جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 40

Clara’s POVYou probably think I’m a monster.Maybe you’re right.Real love is sharp. It cuts you, leaves scars you trace over and over, like proof you were once alive.Ethan was my greatest joy and my deepest wound.I walked away from him once. God, I wish I hadn’t. He was drowning in debt back then, a man barely keeping his head above water, working himself raw just to make interest payments while his so-called friends vanished one by one. I tried to help,I did. It was beyond me so I left. I told myself I was protecting us both, but the truth? I was a coward. I ran, and I let him fall alone. That was my sin, my unforgivable mistake.And then came Dominic. I know him. Dominic doesn’t.It was raining one of those steady, endless rains that make the streets smell like metal and regret. I’d gone to a quiet little bar I frequent when I don’t want to be seen. A place where the lights are dim and the whiskey burns clean.I felt them before I saw them.Two men in dark suits, sitting a few

Dominic’s POVI didn’t sleep. How could I?I spent the entire night in the living room, phone clutched in my hand, staring at the door like if I just focused hard enough, Ethan would walk through it. The silence pressed against me until it felt like I couldn’t breathe. Every creak of the building, every gust of wind outside, jolted me upright.But the door never opened. My phone never rang.At some point, around three in the morning, exhaustion pulled me under for a few minutes. I woje up and he still wasn’t here.“Come on, Ethan,” I muttered into the stillness. “Where the hell are you?”I tried his phone again. Straight to voicemail. The sound of his recorded greeting was almost unbearable now.I hung up before the beep.Something was wrong. Very wrong. I felt it in my bones.At six, I gave up pretending to wait. I’d already checked in with Clara once around dawn, and she’d promised she’d keep calling people from work. “Still nothing,” she’d said, her voice tight with concern. “Do

Ethan’s POVThe darkness was starting to feel alive.It shifted and breathed around me, heavy and suffocating, pressing against my skin. The blindfold was so tight that even the tiniest flicker of light couldn’t seep through. I’d tried to rub it against my shoulder, to loosen it, but the fabric only dug deeper into my temples, leaving a throbbing ache behind my eyes.At first, the darkness had been terrifying. Now, after what I guessed were days, it was maddening. It ate away at me, hollowing me out, until my thoughts started looping back on themselves in strange, broken patterns.I didn’t know how long I’d been here. Hours? Days? My body ached all over, my throat was dry and raw, and the ropes had rubbed my skin until it burned. They untied me only when necessary, brief, clinical moments when I was fed or forced to drink water.Otherwise, I stayed bound. Alone. Blind. And listened. Because listening was all I had left.If Dominic didn’t play by their rules, I would pay the price.It

Domain’s POVSleep had become a stranger to me. I sat in my office, the room lit only by the pale glow of the city through the floor-to-ceiling windows. My desk was a disaster of scattered papers, cold coffee cups, and my phone which was my lifeline to Ethan. Except it hadn’t rung. Not once.Every time, I swore to myself I would tear the world apart to bring him home. But the clock kept ticking, and still, there was nothing.Until the burner phone rang. The sharp buzz sliced through the silence, sending a jolt through my chest. My hand shot out to grab it before the second ring. My voice came out rough, strangled.“Ethan?” Silence. Then the distorted voice I’d come to hate with a visceral, almost physical fury. “Mr. Blackwell.” “We’ve been patient. You’ve had time to consider our demand.”My grip tightened around the phone until my knuckles ached. “I’ve considered it,” I said coldly. “And my answer hasn’t changed.”A low chuckle, like nails scraping down my spine. “Walk away from the

Dominic’s POVThe city felt wrong tonight. Every hour without him was another brick on my chest, crushing me slowly.I stood with my hands braced against the window, my reflection a pale, gaunt stranger staring back at me. The hollows under my eyes were darker now. My shirt was wrinkled, tie half-loosened. Sleep hadn’t come in days, not since I’d seen that first video of Ethan bound and gagged.Lucas had done what he could, but even his skill had limits. The kidnappers were too careful, too clean. Every time we thought we’d found a thread, it unraveled into nothing.And now, my refusal to meet their first demand had escalated things.The phone calls had grown more aggressive. The last message had been a simple, chilling promise. “The next time you hear from us, it will be his screams.”I couldn’t take another step in the dark. I needed help, a kind of help that came with no rules. Which is why, at exactly midnight, I was waiting in a backroom of an underground poker club that most re