FAZER LOGINKennedy went completely still.Amelia noticed first. Her eyes lifted to his face.Sean turned towards him.The voice on the phone was older than Kennedy remembered, rougher in places, but beneath the years lay a familiar cadence that pulled him back to his father’s house.A man standing near the dining room doors, an unwelcome silence whenever he entered. His father saying, Go upstairs, Kennedy.Silas.Kennedy’s fingers tightened around the phone.“Have your men finished looking?” Silas asked.Sean stepped closer.Kennedy lowered the phone and switched on the speaker.Nobody in the study spoke.Silas laughed softly. “I thought you might do that.”Amelia reached for Shannon.Mr. Voss slowly rose from his chair.Kennedy stared at the phone as though looking hard enough might put his uncle on the other side of the desk. “You’re alive.”“Yes.”“All these years,” Kennedy said.“You believed what you were told.”“My father buried you.”“Your father was always willing to accept an arrangemen
At Miles Estate, Sean straightened. “Which address?”“The place where he asked me to bring you. I was there yesterday.”“Tell me.”Edward gave him the location.Sean wrote it down, then asked him to repeat it. “An unfinished office building?”“Yes. They took my phone at the entrance and escorted me to a room below ground. Darius was there.”“How many men?”“I saw five. There may have been more.”“Entrances?”“An underground garage. That’s how I went in. I didn’t see the rest of the building.”“Does Silas own it?”“I don’t know.”Edward glanced towards his wife. The woman examining her was checking her blood pressure while Mrs. Vale stared at the floor.“Sean, he may have moved.”“He may have.”“He knows I refused him. After your men reached the house, he will know who helped us.”Sean looked at the address again. “I’ll have it checked.”“Don’t go yourself.”“I’m sending my team.”Edward closed his eyes briefly. “There is a room beyond the main office,” he said. “I didn’t enter it. But
Silas turned back towards the desk. For twenty seven years, Edward had been reliable in the ways that mattered. Greedy. Proud. Willing to believe that whatever benefited him also benefited his children.Silas had counted on those things.He had not counted on Edward finally finding a limit.Now Sean had his father.A man who knew where Silas had been meeting him. A man who had seen Darius wounded. A man who had transferred companies, granted access and listened to instructions that could be repeated to Kennedy.Another witness Sean had pulled out of his reach.“Where did they take him?” Silas asked.“We don’t know yet.”“Find out.”“They changed vehicles after leaving the residence.”“Then find the second vehicle.”“We’re checking.”Silas turned slowly.Darius stopped speaking.“I have heard that enough.” He looked towards the scattered pieces of his phone.We’re checking.We’re searching.We can move him.Every answer bought time for someone else while Sean kept taking things from hi
Sean’s phone rang. He answered so quickly that Shannon startled.“Your parents are secured upstairs,” his security chief said. “They’re behind a reinforced door.”“Have you reached them?”“Not yet. Two men are retreating towards the back. Another is contained near the staircase.”“And the fourth?”“Searching.”“Get to my parents.”Sean began pacing, forcing himself to remain inside the bedroom.Shannon watched him pass the door twice.On the third turn, he stopped with his hand against the frame.He could be halfway there, he could have left when Edward first called, but his men were already inside. Driving across the city would not make them move faster.Behind him, Shannon said his name. "Sean"Sean turned.She did not ask him to repeat his promise. She simply held out her hand.He went back to her.Three firm knocks sounded against the damaged dressing room door. “Mr. Vale. Sean sent us.”Edward remained where he was. “Call him.”The man outside paused then Edward’s phone vibrated
Edward stopped at the rear staircase.“Dad?” Sean said.“They want me to come out.”“Don’t.”Edward looked at his wife. Her face was white, but she was still holding her suitcase. “Leave that.”She let go of it immediately.“Where are you?” Sean asked.“Near the back stairs.”“Is there a room you can lock?”“The upstairs dressing room. Reinforced door. Separate lock.”“Go there. My men are coming.”Edward began climbing.Mrs. Vale followed, one hand pressed to the wall.She had been walking through this house without thinking about its size. Now every landing and corridor seemed to stretch endlessly.Downstairs, the knocking stopped. Then Edward’s other phone rang from inside the study.The device Silas had given him. Its shrill sound travelled through the empty house.Mrs. Vale looked back.“Keep moving,” Edward whispered.They reached the bedroom.Edward crossed to the dressing room and ushered her inside before locking the door.It was a room built around things his wife had once b
Edward remained standing with the phone pressed to his ear.His wife reached him. “What did he say?”He lowered the device. “We need to leave.”“Edward...”“Now.”He crossed to the cabinet and pulled out the small bag containing their passports and personal papers.Mrs. Vale stood frozen. “Where are we going?”“Somewhere else.”“He threatened you.”Edward did not answer.She caught his arm. “He threatened Sean too?”“He wanted me to invent an emergency. Something that would make Sean come without asking questions.”Her face crumpled.For a moment, neither of them spoke. Then she released his arm and hurried towards the door. “I’ll get our things.”“One bag,” Edward said. “Nothing we cannot carry.”He looked down at Silas’s phone.There was a time he would have called an attorney, a board member or one of the men who had spent years assuring him that no problem was beyond their influence.None of them remained.He opened the drawer and retrieved his own phone.Sean’s number was still a
Shannon’s knees weakened beneath her. Three months of silence. Three months of absence. Three months where she wasn’t there. Her breathing grew uneven. Three months where someone else was. Her gaze slowly shifted back to Rowan. And this time she understood. Rowan watched her, something sharp
Rowan sat on the bed, his arm wrapped loosely around Evelyn.Evelyn stood close, too close, and Rowan leaned in, pressing a soft kiss to her cheek like it was the most natural thing in the world.Like he had done it a hundred times.Like it belonged there.“Stop!”The word tore out of Shannon befor
The first thing Shannon felt was the weight, like her entire body had been dragged beneath something heavy and invisible, pressing her down into a darkness that refused to let her rise.Then came the sound, a slow, steady beep... beep... beep...It echoed from far away at first, distant and unreal,
The hospital discharged them the next day.Shannon didn’t know whether that was fate or cruelty.She stood just outside the building, her fingers gripping the thin discharge papers in her hand as the sunlight hit her face. Too bright. Like the world hadn’t just ended for her.A few steps ahead Rowa







