Chapter: 7. ALL THINGS CHANGERyan's POVI gasped for air, still trying to understand what had just happened. My ears were still ringing. The only thing I was sure of was that the shot hadn’t come from me. I turned my head and saw someone else standing behind Sarah.It was one of her guards…Sarah standing a few feet away. “I told you,” she said calmly, looking straight at me. “If you don’t kill them, they will kill you.”Then she turned and started walking away.I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t. I’ve never believed anyone has the right to take another person’s life, not even if that person tries to take yours. That belief didn’t change now, no matter what Sarah thought or how close I’d just come to dying.Neither of us could sleep after that. I sat on the couch, staring at nothing, replaying the moment over and over. Sarah paced the room like she was trying to walk it off. Then, sometime after midnight, the front door opened fast.Her father rushed in.“Sarah!” he called. He went straight to her and hugged her t
Last Updated: 2025-09-01
Chapter: 6. ALL ABOUT SURVIVAL P.1Ryan's POV“Wake up! Wake up!!”I woke up to someone shaking me. My eyes felt very heavy, but I could see Sarah’s face in the dark.“Sarah?” I mumbled, my voice still groggy. “What—”She pressed a finger against her lips. “Shh.”I frowned. “What’s going on?”She didn’t answer. Instead, she rolled over me, reached for the drawer by the bed, and pulled it open. My eyes widened when I saw her take out a black pistol like it was nothing.“What the fuck?” I whispered.She glanced at me briefly. “Can you shoot?”I shook my head immediately. “No!” I yelled under my breath.Her eyes widened at me. “Seriously?”“Yeah, seriously,” I said, still yelling under my breath. “I can’t even handle a knife properly,”The only time I even touched a gun was when my dad tried teaching me how to shoot when I was eight.And it lasted just two weeks before my mom begged him to stop because I was ‘just a kid’ and I was terrible at it.Even though my father wasn't happy about the decision, he still accepted my
Last Updated: 2025-09-01
Chapter: 5. SWEET, BUT A PSYCHORyan's POVSarah poured the last of the wine into my glass. We had been talking for hours, and I was starting to feel lighter than I had in weeks. She leaned back in her chair, studying me for a moment.“You know,” she said, “you never told me where you’re staying.”I shrugged. “Nowhere specific. I’ve been crashing at a hotel. Haven’t really decided where I’ll settle yet.”Her eyebrows rose. “You’re divorced, right?”“Yeah,” I said, leaning back. “Why?”She smirked. “Then you don’t have a reason to be alone in some hotel. Why don’t you come see my place? It’s not far.”I hesitated. “You sure?”“Of course,” she said. “Unless you’re scared of me.”I shook my head. “No. Let’s go.”We got into her car. A black SUV with tinted windows. She was driving, two of her men in the front seats. I sat in the back, next to her.We were halfway there when it happened.Out of nowhere, two bikes came up fast on our right. Before I could even process it, one of the riders pulled a gun and started firing
Last Updated: 2025-09-01
Chapter: 4. THE UNSCRIPTED SCRIPTRyan's POVClaire and her relatives had always known how to press the right buttons with me. It was never loud demands or open threats, but carefully chosen words and calculated glances that left me with no room to refuse.They would smile, speak of family, of obligation, of how it was “the right thing to do,” and I would agree without hesitation. I told myself it was easier this way, that keeping the peace was worth the quiet bitterness that followed.I never noticed the pattern until Sarah subconsciously showed me how I had been used all these while.None of them ever stood up for me, none of them ever hugged me and thanked me for the services I rendered to them.Such pathetic fools.And for the first time,, I wondered what would happen if I said no—and the thought did not feel like a sin.“What did you say?” Caleb asked.I took a long look at Caleb. “I said no,” I replied and I watched Sarah smile.“Sarah! Stop this! There is no one to protect us now!” He yelled under his breath.A
Last Updated: 2025-09-01
Chapter: 3. AGAINST THE CURRENTRyan's POVOn my way back to the hotel, I passed by Claire’s company. I did not plan to stop, but something caught my eye through the wide glass windows.She was there.Claire stood outside with a man I had never seen before. They were talking or no, they were gisting, laughing, leaning too close.His hand brushed her arm, then her hair, and she did not flinch. She smiled. She had a banquet of fresh flowers in her hands, white lilies and red roses, tied with a satin ribbon. The kind of flowers you give to someone you are close to.I sat on my bike, watching from across the street, the engine rumbling beneath me.*It has not even been a day.*Less than twenty-four hours ago, she was in a room with me, signing divorce papers, accusing me without proof, throwing away four years of marriage like a broken pen. And now she stood there with him with flowers in her hand.I wanted to look away, but I could not. The thought pressed against my skull. Has she moved on already? Maybe she had moved
Last Updated: 2025-09-01
Chapter: 2. LET HER GORyan's POVI stared at the divorce papers lying on the desk, the ink from Claire’s signature still fresh, curling slightly where the nib had dug too deep.She had not hesitated.Not a single flicker of doubt. Four years of marriage, and she did not even give me the chance to prove I was not guilty.Not once in those years had we even shared a bed in the way real couples do. We had shared meals, shared a roof, shared dreams I thought were ours, but never the intimacy that was supposed to bind two people together. Yet somehow, this was where it ended. Ended with her looking at me like I was a stranger trying to break into her home.I had thought maybe, just maybe, she would pause before signing. That she would remember the nights I stayed up debugging her AI code until my eyes burned, or the times I carried her half-conscious from her desk to the couch so she could sleep.That maybe, she would remember the man who stood beside her through all those times.But no. She just signed.Then
Last Updated: 2025-09-01
