LOGINCharlotte’s POVI folded the last piece of clothing and placed it neatly inside the travel bag Elena had lent me.She zipped up her own suitcase before looking over at me. “So,” she said, “have you decided what we’re doing?”I looked up before asking, “What do you mean?”She leaned against the dresser. “Do you want us to fly back to Seattle first and report everything to the police there?”I paused as the suggestion made sense. Under normal circumstances, it would have been exactly what I would do.But nothing about my situation was normal anymore so I slowly shook my head. “No.”Elena frowned. “No? Why say no?”“I don’t want to involve the police just yet.”She looked surprised. “Charlotte, after everything you’ve told me—”“I know.” I sighed. “But I don’t know the full extent of what really happened while I was gone.”I sat down on the edge of the bed. “For all I know, the police may already have a completely different version of my disappearance.”Elena remained quiet, allowing me
Charlotte’s POVI lowered my head as people around kept stealing glances at me. Even though the doctor had left , I could still feel eyes on me.Every time I looked up, someone quickly looked away. Others weren’t even trying to hide it at all as they whispered among themselves while glancing in my direction.My stomach tightened because they all obviously know who I am. Or rather…They thought they knew who I was.I couldn’t afford to make any careless decisions. If Victor had truly done everything he promised, then I had no idea who I could trust anymore.So I waited for any chances to get myself out of their glaring gazes.Then suddenly, a distraction came. “Move! Move!”The emergency room doors burst open as a woman screamed in agony. “My baby!”Blood stained the lower half of her dress as several nurses rushed her inside on a stretcher. “She’s hemorrhaging!”“We’re losing too much blood!”“Doctor, now!” Instantly, every nurse, doctor and even the patients’ relatives rushed toward t
Charlotte’s POVA loud bang jolted me awake as My eyes flew open in horrorFor a second, I couldn’t remember where I was. Then the familiar walls, the stale air, and the metal-framed bed reminded me of my reality.I was still in Victor Kane’s Captivity. Another miserable day.Before I could even sit upright, the door burst open and two large men strode into the room.“What are you doing?” I asked, immediately backing away until my back hit the wall.Neither of them answered as one grabbed my arm roughly while the other caught my shoulder as they began dragging me out of the room.“Let go of me!” I struggled, but after a week of poor meals, endless stress, and little sleep, I barely had any strength left.“Where are you taking me?” I asked as I was being dragged but still, I got no answer.They dragged me out of the room and down the hallway as my heart pounded wildly.Was Victor finally done playing games? Was he going to kill me? The thought made my legs feel even weaker.When we rea
Alexander’s POVI sat in one of the hard plastic chairs in the hospital reception, my elbows resting on my knees while my hands hung loosely between them.People walked past me, the doctors, the nurses, the patients and different Families but the sounds around me simply blended into meaningless noise.For the first time in years, I felt completely powerless. Across from me, my mother hadn’t stopped talking. “I warned you, Alexander.” Her voice trembled with grief, but every word was sharp enough to cut so deep into my soul where I was seated.“I warned you from the very beginning.” I stared at the polished floor without responding to her. “I told you that woman wasn’t right for you.”Still, I said nothing as I couldn’t even bring myself to go against my mother at this point in time.“You never listened to me! You were blindly in love with a woman who isn’t worth a single drop of your love.” She wiped her tears angrily.“You defended her every single time I tried to challenge her and
Charlotte’s POVI stood silently by the window, my eyes fixed on the gray sky outside. I wasn’t really looking at anything in particular because my mind had become strangely empty.Over the last two days, I had cried until my eyes burned and my head throbbed. I’d worried about Alex, my company, my marriage, and everything that had happened so suddenly that it felt impossible to process. At some point, the tears had simply stopped coming.There was nothing left to cry about. I rested my forehead against the cool glass and let out a long, exhausted breath.“So this is what hopelessness feels like… this is what it feels like to be kept as a prisoner and being fed like some beggar when it is deemed fit for them” I whispered the words to myself.I wondered what Alex was doing at that very moment. Had he found my letter? Did he think I had truly abandoned him?Or… Did he think I had taken my own life? Does he still care about me or is he busy having sex and being sucked by his ex secretary
Alexander’s POVI sat in the passenger seat of my SUV outside the hospital, staring at the stack of files resting on my lap without truly seeing a single word.The afternoon sun reflected against the windshield, warming the leather interior, but I felt nothing.My fingers slowly turned to another page, checking out the blood tests, the medication chart, the daily observations, the Nursing reports and Everything was looking just too ordinary.I rubbed my aching eyes before leaning back against the seat. “This doesn’t make any sense…” The words slipped out quietly.Marilyn hadn’t looked like someone who was about to die all the while I’ve been paying her visits.The other time I’d visited her, she’d smiled despite the pain she was carrying. She had complained about the hospital food. She had teased me for worrying too much.She had even asked when Charlotte and I planned on giving her a nephew to spoil. A lump formed in my throat.No! Something wasn’t adding up. I closed the folder and
Charlotte’s POVI walked briskly beside my secretary as she followed me down the hallway towards my office. The poor woman was struggling to keep up with my pace while balancing a tablet and a stack of documents in her hands.“Mrs. Voss, the officers from the Standards Agency arrived twenty minutes
Charlotte’s POVI returned home completely distressed and confused. My mind had been in chaos ever since Alex asked me that horrible question over the phone.‘What do you think about us getting divorced?’Even now, I couldn’t believe those words had come from him and what made it worse was that whe
Charlotte’s POVFor a few minutes after Alexander walked upstairs, I remained standing in the living room, staring at the staircase. The house suddenly felt too quiet. Normally when he returned from work he would at least ask how my day went or pull me into a brief hug before disappearing into his
Charlotte’s POVI pushed his hand away again, forcing a tight smile as I kept my eyes forward.“Alexander,” I whispered, my voice low but firm, “we’re not alone.”“I can see that,” he murmured, completely unfazed.His fingers slipped right back to my waist like I hadn’t just warned him, like we wer







