***********************POV: Mack*************************---The footage still haunted me.I’d seen a lot in my life—boardroom betrayals, market crashes, legal threats—but nothing had prepared me for watching Aliana stumble out of the Agyis sub-basement, barely conscious, her skin a roadmap of bruises, her voice hoarse from screaming into the darkness.And it had all happened under my nose. In my building.I sat at my desk, staring at the glowing city through the floor-to-ceiling windows of the penthouse. Claire was asleep in the next room, finally getting some rest after days of chaos. Rowe had gone quiet since the rescue, likely dealing with his guilt. And Etian... I couldn’t even let myself think about him right now.My phone vibrated, the screen lighting up with a single word: Henry.I hesitated, looking away from my phone then answered.“Mack.”His voice was quieter than usual. Weighted. Tired.“Did you know?” I asked before he could say anything else. “About Aliana? About the b
******************Henry's POV******************************I’d always believed there was a line between loyalty and blindness.And I had crossed it—too many times.I sat in the back of the black sedan, my car engine humming beneath me like a restless conscience. My phone screen was still lit up, the message clear and cold.Aliana rescued. Alive. Weak, but talking. Confirmation: she was held in the Agyis basement.Held. Imprisoned. By my son. Liam.I pressed two fingers against my temple and closed my eyes. The ache wasn’t physical. It was bone-deep, settled in the spaces between my ribs, clawing at the man I thought I’d raised.Liam. My boy.No. Not a boy anymore. A man grown twisted in the dark I’d refused to see.---We pulled up to my townhouse, and the driver opened my door. I stepped out slowly, knees protesting, my mind heavier than my body.Inside, the house was quiet.Too quiet.I headed straight for my study, locked the door, and pulled the curtains shut.Then I dialed.Not
*************************Aliana’s POV**********************I stopped counting the days after the eighth.Or maybe it was the ninth.Time didn’t move here—not in the way it should. The space Liam had locked me in was a prison built with more than stone and steel. It was built on fear, silence, and the unnerving echo of my breath.There were no windows. No clocks. Just four grey walls, a thin mattress, a bucket, and a flickering lightbulb overhead that buzzed like it was whispering secrets to the shadows.He hadn’t come in days.And honestly, that was worse than when he did.I sat with my knees to my chest, back pressed into the corner farthest from the metal door. My fingers absentmindedly traced the faint scar on my wrist—Liam's last message. That night, he’d pressed the cold edge of a blade there, smiling like we were sharing an inside joke.“You want people to save you,” he had whispered. “But who’s left, Aliana? Etian? He’s dead. Claire doesn’t trust you. Mack’s a busy CEO. No one
************************Liam’s POV************************I woke to the sound of my phone exploding on the nightstand—buzzing, ringing, pinging like a warning bell in a mine shaft seconds before collapse.At first, I thought it was Roger; my loyal worker. He always called at odd hours, to give me information and updates about our plans. But then came the second buzz. Third. Tenth. By the time I sat up and grabbed my phone, the screen was a mess of notifications.Missed Calls: 23Messages: 78Mentions: Hundreds.Then I saw the headlines.“Billionaire’s Dirty Web: Inside Liam Agyis’ Trail of Abuse, Manipulation, and Murder.”A red film blurred my vision as I clicked through the article, scanned photos I’d hidden for years. Pictures of Etian. The precinct files. Aliana’s terrified eyes. Even audio clips—grainy, but damning. My voice. My orders.They’d leaked everything.No. Not leaked.They’d declared war.I crushed the phone against the wall with one clean throw. It cracked and shatter
****************************Mack’s POV*********************The morning sun filtered through the massive windows of the conference room, but it didn’t warm me. Nothing did lately—not coffee, not victory, not even Claire’s hand resting on mine.Nora had been rescued. She was recovering slowly under full protection. That should’ve felt like a win.But I’d seen her face. Pale, eyes distant, lips trembling when she whispered about the walls, the sound of footsteps that never belonged to anyone. Whatever Liam did to her… it had shredded something permanent.And now, we have a problem.Because Liam wasn’t hiding anymore.He was unravelling, but that made him more dangerous—not less.Now, is the right time to strike, because Liam is definitely going to make a slip.He's cornered, he can't think strategically, his feared truth will be out in open_the cause of Sadie's death, Etian and Aliana's disappearance.His fear of losing his goddamn empire, will on the long run be lost.I stood at the he
******************************Liam’s POV*********************They thought they’d won. That dragging that girl out of her cage would rattle me. Break me.Let them believe it.Let them celebrate with tired smiles and shaken hands. Let Rowe choke on his guilt, let Morgan cling to whatever hope he still has left. Let Henry pretend his blood doesn’t run in my veins.They were all fools if they thought this was over.I stood by the window of my study, the sky grey with the threat of rain. The glass was cool beneath my fingertips, a welcome contrast to the heat boiling under my skin.I could still hear Henry’s voice from the night before. Disappointment wrapped in a forced calm, pity painted over fury.“You held someone captive, Liam,” he’d said. “You’ve crossed a line even I can’t blur for you.”He looked at me like I was a disease.But he didn’t understand. None of them did.This wasn’t about Sadie anymore. Or Claire. Or even Mack.This was about being pushed aside. Forgotten. Replaced.I