All Chapters of Retribution : Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

Valencia Nightingale."I know you must be hungry, Val," Bartholomew exclaimed, lips stretched into a wide smile as the maids plopped me onto a chair by a wide mahogany table. Spread out in front of me was a huge pile of different assorted foods—rice, potatoes, gravy, turkey and some I couldn't even name because I had no idea what they were. "So I had the cooks prepare all sorts of food for you, whichever suits your taste,"I sighed in a different level of exasperation. “First of all, It's Valencia, not Val or whatever stupid name you want to come up with next time. And secondly, if you think I’m going to sit and play house with you, then you've truly proven that you are a madman.”“You will eat,” he asserted, his voice quiet but unyielding. “Your body needs strength.”“I’d rather starve to death than take anything from you.”He didn't reply to that, instead he just took the seat beside me and dragged a plate toward him. For a while, he didn’t speak, The only sound that could be heard

Valencia NightingaleThe doctor leaned closer, voice barely a whisper. "We don't have much time. He'll return from that call any moment from now."A small gasp escaped my lips as I felt him slide the IV needle out of my arm. My wrist trembled as I tried to flex the joints to ease the pain. It felt like there was an internal itch within me that I couldn't quite get rid of.Slowly, I felt the drag in my limbs lessen. It was easier to move them now than it was before. Almost like a dead weight had been removed from my body. Not just my body, even my eyes felt like that too. I blinked rapidly, trying to clear my vision, and to my uttermost surprise. I could see again.Not fully. Not perfectly.But the colors around me weren't bleeding into one another anymore. I could make out the face of the doctor as he stared down at me, the hopeful expression in his sea blue eyes."My sight," I whispered, stunned. "It's—it's coming back. And my strength…""Good," he murmured before grabbing my hand

Valencia NightingaleVladislav didn’t lower his gun. Not by a fraction, not even by an inch.Even when Bartholomew took another step forward, palms raised in a show of “peace” that fooled absolutely no one. Vladislav still kept the gun pointed at him. Right between the eyes.The armed guards beside Bartholomew stood like a pack of hounds, fangs bared, waiting for their master to give the order to bite. Millicent, on the other hand, resembled a beacon in the night, her white hair reflecting the light from the sky.The moon had slowly replaced the sun, bringing with it darkness that covered the entire space around us, reminding both Vladislav and me of the fact that there was no escape and that very darkness was where we might end up if we dared to hold on.“Vladislav,” Bartholomew said gently, “I believe you're a man of great intelligence. Your reputation truly precedes you. Take a good look at the stakes. You are outnumbered, your bullets are limited, and the ship is surrounded by my

Valencia Nightingale The silence around us felt heavier than the ocean that had nearly swallowed me whole. Yet it did nothing to calm the unstable thoughts running through my mind. Everything kept replaying itself—the splash, the hands dragging me under, the way my body simply…gave out under the pressure of the water and the slow sinking descent into the depths of nothingness.I wasn't as invincible as I thought I was. I wasn't strong enough to save the real Valencia and even Hannah.Every single person I had ever wanted to save all died right before my eyes. These were good and gentle people who deserved nothing but happiness, who deserved to live more than I do. Yet somehow, I'm always the survivor.What did that make me?Someone with good luck?Or someone who can't save anyone but herself.My throat tightened painfully.What was the use of all that strength? All that training in Nova Command, if at the end, I was still useless.I felt the burn deep beneath my eyelids, but I blin

Valencia Nightingale.I didn’t remember falling asleep last night. One moment, I’d been staring at the moldy roof of the cabin, trying to deceive myself that the wetness between my thighs was nothing but sweat due to the hot air. I could barely even stand to look at myself after that. What had come over me? I felt like the bed should just open up and swallow me. Before Vladislav could open his mouth and tell me it was a mistake, I beat him to it. There was no way in hell I would let him say that to me while I was already mortified.I had spent the next hour replaying and re-enacting the scene in my head, and I must have fallen asleep then.Back to the present, can someone tell me why my body had suddenly turned into a Vladislav magnet? Because tell me why, even in sleep, I sought his closeness.It took a full three seconds for my sleepy mind to process the position we were in— my entire face rested on the firm swell of his bicep, fingers curled tightly around my blanket as if I were