⚡ Chapter 18 –
The car door opened with deliberate slowness.
Boots hit the ground.
Even in the wash of headlights, I could see him clearly — the same eyes I saw in the mirror every morning, the same half-smile from old family photos… only now, it looked sharper. Colder.
"Valerie," he said, voice calm, almost gentle. "You've grown into exactly what I needed you to be."
My heart slammed against my ribs.
"Needed?" I whispered.
He stepped closer, hands in his coat pockets like this was a family reunion, not a battlefield.
"You have something no one else in this world does," he said. "And I'm here to take it back."
Ethan moved in front of me instantly, gun raised. Jace staggered to his feet, still bleeding, but his glare was locked on my father.
My father's smile didn't waver.
"Stand down, boys," he said, voice dripping with authority. "You're in my world now."
The headlights behind him shifted as more men stepped out — black-clad, armed, their faces hidden.
It wasn't a rescue.
It was a capture.
And I was the prize.