Chapter 26
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I unlocked my phone and saw a message from Ephraim waiting for me.
Ephraim: Landed an oil fund from Dubai. Five percent equity. Not bad for a Tuesday.
I grinned before I could stop myself and started typing.
Me: You’re insufferable when you win.
Me: Proud of you. Eat something. Don’t charm your way into another incident. You still owe the Finnish ambassador an apology.
He replied instantly.
Ephraim: I only flirt with you. Everyone else gets taxes and bad jokes.
Ephraim: You alright? Where are you now?
Me: Halfway to the farmhouse. Fields are still yellow. Rain’s starting.
There was a pause. Then another message came in.
Ephraim: I’ll call you when the summit’s done. There’s something in the pipeline. Might change things.
I hesitated a second before responding.
Me: I want to tell you something too. Later.
The car hit a small dip, and I looked up from my screen.
Saul glanced at me in the mirror. “Was that the oil prince again?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Since when do you ask questions?”
He smirked. “You were smiling. That’s rare these days.”
I rolled my eyes and leaned back. “It’s Ephraim. He’s busy selling pieces of the planet, but he still finds time to ruin my day.”
He gave a short laugh, one of the few I’d ever heard from him. “You light up when you talk about him. You try to hide it, but it’s obvious.”
I stared out the window. “Well. Don’t tell anyone. I have a reputation to maintain.”
“Cold and terrifying?”
“Exactly.”
He was about to respond when a sleek black car came out of nowhere behind us. No plates. It swerved past a truck and slid into our lane so fast Saul cursed under his breath and tightened both hands on the wheel.
“What the hell,” he muttered. “They came out of nowhere.”
I turned around. The car was following too closely. My heart gave a sharp jolt.
“They’re tailgating us,” I said, my voice tightening. “Just let them pass.”
He Left Me for Dead, Now He Begs Me for Mercy
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Aug
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Saul slowed a little, giving space. But the car didn’t move past. Instead, it lunged.
The first hit wasn’t loud, but I felt it in my spine. A shudder through the seat as the black car clipped our rear bumper hard enough to make the whole vehicle jerk sideways.
“Shit,” Saul said, correcting fast. “Hold on.”
“What are they doing?” I asked, my voice rising. “Why are they hitting us?”
“This isn’t random,” Saul said. “This is deliberate.”
Another impact. Stronger. More precise.
I screamed as my head hit the seat in front of me, and Saul swore again, fighting the wheel with both arms now. The road narrowed. On one side, steep hillside. On the other, a drop into mist and rock and trees.
The black car rammed us again. Hard.
I clutched the seat. “Saul-”
“I see it!” he shouted. “They’re trying to push us off.”
“Then drive, goddammit!”
He slammed the accelerator, but the tires squealed. The road was wet now, slick with that cursed drizzle. I looked behind us and saw the car lining up for one last push.
“They’re going to do it,” I whispered. “They’re actually going to-”
The last hit came like thunder. The side of our car scraped the guardrail with a sound I’ll never forget. Screeching steel and tearing bolts and then… The world went sideways.
I screamed Saul’s name as the SUV broke through the railing.
We were in the air. Weightless for a second.
Then everything happened too fast.
Glass exploded.
The roof crumpled.
The air filled with the sound of twisting metal and my own voice screaming over and over again. My seatbelt snapped tight across my chest as the world flipped once, then twice.
Then black.
Not sleep. Not peace.
Just black.
**
Far above us, on the edge of the hill, a shepherd dropped his crook. He had seen the whole thing. The smoke rising from below. The broken pieces scattered along the slope. He ran to the edge and pulled out his phone, voice shaking.
“Emergency! There’s been an accident–horrible. The car fell… down the ravine.”
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“I think… I think someone survived. A woman. I saw her hand move.”
10
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EPHRAIM’S POV
My jaw clenched when I walked into that hospital room and saw her lying there like that.
Therese.
Her face was nearly unrecognizable. Wrapped in gauze and tape, pale as hell, lips split. Tubes were coming out of her like some kind of machine experiment, and the steady hiss of that damn ventilator made my chest cave in. The monitors beeped softly like the universe was mocking me. A fucking heiress. A queen. And now reduced to a bruised, broken thing barely clinging to life.
I turned to the doctor. Some fancy piece of shit with a trembling clipboard and eyes that couldn’t even meet mine.
“She’s in a coma. We’re doing everything we can.”
I stared at him. “Everything you can? She was thrown off a cliff. Find a way to fucking wake her up.”
He swallowed and backed a little. “It’s a wait and see, sir. The swelling in her brain-‘
I grabbed a glass of water from the side table and hurled it at the wall. It shattered like my insides.
“You think I’m paying millions for wait and see? I want full security on every fucking hallway. No press. No fake visitors. No one touches that room unless I say so.”
The doctor nodded fast and stumbled out.
I sat beside her. My hand hovered over hers, scared to touch it because of all the needles. She looked so fragile. And I hated that word. Fragile. That wasn’t her.
I pulled out my phone. The screen lit up, and that’s when I saw it.
One unread message. From her. Sent just before the crash.
“I need to tell you something. It might ruin everything. But I can’t carry it anymore.”
I stared at it for a full minute, then two, then who the fuck knows. My legs gave out and I slid to the floor beside her bed like some fucking idiot in a romance film. Except this wasn’t
a film. This was real. She was broken. And someone did this on purpose.
**
Later that night, Torren Massaro showed up.
Torren. In a black suit like he was attending her funeral early. No flowers. No warmth. Just that fucking look like he was already two moves ahead of the rest of us.
I didn’t even let him get near her room.
He tried. “I just want to see her.”
