The city was asleep when the storm began to rise.
Wind howled through the empty streets, rain slashing against the glass walls of Damien's penthouse the same walls that had once witnessed Ayla's silence.
Now, they echoed with rage.
Damien stood near the window, his reflection fractured by streaks of water. His eyes once coldly calm now blazed with something darker. On the table behind him lay a shattered phone, fragments of glass scattered like the pieces of his control.
"She thinks she can hide," he muttered, voice low but trembling with venom. "She thinks she can leave me?"
He turned sharply as the door opened. His assistant entered, hesitant, clutching a file.
"Sir… we've tracked movement near the border. It might be her."
Damien's lips curved not into a smile, but something far more dangerous.
"Good," he said softly. "Let her run. Let her believe she's safe. Fear tastes sweeter when it ripens."
He walked toward the large board covered with photos and notes Ayla's known contacts, her mother Vernes, her past addresses. Red lines connected them like a web spun by obsession.
"Inform the men in Prague. Tell them to keep their eyes on Vernes Vernes," he ordered. "If Ayla's too smart to leave a trail, her mother won't be."
The assistant swallowed hard. "Sir, maybe maybe it's better to let her go. The police are still"
Damien's glare silenced him instantly.
"Let her go?" he whispered. "You don't let go of what's yours."
He turned away again, tightening his jaw.
"She belongs to me. She always will."
Meanwhile
Ayla sat in a cramped motel room miles away, drenched from the rain. Her clothes clung to her skin, her breath unsteady. She had escaped but not entirely.
Every sound made her flinch. Every car passing by the window made her heart leap into her throat.
Her mother's old scarf lay in her lap, frayed and fading the only warmth she had. She hadn't called, hadn't written. She couldn't. Damien's reach was everywhere, and one mistake could lead him straight to Vernes.
Her hands trembled as she lit a candle.
The flickering flame reflected in her eyes filled with fear, guilt, and something new.
Determination.
"I'll find a way," she whispered to herself. "I'll find a way to end this… once and for all."
Outside, thunder cracked as if the night itself was listening.
And somewhere across the city, Damien smiled in the dark.
Because he already knew.
He already had a plan.