جميع فصول : الفصل -الفصل 170

Teresa's POV "Then don't.""It's not that simple.""It is." I held her gaze. "You matter more than the marriage. You matter more than the business. You matter more than all of it."She was quiet for a long time. Thinking. Really thinking. For the first time."I need time," she said finally."Take it.""But I can't ignore this anymore. I can't pretend.""No, you can't."She nodded slowly. Then she stood up."I should go.""Okay."She walked toward the door. Then she stopped. And turned back."I'm sorry," she said.I looked at her."For not believing you."I held her gaze. "You know now.""Yes." She nodded once. "I do."Then she opened the door and walked out.And this time, she didn't look like someone who could pretend anymore.---Melinda's POVI went back.I didn't tell him where I had been. I didn't tell him who I had seen. I walked into the house like nothing had changed. My heart was pounding, but my face was calm. I had practiced in the car.Nathan was in the living room when I

Nathan's POVThe call came in the middle of the afternoon.I almost ignored it. I was reviewing a report at my desk, already irritated by small inconsistencies I hadn't had time to deal with. Numbers that didn't add up. Expenses that had been miscategorized. Small things that added up to larger problems. The number on the screen was familiar. My father. I picked it up."Yes?"His voice was sharp. Impatient. The kind of tone he used when he had been waiting too long for answers."What is going on with your accounts?"I didn't respond immediately. My mind shifted gears, moving from the report in front of me to whatever had triggered this call."What do you mean?""Don't play games with me." His voice was harder now. "I don't have time for it.""I'm not playing games." I leaned back slightly in my chair. "I don't know what you're talking about.""There are auditors in your office."That made me sit up straight. My hand tightened on the phone."What?""They're going through everything. Fi

Teresa's POV I tried to push them away. My arms were pinned. I tried to kick. My legs were held.My vision blurred. The street noise faded. The people. The cars. Everything.My arms dropped. My legs stopped moving.The last thing I felt was the grip tightening around me, pulling me into the van, the door sliding shut.Then nothing.---I woke up slowly.The first thing I noticed was the pain. My head throbbed, a deep ache behind my eyes. My jaw hurt. My wrists burned.The second thing I noticed was the cold. Concrete beneath me. Air that smelled like dust and rust and something else I couldn't name.For a second, I didn't move. I didn't open my eyes. I just listened.Silence. Not complete silence. There was a hum, maybe a generator. The distant sound of wind. Footsteps somewhere nearby.Then I opened my eyes.Dim light. A single bulb hanging from the ceiling above me, casting harsh shadows. Concrete walls. Gray and rough. A concrete floor. Cold and hard.I was sitting against somethi

Mark's Pov "Camera footage from a building on her route. A van pulled up next to her."My chest tightened. "And?""She didn't walk away from it."My hand clenched into a fist. "Where? Send me the location.""I'm sending it now."My phone buzzed with an address. I got back into the car and drove. Faster than before. I didn't care about traffic. I didn't care about lights. I didn't care about anything except getting there."Stay on the line," I said."I'm here.""Tell me what you see in the footage.""Two men," Anthony said. "They grabbed her from the sidewalk. She fought. She tried to pull away. She kicked. She tried to scream."Of course she did."Then what?""They forced her into the van. One of them covered her mouth. The other pushed her inside. The door closed. The van drove off."My jaw tightened. "Plate number?""Fake. We already ran it. Doesn't exist.""Of course.""We're tracking the direction. The van headed east out of the city. We lost it for a few minutes in a residential

Teresa POV The door closed behind Nathan.I listened to his footsteps fade down the hallway, each step echoing on concrete, growing quieter until there was nothing. Then silence. Heavy. Pressing. The kind of silence that felt like a weight on my chest.I stayed still in the chair, my hands tied behind me, my body tense. The ropes around my wrists had loosened slightly from my struggling, but not enough. Not nearly enough. My ankles were still secured to the legs of the chair, the rope thick and tight. The single bulb above me flickered once, casting strange shadows on the walls.I counted slowly in my head. One. Two. Three. A way to keep time. A way to keep my mind from spiraling.Time passed. I didn't know how much. Minutes. Hours. The light didn't change. There were no windows. No way to measure except the slow beat of my own heart and the ache in my shoulders.Then I heard movement again.Not leaving. Staying. Someone was still in the room with me. I wasn't alone.I lifted my head