Yet looking at the empty hospital bed, a pang of something far from hatred pierced him—a vulnerability that terrified him. For the first time in his life, control—the only thing keeping him safe from his own family demons—was slipping through his fingers. He wasn't hunting her down just for the contract or the heir; he was chasing her because she was the sole person who, in a single night, had managed to quiet the heavy silence of his soul.

"Sir, we tracked the ticket," the guard reported. "She's heading toward the coast. But there's something else... the private clinic doctor left this envelope for you. He says it's the updated blood work for your wife that he couldn't deliver before she bolted."

The dark-haired man took the envelope with threatening slowness. He ripped it open, and as his eyes scanned the results, the fury on his face gave way to a lethal pallor. The paper trembled between his gloved fingers.

"Prep the helicopter," Alessandro ordered, his voice forcing the guards to step back on pure instinct. "She thinks she's running away with my son... but she has no idea that now that I know the truth, I'm going to hunt her down even if I have to burn the world to the ground to find her."