WANT ME BACK. BREAK ME TWICE

The Smoldering Ash

The air inside the main server room was freezing, humming with the mechanical drone of dozens of cooling fans. Rohan stood over the master technician’s shoulder, his bloodshot eyes reflecting the harsh blue light of the monitor. His wrapped, bloody knuckles throbbed with a dull, rhythmic pain, but he ignored it.

"Double encrypt the root directory," Rohan commanded, his voice a low, gravelly rasp. "I want a multi-phase lock on the trash repository. If any file from the last forty-eight hours is deleted, erased, or overridden, it must automatically mirror into a hidden sector. It stays there for thirty days. The only way to permanently purge it is with this administrative bypass key."

His fingers flew across the mechanical keyboard, punching in a complex, twenty-four-character alphanumeric string known only to him. And pressed enter, locking it.

The technician swallowed hard, nodding rapidly. "Done, sir. The system is completely locked down. Even if someone pulls the drive, the data is encrypted at the hardware level."

"Good. Now, pull up the scullery corridor footage from..."

"Mr. Margualie!"

The heavy security door burst open. A junior maid stood in the doorway, her uniform disheveled, her face completely pale with panic. She was breathless, her chest heaving. "Sir! I'm sorry to interrupt, but it's Miss Allegra! She... she collapsed on the nursery floor! She won't wake up!"

Rohan’s heart violently seized. The heavy aura of vengeance instantly evaporated, replaced by a cold, paralyzing dread. He didn't say a word. He tore out of the server room, his heavy boots slamming against the floor as he sprinted through the corridors toward the grand foyer.

As he reached the bottom of the grand staircase, he met Nina. The maid was frantically carrying Allegra’s limp, tiny form in her arms, tears streaming down her face. The little girl's head hung back loosely, her face a terrifying shade of porcelain white.

"Give her to me!" Rohan roared, snatching his daughter into his strong arms. Her weightless, frail body sent a wave of agonizing panic through his veins. He ran straight through the front entrance, throwing open the door of his town car. "To the hospital! Drive! Now!"

Back inside the mansion, the frantic screech of the town car’s tires signaled the perfect window of opportunity.

"He's gone," Treas whispered, her voice manic as she paced the upstairs corridor, looking down at Marina. "Mother, he went to the server room before the nursery. He knows something.What if he has seen the footage? We have to delete it right now!"

The two women immediately descended into the security hub, cornering the Head of Security for the second time. But the man took a definitive step back, his expression hardened with fear.

"I cannot do it, Madam," the security chief stated flatly, crossing his arms. "Mr. Margualie just personally updated the security protocols and added a recursive encryption layer. If I attempt a manual override now, it will trigger an automated alert directly to his personal device. I value my life, and I will not be on that man's bad side."

Marina stepped forward, her eyes flashing with venomous rage. "Do you know who I am? I can ensure you never work in this country again! I will destroy your family..."

"Mother, stop. It's no use," Treas interrupted, her eyes suddenly shifting into a cold, desperate clarity. An evil, frantic plan formed in her mind. "Leave him."

Treas turned on her heel and marched directly toward the master server room. She took a deep breath, smoothing down her designer dress, and slipped a small, unsealed bottle of mineral water into the folds of her skirt. Pushing the heavy door open, she walked into the freezing room where a single junior technician was monitoring the newly encrypted servers.

"Ma'am?" the technician blinked, surprised. "Can I help you? Mr. Margualie strictly ordered—"

"I know what my husband ordered," Treas interrupted, suddenly clutching her stomach and letting out a soft, fragile moan. She stumbled against the edge of a server rack, her face twisting into a mask of sudden pain. "Oh... god. I feel so faint. The stress of today... please, get me a glass of cold water from the breakroom. Quickly. The baby..."

The young technician panicked. Seeing the pregnant mistress of the house collapsing in front of him was a fast track to getting fired. "Yes, ma'am! Right away! Please sit down!"

The moment the technician’s footsteps faded down the hallway, Treas’s fragile expression vanished.

She stood up instantly, her eyes locking onto the massive cluster of thick, braided data cables feeding directly into the main hardware drives—the very lines carrying the CCTV footage Rohan wanted to see. She pulled the hidden water bottle from her dress.

With trembling, ruthless hands, Treas poured the water directly over the exposed, high-voltage cable connections and the main network switch.

Sparks erupted instantly.

A violent, sharp blue arc of electricity hissed through the air, followed by the acrid, pungent smell of burning plastic and fried silicon. The cooling fans sputtered and died as smoke began to billow from the central console. The monitors flickered wildly before snapping into pitch blackness. The entire mansion’s security feed went dead.

When the technician rushed back into the room with a cup of water, he froze in absolute horror at the sight of the smoldering, ruined equipment.

Treas was already at the door, coughing softly into her hand, her face a mask of faux innocence. "Oh dear... it must have been a sudden electrical surge. I am going to my room to rest. Fix it immediately."

At the city hospital, the sterile smell of antiseptic offered Rohan no comfort. He paced the private pediatric clinic like a caged beast until the double doors finally opened.

The specialist stepped out, sighing softly. "She's awake, Mr. Margualie. It was a severe panic-induced episode. Her body simply shut down from extreme emotional trauma and dehydration. She needs rest, and above all, she needs peace."

Rohan pushed past the doctor, stepping into the quiet room.

Allegra lay on the large white hospital bed, looking incredibly small. The moment her tiny eyes locked onto Rohan, her entire frame violently flinched. She pulled the sterile blanket up to her chin, her eyes wide with a paralyzing, heart-breaking terror.

Rohan felt a physical hand wrap around his throat, squeezing the air from his lungs. He slowly sank to his knees beside the bed, keeping his distance, his hands open and trembling.

"Allegra... sweetheart," Rohan whispered, his voice cracking, entirely stripped of his billionaire arrogance. "Please. Daddy is here. Nobody is going to hurt you. I promise."

The little girl stared at him, her chest heaving as silent tears began to overflow, tracking down her pale cheeks. "Where is Mama?" she sobbed, her tiny voice fracturing the silence of the room. "I want Mama."

Rohan closed his eyes, a devastating, suffocating wave of guilt crashing over him. He didn't have the courage. The great Rohan Margualie, who could dismantle corporate empires with a single phone call, didn't have the strength to look his own daughter in the eye and tell her that her mother’s heart had stopped.

"Mama is... Mama had to go away for a while, sweetie," he lied, the words tasting like ash in his mouth.

"Aunty Treas locked her up," Allegra wept, her small fists clenching the blanket. "Mama was coughing blood, and she was crying, and Aunty locked her in the dark. She wouldn't let me give her water."

Every syllable out of the child’s mouth was a lethal blow to Rohan's reality. The lies Treas and Marina had spun about Elara’s "manic tantrums" shattered into dust. He had let them torture her. He had trusted the vipers while his own wife was being brutalized.

An hour later, the rain had slowed to a miserable, grey drizzle as Rohan’s town car glided through the city traffic, heading back toward the estate. Allegra was asleep in the seat beside him.

Rohan’s phone buzzed in his hand. He picked it up, his face transitioning into a terrifying mask of cold, unyielding violence.

"Speak," Rohan hissed into the receiver.

"Mr. Margualie, it's the private investigator you hired," the voice on the other end murmured cautiously. "We tracked the registry of the vehicle that took Elara Vale’s body from the hospital. The vehicle belongs to an ancestral estate on the northern outskirts of the valley. I'm sending the exact coordinates and property deeds to your secure terminal now."

Rohan disconnected the call as a file chimed onto his screen. He looked down at the address, his jaw clenching so hard a vein throbbed violently at his temple.

His eyes were dead, hollow, and promised total devastation. He didn't know where Elara was, he didn't know if she was truly gone forever, and he didn't know what secrets lay behind that address—but he was going to tear the world apart to find out.