Kimi's POV
Trapped in that chair, the ropes still biting into my wrists, I watched my family fight for my freedom with a ferocity I had never witnessed before. The cold wood beneath me had numbed my body, but what gripped me tighter than any cord was the look in my parents' eyes.
For the first time in my life, my mother didn't look poised or calculating—she looked terrified. Her movements were frantic, her face bloodied, her voice sharp with panic as she shouted commands. My father, always distant and disciplined, now looked like something sacred had been torn from him. His eyes blazed with anguish, not just fury—like someone had stolen a diamond from the center of his soul. And in a way, they had. Me.
Through the chaos, one thought pulsed in my mind: Charlotte.
I wanted to see her more than anyone. I wanted her to be here—fighting for me too. She had hurt me, betrayed me, yes. But something about it never felt whole. There was an ache inside me, an unanswered question that throbbed like a bruise. I needed to know her side, to understand the shadow behind her silence. But she wasn't here.
Audrey was.
My sister—my heart. She tore through the fray, blood smeared across her cheek, her hands shaking as she reached for the cords that bound me.
"Kimi," she gasped, her voice splintered with emotion. "I've got you."
Tears blurred my vision as she yanked at the knots, cursing under her breath until the bindings fell away. Her arms were around me before I could even sit up straight. She smelled like smoke and rain, and she was trembling. She had come for me. She always came for me.
We fought.
Together, we rose—my family, bleeding but unyielding. Chaos churned around us, but we were a storm of our own. The masked man, Liam, the others—they met the fury of a family that had been broken once and refused to be shattered again. We emerged victorious, but not unscathed.
My mother was wounded. A deep gash across her side bloomed crimson, her breath shallow as Dad carried her out. Audrey wouldn't let go of my hand, even as she led me stumbling through the wreckage.
Outside, the night air hit me like a wave. Cold. Real. Free.
But freedom came with weight.
My family was hurt—not just by the battle, but by what it revealed. That I'd been taken. That the secret they buried so deeply had been unearthed. That someone close to me had betrayed us.
As I looked back at the crumbling building and the smoke curling into the sky, I felt the shape of something heavier settling on my chest—not fear, not yet grief. Just the understanding that everything had changed.
And somewhere out there, Charlotte was still silent. Still missing.
But I would find her. And I would find the truth.