Chapter 51: “Your Karma Is Coming! And It Will Kill You!”

SARAH'S POVGarrett squeezed my hand. "You should."I shook my head. "I can't.""You can," Alvin said softly.I stepped forward, my legs threatening to give out."My father never stopped looking for me," I said, my voice barely above a whisper. "For twenty-six years, he never gave up hope.”A sob caught in my throat as tears spilled freely down my face.“And when I finally found him… when I finally came home to him…” My voice broke. “I only had a few days.”I pressed a hand to my chest, the ache there almost unbearable.“But those few days were enough. Enough to see the way he looked at me… like I was the most precious thing in the world. Enough to feel his love.” My breathing hitched as more tears fell.“I know now that he didn’t love me because I was useful. Not because I was obedient. Not because I could be controlled.”My voice softened, fragile but certain.“He loved me simply because… I was his daughter.I looked at Serena’s coffin, my chest tightening as memories crashed over m

Chapter 52: "The Escape"

SARAH'S POVThe door burst open.Garrett, Viktor, Alvin, and Chen rushed in."Sarah, we need to go," Garrett said urgently. "Now!""Cops are surrounding the house," Viktor added. "We have maybe two minutes."Chen grabbed my arm. "I've prepared an escape route, but we have to leave right now.""This is insane! I didn't do anything!""We know," Alvin said. "But they don't, and if they arrest you, Michael wins."Sirens wailed outside, getting closer. "Sarah, please," Garrett begged. "We have to run."I looked at them—the only people who believed me."Okay," I said. "Let's go."We ran."This way! Run through this route, we're running to the study."Chen's voice interrupted my panic as we ran through my father's house. Sirens were everywhere now, closing in fast."Where are we going?" I gasped."Your father built a tunnel. He told me about it years ago in case something like this happened."We reached the study. Chen pushed aside a heavy bookshelf, revealing a hidden door."Of course he di

Chapter 53: "It’s A Trap!”

CHEN'S POV"They should have contacted us by now."Viktor paced the safe house, checking his phone every few seconds. It had been four hours since Sarah, Garrett, and Alvin left for the airport."Maybe the signal is bad," I said, but I didn't believe it."For four hours? All three of them?"I stared at the encrypted line on my laptop. I saw nothing. No message, no ping, no movement on any of the trackers I had quietly embedded in Alvin's bag without telling him. The tracker had gone dead forty minutes into the drive. That alone made my stomach clench.I pulled out my phone and dialled Donald's number. Alvin's contact. The airport security guard who was supposed to move them through.He answered on the third ring. "Hello?""Donald, it's Chen. Have you seen Alvin and the others?"A pause. Too short to be suspicious, but I noticed it."Yeah, they got here about three hours ago. I checked them in myself, took them to the private terminal.""And then?""I went to check on the helicopter. Wh

Chapter 54: "You Have Two Options”

SARAH'S POV"Rise and shine, little rats."The voice struck me like a storm before my eyes even opened. I snapped awake.Only for me to find myself under a white ceiling and blinding fluorescent light. The smell of bleach soaked into the concrete. My body was on a cot bolted to a wall, and my wrists ached from where the zip ties had been. The drug still sat heavy in my blood, making the edges of the room swim.I turned my head.Garrett was on the cot to my left, already sitting up, eyes scanning the room with the fast, desperate focus of a man who knows he is in danger before he knows where it is coming from. Alvin was on my right, jaw locked, feet already on the floor.And standing at the open door was a man wearing a black, smooth mask, fitted tight against his face like a second skin. It covered everything, forehead to jaw, and the eyes behind it were pale and completely still. He was huge across the chest, dressed in black, and he stood with his hands clasped behind his back lik

Chapter 55: "The Trial House”

SARAH’S POVI looked at Garrett. He straightened up slowly, his face destroyed but his eyes steady. He looked at me. Then, at Alvin, who turned around from the wall. Nobody said a word.Nobody needed to.Two guards came through the door carrying contracts and black folded jumpsuits. They set them down on the cots without making eye contact with any of us.I picked up the pen.My hand was shaking… I signed. Garrett signed. Alvin last. The guards collected our contracts and then collected everything else, including our phones. Every last thing that connected us to who we had been an hour ago.They handed us the jumpsuits. Black with no markings.I changed without speaking. Garrett changed without looking at anything. Alvin pulled the zip up on his jacket and stared at the door like he was deciding whether to walk through it or die against it.The door opened."Move," one of the guards said.We moved.The corridor outside was long and white and completely silent, and as they led us for

Chapter 56: "Poor Fiancée"

MICHAEL'S POV"Rest well, Elena."I raised the bottle in the direction of her headstone and took a long, slow sip. The brandy burned its way down and settled warm in my chest. The evening breeze moved through the cemetery and tugged at my black coat, and I let it. I'm now a mourning widower, a grief-stricken groom. I had the clothes for it, as well as the sunglasses, and I even had the posture for it, shoulders dropped just enough, head slightly bowed.Appearance matters, always. I thought about the divorce papers I had signed some time ago. I added a neat signature in black ink and slid it into an envelope, sending it directly to Sarah. I imagined her opening it and the look on her face when she understood that I was done with her, not because she escaped, not because she won, but because I chose to let her go.That was the part that would eat her alive.She would never know if she was free or just on a longer leash.I smiled at that and kept walking.Single, divorced, and mourni