CHAPTER 44 – THE ESCAPE PLAN
R I N A
Sleep was impossible.
The night pressed down on me like a weight, heavy and suffocating.
I lay there staring at the ceiling, my body rigid, my mind running in frantic circles.
He knew.
Lucian Dreven knew.
The image of him at the gala flashed behind my eyes that broad-shouldered figure in a tailored black suit, the way the air shifted when he walked in. The way conversations dimmed, heads turned, whispers started.
And the way his gaze had landed on me, sharp and cold and knowing.
I squeezed my eyes shut.
I had imagined this moment a hundred times over the years.
What would happen if he ever discovered the truth.
I had thought I would scream at him, spit in his face, tell him he would never touch my children.
But standing in that glittering ballroom tonight, watching powerful men bow their heads to him and women whisper about him like he was untouchable
All I felt was fear.
Bone-deep, breath-stealing fear.
Lucian wasn't just some man who had stumbled into my life by accident five years ago.
He was the man who ruled Arden City.
If he wanted something, he got it. If he wanted someone ruined, they were ruined.
And if he wanted the girls
A sound escaped my throat, half sob, half strangled gasp.
I sat up, my hands clutching at my hair.
Lila. Isla.
Their sweet sleepy faces flashed through my mind, their giggles, their tiny hands reaching for me when they were scared.
I couldn't lose them.
I wouldn't.
But what if he decided that they would be better off with him?
Raised in the Dreven estate, educated in private academies, guarded by his security detail turned into little heirs for the empire he ruled.
I pressed my palm hard against my mouth until my vision blurred.
No.
No.
He couldn't take them.
The Spiral
I swung out of bed, pacing the apartment, my bare feet silent against the floor.
Run.
The word slammed into my chest like a drumbeat.
Run before he comes for them.
Run before he takes them.
I could do it.
I'd done it before Calderhallow had been my refuge, my fresh start. I could disappear again.
Sell the boutique. Close my accounts. Pack what mattered into a suitcase and leave Arden behind like it was nothing but a bad dream.
I grabbed my phone, my hands shaking, opening flight search engines, bus routes, anything that would take me far away.
Far enough that Lucian Dreven's shadow wouldn't reach me.
But deep down, even as I searched, I knew the truth.
There was nowhere far enough.
Liora
The sound of a door opening broke through my thoughts.
Liora's sleepy voice floated toward me. "Rina? What are you doing awake?"
I didn't answer, just stared at my phone screen, the glow lighting up my pale hands.
She padded into the living room, sitting beside me. Her eyes took in my disheveled hair, my tear-stained cheeks, the wild look in my eyes.
"Talk to me," she said softly.
"I have to leave," I whispered, my voice hoarse.
"What?"
"I have to leave Arden. Tonight. Tomorrow. Soon."
Her brows shot up. "Are you out of your mind? You just opened the boutique, you just got investors"
"Liora, he knows."
She froze. "Knows what?"
"About the girls,"he knows there are his, I choked out.
Understanding dawned in her eyes, followed by something else something dark and furious.
"So?" she said carefully.
"So?" My voice cracked. "Liora, he's Lucian Dreven. You saw him tonight he's not just some man, he's..he's..."
"The god of the city," she said dryly.
"Yes!" I shouted, standing up so quickly the phone clattered to the couch. "If he wants them, he'll take them. I can't stop him. Nobody can stop him. You think the law can protect me from someone like that? You think I could even fight him in court?"
Liora stood too, catching my arm. "Rina, listen to me. He's not a monster."
"You don't know that!" I jerked my arm away.
"Yes, I do," she snapped, her voice sharp. "I've worked for those people, I've seen the worst of them and I'm telling you, he's not like them. He's angry, yes, but he's not cruel. He wouldn't hurt you or the girls."
"You don't know that," I whispered again, softer this time.
Liora's expression softened. She reached out, touched my shoulder.
"You're scared. I get it. But running away won't fix this. It'll just make it worse."
I turned my face away, tears spilling freely now.
"I can't lose them," I said, my voice breaking.
"You won't," she said firmly. "But you have to stop running first."
I didn't answer.
When she finally went back to bed, I sat there until dawn, my heart pounding, my decision made.
I was going to leave Arden City.
Even if it meant losing everything I had rebuilt.
Even if it meant losing Liora.
Because I could survive losing Arden.
But I wouldn't survive losing my daughters.
I can't lose them.