> "The worst thing they ever did was try to break me. The second worst was failing."
---
Zayden's Father – The Final Meeting
He summoned his son with a threat.
"Bring her to me, or I'll drag her body through the streets."
Zayden came anyway.
Through the marble halls of the family estate.
Through the guards who stepped back—because they knew.
His father waited in the study, glass of brandy untouched.
"You've disgraced us."
Zayden didn't sit.
"You taught me power was clean. Amaris taught me the truth—it's bloody, and it chooses no saints."
His father scoffed. "She'll cost you your life."
Zayden met his eyes.
> "Then I'll die with my spine intact."
---
Amaris's Hideout – 3:00 a.m.
She hadn't slept. Again.
She was rereading Raze's file.
Trying to feel nothing.
Zayden entered, slow, silent. She didn't look up.
"Did you know he used to hum when he was scared?" she said softly. "That's how I knew something bad was coming."
Zayden sat across from her. "Do you want to see him again?"
"I don't know."
"Do you want to kill him?"
"…I don't know that either."
---
That Night – A Trap Is Set
Amaris steps into the abandoned greenhouse.
Raze is waiting.
Older now. Scarred. But the same eyes.
Her breath catches.
He doesn't move.
She steps closer. "Do you remember me?"
He says nothing.
Then:
> "I used to draw you in the dirt when they took you away."
"I thought if I drew you enough… you'd come back."
She chokes.
Tears fill her eyes—but she doesn't let them fall.
Raze steps forward. "They told me to kill you."
Amaris nods. "Then why didn't you?"
He raises a hand.
"I wanted to see if you still smiled like before."
She doesn't smile.
She shatters.
And they don't fight.
They just stand, breathing the same pain, the same history, like survivors who no longer know what they survived for.
---
Meanwhile – Zayden's World Collapses
He receives a call.
From Mara, the girl who helped raise him. His childhood maid. His secret protector.
She's crying.
"They took your mother," she says. "Your father—he…"
Then a gunshot.
Then silence.
Zayden drops the phone.
And runs.
---
Amaris Learns the Cost
Raze hands her a file—Verena's last move.
Inside: a kill list.
At the top: Zayden.
She races back.
The hideout is in ruins.
Zayden is gone.
And a message burns into the wall:
> "The villain doesn't get to love."
---
Verena's Final Game
Amaris arrives at the Edenrose rooftop.
Alone. Unarmed.
Verena is there. So is Zayden—bound, bloodied, barely breathing.
Amaris's voice is cold steel.
> "You touched him. That's your last mistake."
Verena laughs. "You won't kill me. Not in front of him."
Amaris doesn't blink.
She steps forward.
Gun drawn.
Zayden coughs, "Don't."
Verena: "He still believes there's something human in you."
Amaris presses the barrel to Verena's chest.
Whispers:
> "There is. But she's asleep. And I'm what woke up."
She pulls the trigger.
---
Aftermath
Blood. Silence. Rain.
Zayden is half-conscious. She holds him like he's made of glass.
"You shouldn't have come," she whispers.
"I told you," he mutters, voice cracking. "Until the end."
---
Final Scene – The World Watches
News breaks:
Verena. Dead.
Amaris Lane. Suspected.
Zayden Kross. Hospitalized.
The city holds its breath.
And Amaris?
She walks into a crowd.
Unmasked.
Unapologetic.
People scatter.
Some stare.
And one child says, "Mommy, is that the villain?"
The woman grabs the child's hand, rushing away.
Amaris stands alone.
The wind howls.
And she says to herself—
> "No."
"I'm the ending."