ISADORA’S POV


    80


    65 wuchert


    I sat at the front counter of the café where I worked,zily propping my chin on one hand as the other scrolled across my phone screen. The ce was unusually quiet, no customers walking in, no orders ringing through the machine, just the faint hum of the air conditioner and the distant tter from the kitchen. Normally, I would have weed the peace, but today it only meant my mind had more space to wander, to obsess<b>. </b>


    It had already been almost a week since those idiots got themselves arrested at the opening ceremony. A whole week. My stomach had been in knots every single day since, not from guilt – no, I didn’t do guilt but from uncertainty. I knew how these things worked, the police didn’t waste time. In custody, those fools would have been questioned day and night. Pressure. Fear. Promises of leniency. Everything to make them crack and reveal who had sent them.


    If even one of them had opened his mouth and said my name, if they had dared to mention me, then by now my picture would be stered across every news outlet in the city. Headlines screaming about my betrayal. The police would have a warrant out for my arrest, my face on wanted posters, my life copsing in a matter of seconds. That was why, instead of rxing, I sat here refreshing every news station I could find,bing through articles, video clips, and gossip blogs.


    Fifteen minutes passed. My thumb ached from scrolling, but my eyes remained sharp, darting across the headlines. Nothing. Not even a whisper about me. Relief trickled into my chest like cool water. At least, for now, those idiots had proven useful in one thing they knew how to keep their mouths shut.


    I leaned back in the chair, allowing myself a small smirk. “Good dogs,” I whispered under my breath. Of course, they would rot in that cell forever, but that was the price of failure. And they had failed twice. Twice! Even when they had the perfect opportunity handed to them, they couldn’t get the job done. Pathetic.


    Still, the silence in the news confirmed what I needed to know. I was safe. For now.


    The only piece of news that truly caught my attention was about Adrian. Apparently, he had been discharged from the hospital where he was recovering. The update was brief, but it was more than enough to ignite something inside me. A spark of relief, a rush of excitement. I hadn’t realized how tightly I had been holding onto the fear of him being gone until I read those words. Alive. Adrian was alive.


    I let out a long breath and felt my body rx for the first time in days. I could still see him again. I could still fix things.


    Memories of thest time I saw him tugged at me, stirring a deep ache. For so many nights, I hadin awake, tossing and turning, wondering if his blood was on my hands, if my choices had cost me the one man I had ever truly loved. The thought of him being dead because of me haunted me, gnawing at my sanity.


    But today… Today that heavyweight was lifted. He wasn’t gone. He had survived. Fate had given me another chance.


    I hadn’t known which hospital he was being kept in, which was why I stayed away all this time. Not because <b>I </b>didn’t want to see him, but because I couldn’t find him. Every time I thought about searching more aggressively, that woman’s shadow appeared in my mind her ws always between us, her presence always keeping me at bay.


    10:23 <b>Sat</b>, <b>Sep </b>20


    <b>80 </b>


    155 vouchers


    Now, though, things were different. If Adrian was out of the hospital, then there were only two ces he could be: his mansion or hispany. Either way, it meant I would find him soon. And when I did, I would make sure he understood me. He would know how much I loved him, how much I had always loved him, no matter. the mistakes.


    My pulse quickened just imagining seeing his face again, hearing his voice, maybe even feeling the warmth of his hand in mine. The thought wrapped around me like a drug, pulling me deeper into the obsession I refused to let go of.


    I would speak to him again. I would stand before him no matter how many doors she tried <i>to </i>m in


    my face. I didn’t care how many times that witch came between us. Let her try. Let her think she had won. She hadn’t. She never would.


    All I needed was a better n. A smarter way. Something that would finally remove her from the picture once and for all. Permanently. Because I wasn’t going to stop. Not today, not tomorrow, not ever. Adrian was mine, and I was never going to let him go.


    Now I can’t send hitmen to kill her again because she would be on high alert at all times after what happened back at the ceremony. She’s not stupid – far from it, and I know for a fact that after what happened she will never let her guard down again. Her men will be watching her every step, cameras probably nted in every corner, and she will be alert for the slightest shadow moving against her. If I try the same approach again, it will fail, and failure isn’t something I can afford.


    I needed to do something smarter. Something she would never seeing. And whatever I was going to do this time, I had to do it myself. No middlemen, no hired hands, no idiots who would get caught and expose me at the first hint of police pressure. I don’t have the money to keep throwing around to people who end up disappointing me. Every cent I spend now has to count, and every move has to be precise.


    This time, failure isn’t an option.


    If I want Olivia gone, I have to hit her hard enough that she either disappears from this world entirely or runs away from Adrian forever. Those are the only two oues I will ept. Anything less is worthless to me.


    I already had a couple of ideas — dark, ruthless ideas that my mom and I had discussedte into the night. She always taught me that when you go for your enemy, you don’t just scratch them, you break them so badly that they never recover. And out of all the ideas we tossed around, the best, the most deliciously cruel, were narrowed down to just the top two.


    The first one… oh, it still makes my heart race just thinking about it.


    Right now she has a five–year–old son. A son that should have been dead years ago, along with her. That child is her greatest weakness, the one thing that ties her down and keeps her human. And the way she had the audacity to tell me that Adrian was the father of that bastard son of hers? It almost felt like she said it just to spite me, to stab me where it hurt the most. And it worked, because that day I felt my blood boil so fiercely I could barely think straight.


    That boy should never have existed. He’s living proof of a life she built with Adrian even though it was a mistake, a life that was supposed to be mine.


    So one of my ns, one that keeps reying in my mind over and over is to kidnap her son. Take him away right under her nose. Use him as leverage. I know as a mother she must love that boy a lot, it’s written all over her face. So the game would be simple: I’d tell her to choose. Her son’s life… or hers.


    <b>10:23 </b>Sat, Sep 20


    …


    20


    255 youchers


    And given how stupidly selfless she is, I already know the answer. She would never let anything happen to him. She would tell me to spare her son’s life and kill her instead.


    But that’s where the real game begins.


    Because I won’t just kill her. No, that would be too easy, too quick. Instead, I’ll make her do it herself. I’ll put the gun in her trembling hand, look her dead in the eye, and tell her that if she really wants to save her son, she’ll have to shoot herself in the head.


    And she will. I’ll make sure of it.


    –


    But I won’t stop there. I’ve already thought of a way to make sure no one ever traces it back to me. I’ll make a video yes, a perfect, clean recording of Olivia herself, sitting there with a gun to her head, saying that she can’t take life anymore, that she is going tomit suicide. I’ll force the words out of her mouth. Then, right there on the spot, she’ll pull the trigger and end it all.


    And when the police find her body, when Adrian sees the footage, they’ll all believe she killed herself out of despair. No one will ever know the truth.


    And me? I’ll finally be rid of her forever.