Chapter 59
Nine seconds.
My phone screen glowed with Rachel’s ultimatum, the seconds ticking away in my head.
The bandages on my wrists couldn’t hide the throbbing pain from her restraints at the factory. My body ached from the ordeal, but my mind was razor–sharp.
Outside the FBI safe house window, rain pelted against glass like bullets, matching the rapid–fire thoughts racing through my head.
Eight seconds.
FBI agents murmured in the next room, going over security protocols with Marcus and Isolde.
No one noticed me slipping toward the door, phone clutched in my trembling hand.
Caspian had stepped away to take a call from his agent, giving me the window I needed to make this impossible choice alone.
Seven seconds.
My mind flashed back to hours earlier when Caspian and I sat alone in the kitchen, the air between us charged with six years of unspoken words.
He’d reached for my hand across the table, his touch sending electricity up my arm that I couldn’t deny anymore.
“That night changed everything, he’d said, voice breaking with raw emotion. “I’ve spent every day since graduation regretting that stupid bet, Sage. Not because it cost me you, but because I watched it break something inside you.”
Six seconds.
I couldn’t forget the way his eyes had glistened when he showed me those photographs – dozens of places where he thought he’d found me over the years.
Law schools, coffee shops, libraries across the country. Each image dog–eared and worn from constant handling.
“Six years? I’d whispered, my chest tightening with emotions I’d buried for so long.
“You searched for me for six years?”
He’d moved closer then, close enough that I could feel his warmth, smell the familiar scent that still haunted my dreams.
“I would have searched for sixty,” he’d said, intensity radiating from him like heat. I needed to tell you the truth. To make things right.”
Five seconds.
When his fingers had brushed my cheek, wiping away tears I hadn’t realized were falling, my carefully constructed walls began to crumble.
For the first time in six years, I’d allowed myself to remember not just the betrayal, but the way we’d connected before everything shattered.
“Sometimes I wonder, Id admitted, voice barely above a whisper, “if things had been different that night, if we’d had a chance… what might we have become?
His eyes, those green eyes that could still see straight through me, had locked with mine.
“We could find out now, he’d said, his voice a caress that made my heart stutter.
“If you’re willing to give us a chance.”
Id felt myself leaning toward him, drawn by a gravity I couldn’t fight anymore.
The heat of his palm against my cheek, his breath mingling with mine.
Six years of running suddenly colliding with the possibility of staying, of belonging.
four seconds.
Just as our lips were about to meet, my phone had vibrated with Rachels message–shattering the moment like glass:
Chapter 59
Ten seconds after reading this, Caspian’s penthouse explodes. Your choice, little sister: save his home or open the envelope under the passenger seat. Tick tock.
The envelope under the passenger seat
Proof of Victoria’s conspiracy?
Or another trap?
was it evidence against Palmer?
Saving Caspian’s penthouse meant preserving his home, his security, our potential future. The envelope might protect us from the Palmers forever.
An impossible choice, perfectly designed by my psychotic stepsister.
She knew exactly what to target–the possibility of a future with Caspian versus the chance to end this nightmare forever.
Three seconds.
When Robert had held me captive in that factory, I’d sworn to myself that if I survived, I’d stop running.
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Chapter Comments
Mike De Vries
sureeee she just walks outside the building and nobody follows her?? they just miraculous find her where ever she is? still holding onto the same phone? come on, watch some police series, they may be drama but they give some good ideas haha.
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