Lahat ng Kabanata ng Once a Doormat, Now Untouchable: Kabanata 241 - Kabanata 250

The kidnappers had all fled. Gordon still had not arrived with backup.Sydney had memorized the warehouse layout, and the front door offered no escape. She struggled to her feet, coughing through the choking smoke, and pointed toward a high window above them."Go out through there," she gasped. "Climb the window."The window was too high, and Sydney's arms were too weak. She could not climb herself, but if Caleb could reach it, he could open the gate from the outside.He stared at her, stunned that even now, after everything he had done to her, she worried about his safety. "Syd, I… What I did before—"She cut him off, "Can you hurry? Climb out now!"If they did not move quickly, the bombs would detonate and they would all die."All right." Caleb snapped back to the moment. He found a chair, placed it beneath the window, braced his arms, and vaulted through with ease. Athletic as always, it was a simple maneuver for him.Strangely, the explosives did not detonate immediately.

Caleb cared deeply for her, but Sydney's heart barely stirred. Outsiders saw her as soft and gentle, yet those who truly knew her understood that once she decided something, she never turned back.Three years had passed, and not once had he truly cared for her. Now, she no longer wanted it.…By the time they left the hospital, dawn was already paling the sky.While the driver fetched the car, Caleb slipped off his coat and draped it over her shoulders. "I'll take you back to Haven."The hospital sat far outside Jouleston in a remote area. At this hour, catching a taxi would be nearly impossible.After everything that had happened tonight, Sydney was too exhausted to make things harder on herself. "All right. Thank you."Her distant tone filled Caleb with guilt. "We're husband and wife. This is what I should have done all along."Yet in the past, he had never done it. All he could see were the countless times he had left her behind for Penelope, walking away and abandoning her.

It took Sydney a long time for fragments of that memory to resurface. It seemed to have happened at the entrance of her residential compound.That day, her father had just returned from a mission. Overjoyed, she had dragged him to buy cotton candy. Her father had already paid, and while the vendor was still spinning the treat, a sudden, deafening boom erupted. She and her father had forgotten the cotton candy entirely, thinking only of saving others.After that day, she never got to eat cotton candy from her father again. Not from her mother, either. Both had died on the way home from their next mission.From that moment, her life turned completely upside down.Caleb watched as her eyes slowly reddened, his large hand covering hers. He asked tentatively, "You remembered, didn't you?"Sydney inhaled sharply, suppressing the sting in her eyes as memories of her parents welled up. She curved her lips bitterly and asked, "So, you're saying you were that little boy?"If so, what a cru

IIt was a warning. Even if Adeline stayed silent, Caleb could confirm the truth with a single phone call.She was his mother, and she knew his temper. At last, she braced herself and spoke. "It was done before New Year's.""Before New Year's?" Caleb's jaw clenched so tight the muscle jumped, his voice turning frigid. "At Grandmar's birthday party, I told you clearly not to meddle in my marriage with Syd, didn't I?""I…" Adeline drew a sharp breath, her words tumbling out with reckless defiance, like shards of a broken jar. "The papers were already processed by then."Only then did Caleb grasp how thoroughly his "good mother" had invaded his private life.A harsh, bitter laugh broke from his chest. "Your network of contacts runs even deeper than I imagined.""What are you going to do?" Adeline's panic spiked, her tone rising. "Cal, I am your mother! Would you really turn against me for a woman?"Caleb held Hampton Corp. in his hands, while Dorothy still managed the family's socia

How could Sydney claim she had never suspected? When her parents died, she had been far too young—barely five years old. At that age, she believed whatever the adults told her.But as she grew older, the same questions returned again and again.Anti-narcotics officers. Returning home from a mission. Killed in an "accident" along the way. Strung together, those words never sounded right.Yet the men who had investigated at the time were her parents' close colleagues. At the funeral, they had wept with such raw grief that Sydney trusted them completely. She believed they had done everything in their power.Which left only two possibilities: either it had truly been an accident, or the enemy's methods and power were so absolute that they had left no trace.Sydney sniffed hard, lifted her chin, and met Caleb's gaze. "What are you trying to say?""I've been searching for you," he said quietly. "In the process, I stumbled across pieces of what happened back then—clues about your parent