After taking a deep breath, she finally parted her lips to speak.


    "If you’re worried about the girls, then you don’t have to anymore. They’repletely safe and no harm wille to them," she replied. Then slowly, she put down her arms. "I’m not your enemy, X."


    Xavier’s eyes narrowed at the woman before him. Right now, she lookedpletely harmless but he couldn’t help but think he’d heard that voice before.


    Before Xavier could open his mouth to speak, a gunshot fired in the air and he fell to the ground with a grunt.


    Anastasia instinctively took a step towards him with worry in her eyes when she was suddenly pulled away from him. She looked at the person’s face, it was Julian.


    Xavier immediately grabbed his gun and fired at them, but it was already toote. They’d already disappeared.


    Julian and Anastasia immediately escaped from the building, heading to where the van was packed.


    Outside, several piles of dead bodies disgusted Anastasia to the extent of almost throwing up.


    Anastasia inhaled as much oxygen as she could as soon as they reached the deep bush where the vans had been parked so discreetly no one would find it unless they managed to see in the dark.


    "That was a close one," Julianmented, holding onto his chest.


    "The girls are all safe," said Alex. "We should leave now before we get discovered," he added.


    Julian’s eyes were on Anastasia, noticing that thetter hadn’t spoken a word yet.


    "You shot him," she said as if she’d read his thoughts.


    Julian was a little confused before it dawned on him.


    "He was about to kill you. If I hadn’t shot him, you would be dead by now," he immediately defended.


    Anastasia slowly raised her gaze to make eye contact with him with her expressionspletely unreadable.


    "But he didn’t," said Anastasia. She was tempted to go back there and check up on him. Julian had shot him in the leg and from the looks of things, he wasn’t going to walk for a while.


    "He saw you in there, so obviously, he’s gonna think you’re an enemy—"


    "I told him I wasn’t."


    "And you think he believes that?" He questioned her.


    Alex nced between the booth of them waiting for when to interrupt especially when his eyes caught on a shadow that was eavesdropping on them.


    "You said you weren’t ready to go back to him yet. At least not until you’ve aplished your mission, especially with what you’ve gone through. If you’re worried he won’t be able to walk again, then you don’t have to worry, I made sure not to hit any vital spot."


    Anastasia was still unmoving.


    "You’re the true one who decided not to go back to him. Are you suddenly regretting all you’ve said after seeing him now, Anastasia?"


    Anastasia couldn’t say anything. She’d thought she would be able to do this without batting an eysh, but meeting with him just this once made her feel things she’d never felt before.


    His sharp jawline captivated her, paired with those dark eyes that seemed to pierce straight into her soul, as if he was trying to unravel the thoughts hidden within her mind. The lean yetmanding physique beneath his suit was undeniably something she knew she wouldn’t forget.


    Realizing she was fantasizing about a situation like this, she immediately snapped out of it.


    She raised her head to look at Julian, but his gaze was already somewhere else. She looked at Alex and he was also looking behind her with a shocked expression. The henchmen had their guns raised for action.


    Anastasia stiffly turned to look behind her, and once her eyesnded on the person standing there, she immediately froze like a bucket of cold water that had been poured on her.


    In front of her was a woman she could recognize because she’d only seen that woman once, at the airport.


    In front of her was Tracie, looking at her with an expression simr to the one they were all wearing.


    In her hands was a gun that was pointed at them. However, she dropped it, not minding the guns pointed at her.


    She slowly walked towards Anastasia with slow and countable steps, tears pooling in her eyes, her body trembling as if she was freezing.


    When she reached Anastasia, she gently cupped her cheeks as her tears fell. "You’re Anastasia?"