CHAPTER FOUR:DO YOU THINK I REALLY DIED?

The car tore toward the Port of Oakland, tires screaming every time Priska changed lanes.

Voy watched her, quiet for once. His eyes tracked her hands on the wheel, the way her knuckles were white.

“Slow down,” he said. “If you crash, we don’t save anyone.”

Priska didn’t answer. She couldn’t because every second felt like her kids were slipping further away.

Another message hit her phone.

The same number. No photo this time. Just text: _You’re wasting time. They’re already on the ship.

Priska threw the phone into the passenger seat. “They’re on the ship, Voy! What are we even doing?”

Voy leaned forward. “Priska, look at me.”

She glanced over, breathing hard.

“Do you think I really died?” he asked.

The question hit her like a slap.

“What kind of question is that right now?” she snapped. “My kids are missing and you’re asking me that?”

“Answer me,” he said. “Do you think I really died three years ago?”

Priska’s mouth opened, but nothing came out. Because for the first time since she saw him at the warehouse, doubt crept in.

The way he moved. The way he knew Rachel’s next move. The way he wasn’t panicking like a man who’d just found out his kids were gone.

“You knew,” she whispered.

Voy didn’t deny it.

Priska felt the floor drop out. “You knew Rachel was going to take them. You let her do it.”

“I had to,” he said. “You wouldn’t listen to me any other way. You wouldn’t come back to me unless I made you need me again.”

The car swerved but priska yanked it back into the lane, her hands shaking.

“You used my kids,” she said. “You used Dary and the girls to get me back.”

Voy reached for her arm. “Priska, I never wanted them hurt. I can call it off right now. But only if you come home with me. Only if we finish what we started.”

Priska stared at him. The man she mourned for three years. The man she’d started to hate.

And now she knew he’d planned all of it.

She hit the brakes hard.

The car skidded to a stop in the middle of the highway, horns blaring behind them.

“Get out,” she said.

Voy blinked. “What?”

“Get out of my car.”

“Priska, we don’t have time for this”

“I said get out!” Her voice cracked. “You want me back? Come get me yourself. Without using my children as bait.”

Voy opened his mouth, but she was already out, slamming the door.

She didn’t wait for him to argue.

Priska walked already on the road.

Her heels clicked against the highway shoulder, useless against the distance to the port. Cars swerved around her, drivers yelling. She ignored them all. Her phone was still buzzing with messages from Rachel, but she didn’t look. Looking would make it real in a way she couldn’t handle yet.

She had to get to Dock 12 first.

The port gates were a mile ahead, lit up like a fortress. Security guards stood at the entrance, arms crossed. Priska didn’t slow down.

“Ma’am, you can’t go in there,” one of them said as she approached.

“My kids are in there,” she said. “Move.”

The guard hesitated. She used the second he gave her to slip past and run inside.

The port was massive. Containers stacked high on both sides, cranes moving in the distance. Dock 12 was all the way at the far end, and she could see the ship already being loaded. The ramp was halfway up.

“Priska!”

Voy’s voice cut through the noise.

She didn’t turn around. Of course he followed her. He always followed her.

He caught up in three long strides, grabbing her arm. “Stop. You can’t just run onto a cargo ship.”

“Let go of me,” she said, yanking her arm back. “This is my fault for trusting you. But I won’t let you ruin this too.”

“I’m not ruining it. I’m fixing it.” voy said.

He snapped his fingers.

Two men in black suits appeared from between the containers. Voy’s security. Priska recognized one of them from three years ago.

“Get the ship stopped,” Voy told them. “Now.”

The men moved fast and within a minute, the crane stopped. The ramp froze.

Priska stared at him. “How did you do that so fast?”

Voy didn’t answer. He just walked past her, toward Dock 12.

Rachel was there.

She stood by the container, hands shaking, surrounded by Voy’s men. The moment she saw Voy, she turned her face in shame.

“You told me it would be clean,” Rachel said, voice breaking. “You said she’d come back to you and none of this would matter.”

Priska stopped breathing.

Voy didn’t look surprised. “And it would have been, if you hadn’t panicked and sent the photo early.”

“You used me,” Rachel said. “You used all of us.”

Priska stepped forward. “Where are my kids?”

Rachel looked at her, then at Voy, then back at Priska. Tears were streaming down her face.

“They’re in container MAEU 882451,” Rachel said. “Voy told me to put them there. He said if you saw how desperate you were, you’d sign the papers. You’d come home.”

The words hit Priska like a punch.

Voy finally looked at her. “Priska, I can explain—”

“Explain what?” Her voice was shaking now, but it wasn’t fear. It was rage. “Explain how you faked your death? Explain how you let me grieve for three years? Explain how you used my children to get me back?”

Voy stepped closer. “Because you wouldn’t come back any other way. You built a life without me, Priska. I couldn’t lose you again.”

Rachel sobbed. “The container’s unlocked. They’re okay. I swear.”

Priska didn’t wait. She ran past Voy, past Rachel, toward the container number glowing under the dock lights.

Her hands fumbled with the latch. It gave way.

Inside, Dary and the girls were huddled together, blindfolds off, crying but safe.

“Mom!” Dary shouted.

Priska dropped to her knees and pulled them into her arms.

Behind her, Voy’s voice was low. “Come home with me, Priska. I’ll make sure this never happens again.”

Priska stood up, holding her kids close.

She looked at Voy.

For a second, she saw the man she married. The man she thought she buried.

Then she saw the man who played her.

“Never again,” she said.

She turned and walked away from him, her kids held tight against her chest.

Voy didn’t follow, but his eyes never left her back.