Lahat ng Kabanata ng BLOOD AND PETALS: Kabanata 21 - Kabanata 30

AdrianThe woman’s name was Isabela Cruz.Daughter of a man who’d ordered more deaths than Adrian cared to count. He was the one who brought him into the business and he tought he already escaped the damn bastard.She sat across from him now, legs crossed, smile sharp enough to cut skin.“You looked tense on the news,” she said lightly. “Was I not convincing enough? Be glad father did't plan to kill you”Adrian didn’t smile. “You are getting too bold Isabella. Your father knows I can;t be killed easily”She laughed. “Of course you can't but People like to see powerful men helpless.”He leaned forward. “You said you had information.”Isabela lifted her phone and slid it across the table.On the screenA grainy photo.Elena. Standing at her flower stall.Mateo beside her.Adrian’s chest went cold.“Touch them,” he said quietly, “and there won’t be enough of you left to bury.”Isabela tilted her head. “Threats are cute. But my father already knows where she lives.”Adrian’s hand clenched

ElenaThe TV was on by accident.Elena hadn’t meant to watch the news. Mateo had the remote, flipping channels, humming to himself. She was trimming roses, thorns biting into her fingers, when the anchor’s voice sharpened.“…confirmed reports indicate that businessman and known power figure Adrian volkov is expecting a child with Isabela Cruz, daughter of—”Elena’s scissors slipped.Clattered to the floor.Mateo looked up. “Mamá?”The screen changed to photos.Adrian.Isabela.Coming out of a restaurant.Her hand on his arm.Another clip Isabela holding a folder, tearful, surrounded by reporters.“I wouldn’t lie about something like this,” Isabela said softly into microphones. “I love him. I’m carrying his child. I beg you all not to ask a lot of questions my man won't be comfortable"Then came the proof.Medical reports. Dates. A doctor’s statement.The room tilted.Elena’s knees hit the chair behind her.“No,” she whispered. “No, no, no…”Mateo climbed down and ran to her. “Mamá,

Alec stood frozen in front of the emergency ward as Elena was being rushed inside, he was confused and scared at the same time. What could have happened, Elena wasn't a troublesome person to begin with, or perharps it has something to do with Mateo's father.Speaking of Mateo, he is at the shop with Rosa. The boy baby doesn't have to witness how his mother was brutally shot and running out of life.Alec dailed a number on his phone"Ma I'm bring over someone and i want you to take very goodcare of her for me---No ma it is'nt my girlfriend I'll brief you later"With that he put his phone back into his pocket.Elena has to leave columbia this very instant before they find her again and kill her completely. With that he went to the doctor incharge to make some arrangement and made a dead certificate.He doesn't know if elena will forgive him for this but he just had to. He was coming out of the doctor's office when someone grabbed his shirt."Where is she, where is Elena answer me damn i

Alec stayed longer than he planned.That was his first mistake.The house was quiet, tucked between hills and trees that felt too calm for someone who had just escaped death. Elena sat by the window, Mateo asleep on her lap, watching dust float through sunlight like nothing terrible had ever happened.“You should leave,” she said without looking at him.“I will,” Alec replied. “Soon.”“You always say that.”He exhaled. “Because every time I look at you, I remember the hospital. The blood. The sound you made when they wheeled you past me.”Elena’s fingers tightened around Mateo’s shirt. “And yet you still lied. You killed me on paper.”“I saved you,” Alec corrected gently. “There’s a difference.”She finally turned to face him. Her face was paler now, thinner, but still unmistakably Elena. The scar near her ribs would fade with time, but the fear in her eyes wouldn’t not anytime soon.“Adrian believes I’m dead,” she said. “Does he cry?”Alec hesitated.That pause told her everything.“

Elena rebuilt herself quietly.Not the dramatic kind of rebuilding people liked to talk about the kind with speeches and tears and big moments. Hers was smaller. Sharper. Done in pieces.She woke up every day before sunrise.She jogged when the streets were still half-asleep, Mateo strapped safely into a stroller at first, then later running beside her with short, determined legs. She learned the rhythm of the neighborhood, the places where people didn’t ask questions, the vendors who cared more about payment than stories.She changed her hair.Not for beauty. For anonymity.She learned which markets paid in cash, which suppliers didn’t keep records, which smiles were harmless and which were not. She reopened a flower shop under a different name, smaller than the one she lost, but warmer.Luna Verde.No last names. No history.Just flowers and silence.People came because her arrangements were different. Softer. Honest. Like someone who understood loss without advertising it.“She has