Chapter 4
1057 Words
After five years...
Lucas Blackwood had been hunting Isabella for five years. He had been living with the gap she left behind for five years; it was a void that could not be filled by wealth, power, or control. The ghost of the woman who had dared to disobey him had haunted the nights for eternity.
Days were spent searching for false leads, dead ends, and murmurs. For Isabella wasn't just gone. She was gone. Despite his immense power and the size of the empire at his disposal, she had escaped his grasp. No matter how much money he spent on the search or how many soldiers he sent after her, it had made no difference. She had done too good at hiding. No bank accounts. No paper trace. No errors. Nothing.
For years, he had torn through cities, countries, digging into the underworld, breaking people apart just to get a single trace of her.
But Isabella was smart.
She had disappeared without a trace.
Until now.
Lucas stood at the edge of a bustling market, frozen.
The air was filled with the aromas of fresh bread and spices, vendors shouting, children laughing, and voices overlapping in a symphony of life. The busy street was bathed in golden hues as the sun started to set. He wasn't looking for her here. He had come to this little city only on business. However, everything else vanished as soon as the call was received.
An Intel. An Intel worth hearing. Because he had never given up looking, even after all these years. never ceased to desire. And suddenly he saw her, strolling down these same streets where his men had seen her. alive. Lovely. Her features were still stunning, and her hair had grown a bit, but she now had a more sophisticated, polished, and pricey appearance. She had built herself into a woman who thrived.
His Isabella.
But it wasn't just her.
She wasn't alone.
She was holding the hand of a child.
A boy.
Lucas's entire body went rigid.
The child had his eyes.
The same piercing, icy gaze that had made men tremble.
Blood roared in his ears as the truth slammed into him like a sledgehammer.
Isabella hadn't just run.
She had taken something from him.
His son.
* * *
Isabella sensed it before she ever laid eyes on him. She felt that familiar chill. The distinct feeling of being pursued. Her pulse seemed to be racing uncontrollably, and the air around her seemed to thin-until she noticed it. A smell.
He wore cologne. costly. masculine. A smell she was all too familiar with. She wished she could forget the smell that had tormented her in dreams and sent a chill down her spine. Her breath caught. She felt a wave of panic, but she didn't turn yet. Instead, she grounded herself in the warmth of her son's small palm by curling her fingers around his tiny hand and tightening the squeeze. He is everything.
He was the reason she had fought so hard. The reason she had endured so much.
"Mommy?" The boy's soft voice cut through the thick silence, his innocent eyes peering up at her, wide and curious. Unaware.
Unaware of the storm about to crash into their world.
She swallowed the fear threatening to choke her and forced a gentle smile onto her lips.
"Shh, baby," she whispered, her voice barely steady. "We need to go now".
But it was too late.
The golden light of the dying sun was sucked up by a shadow that descended upon them. A wall of power. Immobile. Unavoidable. Something, or rather, someone, had blocked the way ahead of her. tall and commanding. A force from which she had just managed to flee.
She felt her stomach fall as she eventually looked up. icy blue eyes. Ruthless and Glacial. locked upon hers. Furious, definitely, but something much more sinister. ownership. Lucas. Her breath caught. Her entire body went cold. No, no, no. This was not intended to occur. She had exercised such caution.
She had taken every precaution, every step to ensure her past would never catch up to her. She had vanished into the shadows of a new life, built walls around herself with wealth and security, and sworn she would never look back.
Far from the monster she had known, she had relocated to a different city. She had tied the knot and committed herself to a guy strong enough to protect her. A guy who had provided her and her son with shelter, stability, and a name. And he had left everything to her and their child when he was taken away by death.
A wealth. A legacy. For a minute, she had thought she was safe in this beautifully crafted environment. She had gotten away. She had torn herself free of his hold, cut off all her ties, and vanished into the depths of a new life. She were no longer with Lucas Blackwood. Her world was previously owned by this man. The man who had dictated her every move, who had loomed over her like an unrelenting storm. She had broken free.
She had won.
Or so she thought.
Because now-
Here he was.
Tall. Unshaken. Inevitable.
A figure carved from darkness, standing before her like a demon she had tried to banish but never truly escaped.
Her worst fear, her deepest nightmare-made flesh.
His presence swallowed the very air around her, turning the space between them into a suffocating trap. The world shrank, sound faded, and for a brief, horrifying second-
She couldn't breathe.
Her breath stilled.
He hadn't changed.
If anything, he was worse.
Wearing an all-black suit, he was colder, sharper, and his very presence was deadly and authoritative. She was fixed in place by his cold blue eyes, which were darkened by unsaid rage. immobilizing.
unforgiving.
As the world focused on the one guy who had previously imprisoned her in an unbreakable cage, the surrounding crowd dissolved into meaningless noise. And now he had located her once more. His mouth twisted. A slow, perilous grin. It was one that made her shiver. Isabella, did you really think I wouldn't find you? Her heart ceased beating. Since she was aware of- What was rightfully his, Lucas Blackwood never relinquished.
He had just discovered his greatest treachery.
- Writer
