Chapter 7 - The Long Night
Julian spent the night in a heavy armchair beside Clara’s bed, watching her chest rise and fall. Every time she whimpered in her sleep, he was there, holding her hand, whispering that she was safe.
Around 3:00 AM, Clara woke up gasping, her eyes wild with panic. "The dark! Don't let her put me back in the dark!"
"You're not going back. Look at me, Clara," Julian said firmly, turning on the bedside lamp. "You are in our room. Isabella is in a jail cell. She is never going to hurt you again."
Clara clung to him, burying her face in his neck, sobbing uncontrollably. The dam had finally broken. She told him everything. How Isabella had ambushed her four years ago, drugging her tea. How she had woken up in the hidden room. How Isabella forced her to read corporate scripts into a voice-recorder to bypass the bank's security protocols.
"She told me you forgot about me," Clara wept. "She played me audio clips of you laughing at parties. She said you moved on and didn't care."
May you like
Julian’s heart shattered into a million pieces. "I never stopped looking. I spent every waking moment trying to find you. The laughter... it was all fake. It was for the cameras. My soul died the day you vanished, Clara."
He held her tighter, silently swearing an oath. Putting Isabella in prison wasn't enough. He was going to utterly annihilate her legacy, her accomplices, and anyone who dared to threaten his wife again.
