Chapter 51

I can't move. My heart hammers violently against my ribs. How did I not see this coming? How could I have been so blind?

I'm paralyzed. Humiliated. Words fail me completely. My entire world is collapsing around me, shattering into irreparable fragments.

'Boss.'

That single word echoes relentlessly in my skull, pushing me to the edge of insanity and back. All this time—wondering, guessing, searching—and my enemy was right in front of me the whole damn time.

"What the hell is happening?" The furious shout yanks me back to this nightmare.

I twist around, and my breath catches.

Amelia is tied to a chair, blood trickling from a wound on her forehead. Fear and rage war in her eyes. The bastard who took us must have knocked her out too.

I'd been so consumed by my own terror, so desperate to escape, that I hadn’t even noticed her behind me. Not that I expected anyone to be there.

"Isn’t it obvious?" Our kidnapper smirks. "I took you both."

"Why drag her into this when I’m the one you wanted?" I mutter, staring at the floor.

I can’t bring myself to look at my betrayer. The pain is too raw, too suffocating.

"Wasn’t part of the plan," he admits with a careless shrug. "But then I saw her outside, enjoying the evening air. She’s connected to your family. Figured I could squeeze more ransom money out of them if I kept her."

It makes twisted sense. Amelia is Nathan’s girlfriend, and from what I know, he’s obsessed with her. He’d pay anything to get her back.

"I don’t understand," Amelia rasps. "Why is Daniel here? Is he… here to save us?" Hope flickers in her voice.

His name is a knife to my chest.

Why me?

I thought I’d finally found someone good. That my life was finally falling into place. But this? This betrayal is beyond anything I could’ve imagined.

Amelia presses again.

Our captor laughs—a cruel, mocking sound—and answers for him. Because I sure as hell can’t.

"Save you?" He barks another laugh. "He’s the one who hired me to kill Sophia!"

Amelia gasps. I squeeze my eyes shut as agony rips through me.

Hearing it out loud is so much worse than just suspecting it.

I’d hoped—prayed—there was some explanation. That maybe he had a secret twin. A doppelgänger. But his silence confirms everything.

I slump against the chains binding me. They’re the only thing keeping me upright.

How do I survive this kind of betrayal? How do I look him in the eye knowing he wanted me dead?

Were the last few months just a game to him? Toying with my emotions while plotting the perfect way to end me?

"That’s impossible," Amelia argues, voice trembling. "Daniel is one of the good guys."

I don’t want to believe it either. But the truth is staring us in the face.

Daniel played me for months. Got inside my head. My heart. All while knowing he’d never stay.

It hurts. Worse than anything I’ve ever felt. Worse than what Ethan did.

Couldn’t he have just killed me without getting close? Without making me fall for him? That would’ve been kinder than this.

This is cruelty.

How twisted do you have to be to make your target love you? He slept with me. Listened to my fears. Made me hope for a future he knew would never happen.

"Now that you’re here, Boss," the man grins, offering Daniel a knife. "Want the honors, or should I?"

I finally look at him.

But he’s not looking at me.

My breath hitches when he takes the blade.

"Why?" The word tears from my throat. "Just tell me why. Why make me care if you were just using me? Why sleep with me? Why, Daniel?"

Tears stream down my face. His eyes are ice. No warmth. No remorse.

I feel like discarded trash. Beaten. Broken.

It hurts to look at those blue eyes—the ones that hypnotized me from the moment he showed up at my door after I was shot.

Was that staged too?

The possibility guts me. That he orchestrated everything to play the hero, just so I’d trust him.

"You don’t owe her answers, Boss," the man sneers. "She’s dead either way."

I bet they laughed at me. Mocked how easily I fell for it.

Amelia screams when Daniel pulls a gun and shoots the bastard point-blank. Blood sprays across me, but I don’t flinch.

Then he turns the gun on me.

"Daniel, please," Amelia begs. "This is Sophia! You care about her—I know you do. Whatever started this, things changed. You can’t fake the way you looked at her!"

I’m too exhausted to care.

"Do it," I snarl.

"Sophia, stop!" Amelia shrieks.

But I ignore her.

Daniel doesn’t move. Just stares at me with empty eyes.

All the emotion I used to see there? Gone.

"Fucking do it, Daniel!" I scream as tears fall.

I watch, heart shattering, as his finger tenses on the trigger.

I want him to end it. Because death would hurt less than this.

I close my eyes—

A gunshot rings out.

Evelyn M.M

How many of you guessed Daniel’s betrayal? Did anyone doubt Amelia’s loyalty? Let me know your thoughts! Love you all. ❤️