John’s Pov.The phone buzzes.The light cuts the dark.The detective’s words slice me open.“Annabella… driven away… with her son… in a black Hilux. Father left behind, wandering aimlessly.”Aimlessly. Like me. Always like me.I can’t breathe. The walls close in. My chest is too tight, too small, too weak for this kind of hurt. She didn’t come back. She didn’t come back to me. Not this time, not ever.The sound that rips out of me doesn’t sound human. My throat tears. I slam the door with both fists until my knuckles split. I throw the duvethers, always hers—off the bed. The smell still clings. My lungs choke on it. It’s her perfume, faint, fading, mocking me.She left. She actually leftNot just left the house. Left me. Left us. Left everything I broke my body to give her.I waited. I always waited. For her call. For her text. For her voice saying, Come through, John, come now, I need you. And I would have gone. No matter where. No matter when. But she never called. She never reac
John’s Pov.Rage consumed me, I looked at the nurse and hissed storming out of the hospital.Why?Why does she water down my effort?This woman would drive me nuts.“Vanguard Compound”. I snapped at the driver.Bringing out my phone, the secret spy had alerted me that she was seen entering the building.“Stay at alert, I'm on my way”. I ordered the men.“Should we attack?”. The leader of the men asked.“Lay low………i want to see where this leads”. I ordered them, my anger threatening to explode.Why was she doing this?Is she trying to get herself killed?Daniel……..the cursed bastard!.I would seize life out of him, I would make him choke on his own blood.He had the nerves to mess with my woman and my son.The audacity.The driver had driven half the journey when I ordered him to take me back home.“Turn around, take me home”. I ordered the driver, my words measured.He bowed in accordance, turning the wheels over, driving me home.Daniel Alexander had toyed with fire, I had been too
Anabella’s Pov.My knees hurt from kneeling, pleading that Daniel tamper mercy.I hadn't done anything to deserves this, my whole body.I turned to face my father, he didn't say a word but his eyes pleased I shouldn't leave him here. For so long I had thought he was buried and go be, I had images of a corpse being laid down but no this man before me, was alive, our resemblance striking.Daniel tapped on one foot, waiting for my response, his thigs ready to strike.I turned to look at Peter, he look well fed but his eyes swollen…..he probably cried when he misses me.“Daniel please”. My voice barely above a whisper the tears now hot burning my face but I don't flinch.Daniel voice loud and thunderous “I won’t ask you again”. His voice roared like lighting across the sky causing a shock awakening in my body, his right hand raised.“One”“Two”“Three”. Daniel dropped his hand, the men put a sharp blade across my father’s neck about to slit his throat open, a gun pointed at peter’s head
Anabella Pov.I burst through the bunker’s cold maw before my racing lungs could catch up—my gown torn, feet numb, but my heart beating pure, unmitigated resolve. The stark corridor yawned ahead, concrete swallowing every echo of my steps, every hint of breath.Then I saw them.Daniel. Tall. Still. Holding my son—my Peter—pressed into his arm like a shield. And there, chained to the wall with rusty links that bit into his wrists, stood my father. Both faces turning, haunted, toward me.My chest exploded. Dread and grief collided, breathing trapped in my throat. My legs felt halfway gone. I swallowed. Peter’s voice—tiny and raw.“Mama…” He cried, eyes flickering bright with recognition. My heart fractured. I lurched forward.Daniel’s calm was knife—sharp, cold.“Look at me.” His voice echoed, distant yet dagger-sharp. “Your father is alive. Your son is alive. I can make them both disappear. But I need one thing from you: yourself.”My breath caught. The word yourself pulsed in the sta
John’s Pov.I sat in my dimly lit office, whose wall of glass looked out over streets that were too bright, too ordinary. Inside, my heart pounded—a relentless drumbeat of dread.My phone vibrated again. Another call from my father. I stared at the screen, heartbeat in my throat, and tapped silence. If I answered, he’d draw me into that conversation again.accusations, lectures, demands to shape myself into an heir, not a father chasing tabloid rumors. I wasn’t ready.Instead, I buried the device face-down, closing my eyes. The hum of the city outside was suffocating.Within the company, whispers had become a gale. People saw me hovering near Anabella’s doorways, checking updates on Peter, looking unhinged. Is she pregnant?Peter—his son or theirs?My PR team worked overtime quashing stories, patching leaks. The press smelled a scandal, and I was the predator—the parent out of wedlock with a secret child.At board meetings, I masked it all behind calm presentations. But every word fe
Anabella ‘s Pov.I drifted into half-consciousness, cocooned in white light, the steady beep… beep… beep of a monitor grounding me.My skin prickled with cold sweat. My throat raw, I tried to speak—but only ragged tears formed.A hand brushed damp strands of hair from my face. John’s face hovered—concern radiating from every line, his eyes glassy and frantic.He murmured, voice raw with relief, “Anabella… thank God.”Every muscle in me trembled. Guilt bloomed like poison. He followed me. I almost broke. I blinked to clear the haze.“Peter?” The word tore out like a blade.John’s throat bobbed. “They found him. Alive.”My chest convulsed. Air flooded back in ragged gasps as I clutched at the thin hospital sheet.Alive. The word exploded through me—relief and dread twined tight in my chest.I tried to sit up, vision splintering. The sterile smell stung—bleach and antiseptic. My body shuddered with exhaustion.John guided me gently back to the pillow. “Just rest,” he whispered. “He’s sa