LOGINChapter 272 Cynthia's POVIf anyone ever asked me if I believed in miracles, I would tell them yes.Absolutely, without question, yes.Because what happened in those few seconds defied every law of physics and probability I'd ever learned.One minute we were driving.The next, we were flying.The truck left the ground — actually left the ground — spinning through the air like a toy tossed by an angry child.Time stretched impossibly thin.I saw the pavement below us.Saw the blue sky above.Saw Miguel's hands frozen on the steering wheel.Saw Carmen's face, twisted in terror.And I thought, with absolute certainty, This is it.This is how I die.Not in the warehouse.Not at Grace's hands.But here, on a Missford street, so close to home I could probably walk there.The truck completed its rotation — one full, impossible flip — and slammed back down onto the road.Right side up.The impact was brutal.Metal shrieked. Glass shattered. The entire vehicle shuddered violently, the frame g
Chapter 271 Cynthia's POVI saw the sign WELCOME TO MISSFORD just as soon as I was about to complain to Miguel about how long we have spent on the road.Relief crashed through me so powerfully I actually started crying.We'd made it.After everything — the kidnapping, the warehouse, the running, the hiding, the broken-down truck, the police checkpoint — we'd actually made it."Missford," I whispered, pressing my hand against the window like I could reach through the glass and touch the sign. "We're here. We're actually here."Carmen turned in her seat to look at me, a gentle smile on her weathered face."Sí, mija," she said softly. "Ya llegamos."Yes, my daughter. We've arrived.Miguel grunted, his eyes still fixed on the road, but I could see the tension in his shoulders easing slightly.Even he seemed relieved to have reached our destination.As we crossed into the city limits, the landscape began to change.The empty fields and dirt roads gave way to pavement, buildings, traffic l
Chapter 270Cynthia's POVWe were stranded.Completely, utterly stranded.In the middle of a lonely stretch of road that seemed to stretch endlessly in both directions, with nothing but empty fields and the occasional withered tree for company.Cars passed by — maybe one every five or ten minutes — but none of them stopped.Why would they?We were just… stuck.Miguel had the hood of the truck propped open, his head buried inside the engine compartment, muttering curses in Spanish while Carmen stood beside him, wringing her hands anxiously.And I was pacing.Back and forth along the side of the road, my hands clenched into fists, my mind screaming at me to do something.But there was nothing I could do.No phone to call for help.No money to pay for a tow truck even if we could call one.No way forward except to wait for Miguel to somehow fix a twenty-year-old transmission with his bare hands.This can't be happening.This can't be real.Every minute we stood here was another minute Et
Chapter 269Cynthia's POVI didn't sleep.I lay in that small bed with the patchwork quilt pulled up to my chin, staring at the ceiling, watching shadows shift and dance across the worn floral wallpaper as the hours crawled by.Every time I closed my eyes, I saw Ethan.Alone in that warehouse with Grace and Pascal.And every time I drifted close to sleep, the nightmares came.Dreams of the past—our wedding, our first years together, the moments when things had been good, when I'd believed we could be happy.And then the darker memories.Amber choking.Anna crying crocodile tears.Ethan looking at me like I was a stranger.Like I was the enemy.I woke gasping more than once, my heart pounding, my chest tight with fear and guilt.By the time pale morning light started filtering through the thin curtains, I'd given up on sleep entirely.I sat up, my body aching, my head pounding, my eyes burning from exhaustion and tears.But I couldn't rest until I got to Missford and I found help. Unti
Chapter 268Cynthia's POVBy evening, Miguel and Carmen had brought me to their actual home—a small, modest house on the edge of their farmland with peeling paint and a sagging porch, but warm and lived-in in a way that made my chest ache.It reminded me of the beach house Ethan had bought us.Before everything fell apart.Carmen had given me a set of her daughter's old clothes—simple jeans and a worn sweater that smelled faintly of lavender and mothballs—and had laid out a plate of food on their small kitchen table.Simple fare. Rice, beans, some roasted vegetables.But it was the best meal I'd had in days."Gracias," I said for what felt like the hundredth time. "Thank you. For everything."Carmen smiled gently, patting my hand across the table."De nada, mija," she said softly.It's nothing, my daughter.Miguel sat across from us, eating in silence, still clearly wary of me but not unkind.After dinner, Carmen showed me to a small room at the back of the house—probably their daught
Chapter 267 Kevin's POV I looked like absolute shit. I knew I did. I hadn't slept more than five minutes since Cynthia disappeared. Hadn't showered. Hadn't changed clothes. Hadn't done anything except pace the hallways of the Laurent mansion, make phone calls to every contact I had, and stare at surveillance footage until my eyes burned. My reflection in the bedroom mirror told the story—bloodshot eyes, dark circles underneath them, stubble covering my jaw, hair sticking up in every direction. I looked like a man who was falling apart. Which, I suppose, I was. The knock on my door made me jump. "Come in," I said, my voice hoarse from disuse and shouting into phones. The door opened. And there stood Amber. Eleven years old. Small. Scared. Wearing pajamas with little reindeer on them. He looked up at me with those big, intelligent eyes that were so much like his mother's. And I knew immediately that this conversation was going to destroy me. "Uncle Kevin," Amber said quie
Chapter 167 Cynthia’s POV I noticed Bryan wasn’t leaving and I guess Ethan noticed it too. Ethan leaned back against the wall, arms folded loosely, eyes sharp despite the exhaustion tugging at his features. “So,” he said casually, too casually, “why aren’t you leaving?” Bryan didn’t look at him
Chapter 168Bryan’s POVIt was the first time I had ever been forced to sit with my thoughts for that long without a distraction, and it was hell.Hospitals did that to you. They stripped you down. Just white walls, the low hum of machines, and the unbearable weight of everything you had refused to
Chapter 164 Ethan’s POV I didn’t realize how tightly I’d been holding myself together until Cynthia walked out of that room looking like she might collapse. She didn’t owe my mother anything. Grace had been cruel to her. Manipulative. Dangerous. And yet Cynthia had still laid herself on that ste
Chapter 175Ethan’s POVThe only thing on my mind right now was Cynthia.Just to make love to Cynthia.Every hurt, every betrayal — the sting of Grace’s lies, the venom of Anna’s schemes, drowned beneath the tidal wave of desire crashing through me. I needed her. Needed to lose myself in her, to f







