A HEART BUILT ON PAYBACK

CHAPTER THREE — Pick Her Up

Alexandro Grant sat in his office sipping coffee, eyes on his laptop screen. His door opened and his assistant Kelvin stepped in — one of the very few people permitted to enter without knocking. Alexandro didn’t look up.

This man looks like he was carved by God, Kelvin thought, not for the first time.

“Speak.” Alexandro’s deep, commanding voice made Kelvin flinch slightly, the way it always did, even after all this time.

Kelvin cleared his throat. “Sir, we found this small bracelet in your car. I believe it may be connected to what happened that night.”

Alexandro finally looked up and stretched out his hand. He turned the bracelet over slowly in his fingers, noticing a small inscription etched into the metal. The letter C.

“C,” he murmured under his breath. Kelvin craned forward without meaning to.

“Find the shop that sold this bracelet,” Alexandro said, setting it down. “Turn the entire country upside down if you have to.” Kelvin picked it up and left without a word.

Alone now, Alexandro leaned back in his chair. His mind drifted, as it had many times over the past two weeks, to that night. The scent of her still lived somewhere in his memory — faint, soft. He hadn’t seen her face clearly, but everything else had stayed with him.

What haunted him most were the sounds she made. Her cries. How was she? Could she ever forgive him? He needed to find her and explain — that he had been drugged that night, that he hadn’t been himself. He glanced at his watch, pushed back from his desk, and stood.

Back at the Reed household, a quieter conversation was underway.

Andrew broke the silence first. “Dad. I told you months ago that we needed to do something about your daughter. You didn’t listen. Now she’s going to drag the Reed name through the mud.”

“Exactly what I’ve been saying for years,” Juliet added smoothly. “But my husband refused to see it.”

Samuel was quiet for a moment. “We can’t deny that she was… useful to this house.”

“Oh, please,” Daniella said.

Juliet leaned forward. “The question isn’t what she was. The question is — what do we do now, before she becomes a public embarrassment?”

“I have an idea.” All eyes turned to Daniella. A slow smile crept across her face. “We find someone to force her to end the pregnancy.”

“Brilliant,” Andrew said immediately. “Dad? Mother?”

Samuel looked at his wife. Something moved behind his eyes — thought, or the last shadow of something like conscience. Then it passed.

“Do you know anyone?” he asked.

It was all Daniella needed. She was on her feet and moving to her room before anyone said another word. What her family didn’t know was that her plans reached far beyond just an abortion. This was the opportunity she had been quietly waiting for. A chance to be rid of Cassandra once and for all — something she had wanted for nearly a decade.

She came back minutes later, face calm, smiling.

“It’s done. Payment will be discussed once the job is finished.”

The room nodded.

On the street, Cassandra had just woken from a short, uncomfortable sleep in the doorway of an abandoned store. She checked her cracked phone screen — 7:10 PM, battery at two percent. She touched her belly out of habit, thinking. She couldn’t stay in one place too long. She gathered herself, stood up, and kept moving.

Ten minutes later, she became aware of heavy footsteps behind her. She slowed down and turned onto a different street. The footsteps followed.

There was no point pretending now. She walked faster. Then she ran.

She was exhausted and hadn’t eaten all day, but she pushed herself harder, heart hammering against her ribs. She finally reached the main road. The man behind her didn’t stop.

Then she saw headlights cutting through the dark, a car rolling toward her down the road. Without a second thought, she threw herself in front of it.

She would rather take her chances with a car than with whatever that man had been sent to do to her.

Kelvin stood on the brakes. The car screeched to a halt. He jumped out immediately, rushing to check, and Alexandro followed.

“What happened to her?” Alexandro asked.

Kelvin crouched down, steadying himself. “She wasn’t hit, sir. I think she fainted — from shock, from exhaustion. The car stopped in time.”

Alexandro stared down at the girl lying on the asphalt. She looked young. Her face, even unconscious, had a kind of quiet innocence to it that stopped him somewhere in his chest.

“Pick her up,” he said.

Then, almost immediately: “No. Wait.” He stepped forward before Kelvin could move. “Let me.”

Kelvin blinked, too surprised to question it. He stepped aside.

Carefully, Alexandro gathered the unconscious girl into his arms and carried her to the car. He settled into the back seat and laid her head gently across his lap.

Something about her he couldn’t name. Something that felt, strangely, like recognition.

“Call ahead to the house doctors,” he said as Kelvin got behind the wheel. “Tell them to be ready before we arrive.”

Kelvin was already dialing.