Tainted Love

Chapter 30

Chapter — The Echo of the Hidden

It had been days, long and restless days, and still, Emilia had not found Pascaline. The uncertainty was beginning to eat at her like a quiet disease. Every hour without answers felt like sand slipping through her fingers. She stood in the middle of her office, her mind racing in spirals, her pulse uneven. Then, as if lightning cut through her confusion, a thought struck her…clear, urgent, terrifying.

She turned sharply and tapped her bodyguard on the shoulder, her most trusted aide, the one who doubled as her personal assistant. Her voice was low, fast, trembling slightly, but with command.

“We forgot something. We need to fix something immediately.”

The bodyguard froze, watching the fear that flickered in her eyes.

“The CCTV cameras, both at my house and the abandoned house. Hurry up! If Pascaline’s out there, she’ll use that against us. Go! Now!”

Within seconds, they were in the car. The tires screeched against the wet gravel as they sped off into the fading afternoon. The tension inside the car was thick enough to choke on. Emilia’s heartbeat drummed against her chest like a warning bell. Every flash of memory…every conversation, every secret, every command…played like an unwanted film in her head.

The abandoned house came first. Its silhouette stood at the edge of the town like a ruin that should have been forgotten years ago. The air was heavy with dust, rot, and things better left buried. As they entered, the faint sound of dripping water echoed through the walls.

“Take everything,” Emilia ordered. “Every single camera, every recorder, every backup.”

They moved swiftly…two shadows dismantling the past. The bodyguard climbed onto chairs, ripped cables from ceilings, and unscrewed metal mounts. Emilia stood still for a moment, staring into the emptiness of the house. This place had seen too much. It held secrets she had tried so hard to bury, and the thought that Pascaline might have access to any of it made her skin crawl.

Boxes filled with camera parts clattered into the trunk. Within minutes, they were gone—leaving behind nothing but echoes and dust.

“Now to the Diary Empire,” she said.

The drive was tense and silent. Emilia’s phone buzzed every few seconds with unanswered calls, but she ignored them. Her mind was fixed only on one thing: erasure. At the Diary Empire, her empire…her legacy…security guards saluted her, but she didn’t return the gesture. She stormed straight to the surveillance room.

“Turn off all the systems,” she demanded.

The technician hesitated, blinking rapidly. “Ma’am?”

Emilia’s voice cracked with cold impatience. “Now!”

They obeyed. She watched as each screen went black…one after another. The light from the monitors dimmed until the room looked like a mausoleum of secrets. Emilia and her guard gathered all the DVRs and memory cards, stuffing them into black bags with trembling urgency.

When they finally stepped outside, the evening sky had turned the color of smoke. They climbed into the car again, exhaustion and panic mixing into a quiet storm inside her chest.

But halfway down the dusty road leading out of the city, her bodyguard gasped and hit the brakes.

“Madam…” he began, guilt spreading across his face.

“What?” Emilia’s tone was sharp.

“We forgot the one at the room where Pascaline was held.”

For a heartbeat, she went still. Then she exhaled shakily. “Turn around.”

They sped back, gravel flying under their wheels, headlights slicing through the growing dark. The old house loomed again like a curse that refused to die. The moment they stepped in, Emilia’s hands began to shake. The air here felt colder, heavier…as if the walls remembered too much.

They searched quickly, every shadow whispering of danger. The final camera was hidden in the corner, blinking faintly like a heartbeat. The bodyguard tore it down and handed it to her. Emilia didn’t speak. She just nodded once, and they left, the sound of their footsteps fading into the quiet of the night.

They collected everything onto a single small memory card.

⸻

They drove to the village, to the far end where the sea met the rocks. The ocean was dark, restless, and loud, waves crashing like a heart too full of secrets. Emilia stood by the edge, wind tearing through her hair, rain beginning to fall again. She held the memory card with anger and satisfaction.

“Are you sure about this?” her bodyguard asked softly.

She didn’t answer. She just looked at the waves.

Without another word, Emilia stepped closer to the water. Her fingers loosened, and one by one, she dropped the memory card into the sea. It disappeared beneath the surface with no sound, no ceremony…just small object swallowed by the darkness.

Everything happened too fast. She didn’t even feel the weight of what she’d done until the last one slipped from her hand. It was over. Evidence destroyed. History erased. But as she stood there, the wind screaming around her, she realized that peace didn’t come with destruction. Only silence did.

She turned away, eyes glassy, voice breaking. “Let’s go.”

The car engine roared to life again, and as they drove off, the sea behind them kept its secrets.

⸻

Across the world, Vivian was drowning in grief. The news of her father’s death had left her hollow. The man who had loved her unconditionally, who had called her his miracle, was gone. Gone forever. The words echoed in her chest until they lost all meaning.

She sat by the window of husband’s office, watching raindrops crawl down the glass. Each one carried the reflection of her pain. Her hands trembled as she clutched his wristwatch…the only thing she had left of him.

Her tears came without permission, warm against her cold skin. The sound of her sobs filled the quiet room. “You promised…” she whispered to no one. “You promised you’d never leave me.”

Her husband had been gone for days, no messages, no comfort, no sign of concern. She had never felt so alone. The silence between them was louder than any argument. She pressed a hand to her stomach, feeling the faint kick of the child she carried. It was the only reason she was still breathing.

She hadn’t eaten properly in days. Sleep had become a stranger. Her once bright eyes were now dull and red-rimmed. The mirror reflected a stranger…a woman broken by loss, crushed under the weight of love that could never return. Her hair was unkempt, her face pale, acne marking her once flawless skin. She had stopped caring. She was slowly fading.

And every time she tried to close her eyes, she saw her father…lying cold and lifeless in the mortuary, surrounded by silence. It broke her anew. The pain wasn’t just grief; it was disbelief. The world kept turning, but hers had stopped.

⸻

Back in the village, far from Vivian’s sorrow, Erica was battling her own storm. Fear. Anxiety. Rage. They twisted inside her like a living thing. She could barely think straight anymore.

She sat at the edge of her couch, glaring at Pascaline, who sat calmly on the opposite side, reading a book as if the world outside wasn’t chaos. That calm infuriated Erica. Every quiet turn of the page sounded like mockery.

Pascaline was trouble…she knew it from the start. A woman like that didn’t walk into your home without bringing shadows with her. Erica could feel it. She had seen what “those people” were capable of the night they invaded her home. The memory still haunted her…the shouting, the gunfire, the look in her husband’s eyes when he told her to hide Daniel.

Now, Pascaline was here, in her house, breathing the same air as her little boy. Erica’s stomach turned with fear. She looked at her son’s photograph on the wall and swore silently that she would not let this woman destroy her family.

If anyone came asking who knew where Pascaline was, she would tell them. Husband’s orders or not. Loyalty meant nothing if her child’s life was at stake. She could not risk her family’s peace for someone who brought danger with every breath.

She stood abruptly, unable to bear the sight of Pascaline’s calm face any longer. “You should be gone by now,” she muttered under her breath. Pascaline looked up briefly, eyes cool and unreadable, then went back to her book.

That small act of defiance…of indifference…lit a fuse inside Erica. Her fingers curled into fists. She was a good person, a peaceful woman, but right now, fear was stronger than kindness.

She turned away, biting her lip hard enough to draw blood. Somewhere deep down, she knew this wasn’t the end. Trouble was coming, and Pascaline was at the center of it.

Outside, the night was restless. The sea still carried the memory cards Emilia had thrown away. The waves whispered secrets only the brave could hear. Vivian’s sobs filled another corner of the world, and in the quiet of Erica’s home, tension brewed like a storm waiting to break.

The web was tightening.

Each woman…Emilia, Vivian, Erica, and Pascaline…stood on her own edge of ruin, unaware that soon their stories would collide, and none of them would ever be the same again.