LOGINCHAPTER 79AMORA POV I had read the message more times than I could count. The photograph of Selina, pale and tired was still on my screen. Beneath it, those eleven words that had not stopped living in my chest since they arrived. She's alive because you've been useful. Stay useful.I set the phone face-down on the bed and picked it up again.I had been useful. I had done everything that was asked of me and I was been reminded of it. It was a subtle reminder of what happened when that changed.I tried my investigator at six in the morning but he wasn’t reachable. I tried his assistant at six-fifteen, didn’t go through. The second number he'd given me for emergencies at six-thirty was a dead end too. The silence was so complete it felt deliberate.I put the phone down, and went to the window, trying to think clearly.Going to Damien was the first option that surfaced and the first I dismissed. I almost laughed at the idea. After everything I had done over the past weeks, any version o
CHAPTER 78ROSALIE POV I hadn't slept so I'd gone to my study instead, turned the lights on and watched the driveway.The phones hadn't stopped ringing since yesterday evening but each call never brought the news I wanted.I had one thread running that nobody else was pulling. Detective Elias Vance had been working a completely separate angle from Damien's team for the past week. I had been waiting for new so when the maid announced him just after eight, I was already standing.He walked in carrying a file thicker than the last one, and I read his face before he opened his mouth. Elias was not a man who showed much but I could tell he looked disturbed in a way I hadn't seen from him before."You found something," I said."I found the man." He sat across from me and set the file on the table between us. "Not just an alias. The man underneath all of them."I sat straighter.He laid out photographs and different identification documents. There were at least four different passports and
Chapter 77Damien POVThe screens showed surveillance tapes of areas in the city. The phones are constantly being worked by the operatives. Several cups of coffee are beside the laptops. The eye rubbing and soothing of foreheads were becoming more frequent. I stared around the office and remained seated. I have been moving around the makeshift operations room trying to get first hand report of what the analysts were doing and finding out.However, over the past few hours I had remained motionless. I sat down and waited. Then took the decisions that needed to be taken. I gave orders with so much levity and distance that made the analysts blink a few times. Cain and Marcus noticed it but they never said anything. Marcus went close to a screen, he had a document in his hand. “Most of the leads we have failed. The abandoned warehouses, fake identities and traffic cameras footage have been dead ends. I think I know why.”He had my attention with that statement. I leaned forward as he con
Kayden POVChapter 76The doctor immediately demanded that will sanitized the room. The guards came in and took away the used plates she had breakfast with, the sheets were changed. He ordered everyone out and I moved outside. Selina needed her privacy after all.I leaned on the wall, watching the doctor through the slightly ajar door. He examined her head for signs of concussion. He proceeded to get readings of her vitals. I stared at my wristwatch with a scowl on my face. I was using losing the one commodity I couldn’t afford: time. I hated waiting. It had nothing to do with patience. Waiting meant being uncertain and months of planning had eliminated any uncertainty that was possible. Now, I stood here having to wait for a doctor to determine if my carefully laid out plans would be thrashed because of one guard’s incompetence.She looked pale except the places where her skin were bruised. Her complete attention was on her baby. At least, we agreed on something: the baby’s health
Chapter 75Selina POV My heart pounded as the air ran through my face. So close! My chest burned and my muscles were beginning to ache but I ignored the pain as my breathing came in hard spurts. The exit was so close I could almost taste the alluring scent of freedom. I was going to make it. Come just a few more steps. You can do this! My body was protesting violently. The edge of my vision began to blur. Not now. I thought about my baby; the determination and adrenaline that surged through my body sharpen my vision. I pushed myself forward, this was my only chance.My balance was suddenly upended as a muscular hand with a vice-like grip grabbed my arm. No! I tried to pull my arm out of the grip but it was no use. I gathered all my strength and without thinking, slammed into him. He cursed under his breath as my unexpected move sent him crashing to the floor. I picked up myself, a line of pain shot through my arm and took a few steps. I stretched my hands to touch the gate when
CHAPTER 74SELINA POV — The OpeningI had stopped counting the days and started to measure time by the change in the guards rotation and the time my food was brought to me.Routine kept the panic contained and I was able to able to function.As long as I'm alive, I told myself, there's still a chance.I had also been watching covertly. I'd learned early that obvious observation got me more scrutiny, placed the guards on alert which gave me with less room to work. So I watched in sideways and stolen glances rather than long stares or looks.I knew which guards were disciplined and which weren't. The younger one with the mohawk hair checked his phone every time he thought no one was looking. The muscular guard stepped out for cigarettes at the same interval like clockwork. One of them talked too much to the others, filling silence out of nervous habit, which meant his attention split constantly between conversation and duty.And then there was Sefu.He wouldn’t hold my gaze. Discomfort
Chapter 6LINAThe drive home felt longer than it should have.I kept my hands at ten and two the whole way, this was the way that my father had taught me to drive when I was 15 and was learning how to drive on the quiet stretch of road outside our old neighborhood.I focused on the motion of stari
Chapter 5LINAI stared at the words written on his tombstone.*Daniel Cruz Torres. He loved without reservation.*"Hi, Dad," I said, and my voice came out small and very timid The way it used to when I was a teenager sitting in exactly this spot, after the accident, after the Whitmore had taken me
Chapter 4LINA The silence that followed my words was absolute.Even the wind seemed to hold its breath. Damien stood completely still, the color still absent from his face, his jaw slack in a way I had never seen before. He looked, for the first time since I had known him, like a man who had been
Chapter 3LINAThe cemetery was quiet and empty in the late morning. I had brought fresh lilies-it used to be my mum's favourites, and held them to my chest as I walked the familiar path leading to their graves.I'd been here countless times over the years, but today felt different. Today I was goi







