The God Of War's Hidden Daughter

Chapter 2

Guilt crashed over him like a tsunami, so heavy that even the roar of the speeding jeep felt distant and unreal, as if the world outside had been swallowed by water and silence.

The soldiers in the front seat did not dare slow down for even a second, because they could feel that the man behind them was no longer just their commander but something far more dangerous, something driven by pain instead of strategy, and so the gas pedal stayed pressed all the way down as the engine screamed under the pressure.

The speed climbed higher and higher until the jeep was racing at nearly two hundred miles per hour across broken terrain and military roads, shaking violently as it cut through dust, smoke, and the aftermath of war.

Inside the vehicle, Alexander slowly closed his eyes, but there was no peace waiting behind them, only memories that came crashing in like a flood breaking through a dam that had been holding for years.

Tears poured down his face without stopping as he whispered a single name again and again, each repetition softer than the last but heavier with emotion, as though saying it could somehow bridge the distance between him and the child he had never known.

“Lily…”

His voice cracked slightly each time, and his hands clenched tightly as his mind dragged him backward through time.

Years ago, before he became the feared commander known across battlefields, Alexander had wandered into Texas alone, wounded, exhausted, and without any identity left to hold onto.

He had been taken in by the Dutt family, one of the most respected families in the region, whose patriarch ruled one of the four great houses of Texas, and for the first time in a long while, Alexander had been treated not like a weapon but like a son.

For a short moment in his life, he had known something close to peace.

But peace never lasted in his world.

During a family banquet that was supposed to be a celebration, betrayal struck without warning, and everything collapsed in a single night of blood and fire.

An insider within the household had sold them out, and in a matter of hours, the other three great families joined forces and wiped out the entire Dutt family, leaving no survivors behind except for one man who barely escaped death.

That man was Alexander.

Stabbed multiple times and left for dead, he had crawled through pain and darkness until his body finally gave out, and in that moment when everything should have ended, fate had shifted in a way he never expected.

He had been found and saved by Evelyn Cole, the heiress of another powerful family in Texas, a woman who should have had no reason to risk herself for a dying stranger.

She brought him to a hotel in secret, far from the chaos, and for the first time in days, he had felt something like safety as she treated his wounds with careful hands and silent determination.

But exhaustion had taken over him soon after, and he had collapsed into unconsciousness.

When he finally woke up, grief and rage had already taken root deep inside him, and the pain of everything he had lost came crashing down all at once.

In that broken state, he had clung to Evelyn without thinking, as though holding onto her was the only way to stop himself from falling apart completely, and that night, in a blur of emotion, exhaustion, and shared pain, they ended up crossing a line that neither of them had fully understood at the time.

By the next morning, everything had changed.

Evelyn was gone.

Alexander had woken up alone in an empty room, panic rising slowly in his chest as his eyes searched every corner for any sign of her presence, but all he found was silence and absence.

Then he saw it.

A single note placed carefully on the table, and beside it, the Bauhinia brooch, the symbol tied to his family, the last remaining piece of his identity before everything had been destroyed.

His fingers trembled as he picked up the paper and unfolded it, recognizing the handwriting instantly as Evelyn’s, steady yet filled with urgency and sorrow.

The message was short, but it shattered everything he thought he understood.

The people who killed your adoptive father will find this place soon. You must leave Texas immediately. If you want revenge, head west.

And then, at the end, one final line that stayed with him forever.

And lastly, I took the brooch as a memento.

In that moment, Alexander had not understood what it truly meant.

But now, sitting inside a speeding jeep years later, with a daughter he never knew existed crying for help, everything finally connected in a way that made his chest feel like it was being torn apart from the inside.

Alexander’s entire body went still as the words in his memory and the words in the present collided inside his mind like two storms meeting in the sky.

For a brief second, he did not feel like a commander, or a king, or even a soldier, because all those titles suddenly became meaningless compared to one truth that now burned inside him with unbearable weight.

He had a daughter.

A real daughter.

A child who had been crying for him while he was standing on a battlefield thinking it was just a mistake.

His hands tightened so hard that the metal frame of the fighter jet’s cockpit creaked under his grip, and for a moment his breathing became uneven as guilt and rage fought inside him for control.

“How many times…” he whispered, his voice shaking for the first time in years, “…how many times did she call me while I was killing strangers and calling it justice?”

The question had no answer that could comfort him.

Only pain.

Only regret.

Only a deep, crushing realization that no enemy army he had ever faced could compare to the war he had just discovered within his own life.

Back in Redwood Falls, the unmarked van continued speeding down a broken road, its tires kicking up dust as it left the abandoned factory far behind, moving toward the outskirts of the town where no one paid attention to what disappeared in the dark.

Inside the van, the little girl was tied tightly with rough rope that had already left marks on her small wrists, her body trembling not because she had any strength left, but because fear had become the only thing keeping her awake.

Her clothes were torn and dirty, her face was covered with dried tears, and her skin looked pale in a way that made it clear she had been crying for far too long without comfort or rest.

Her big frightened eyes kept darting around the inside of the van, as if she was trying to understand where she was going, even though she was too young to fully understand what danger meant, only that danger had already found her.

Beside her sat two men who looked like they had stepped out of a nightmare rather than a normal world.

One of them was scarred heavily across his face and arms, his eyes sharp and cold like a man who had done terrible things too many times to feel anything about it anymore, while the other was bald with a thick neck and restless movements that made him look nervous despite his size.

The bald man leaned slightly closer, lowering his voice as he glanced at the girl.

“Boss,” he asked quietly, “who exactly wants this little brat? The payment is too high for something normal. This doesn’t feel like an ordinary job.”

The scarred man did not answer immediately, and for a brief moment, his eyes flickered with something that looked like uncertainty, as if even he did not like the answer he had been given.

“Don’t ask questions,” he said at last, his tone cold but strained, as though he was forcing himself to stay calm. “Just do what you are paid to do.”

The bald man frowned, still uneasy, and turned his gaze back toward the child.

“So what exactly are we supposed to do with her?” he asked again, slower this time, as if hoping the answer would change if he asked it differently.

The scarred man finally exhaled, his voice dropping even lower, almost like he did not want the words to exist.

“She is going to be used for a heart transplant,” he said quietly, each word heavy with something that sounded uncomfortably close to fear. “For another girl.”

Silence fell inside the van.

Even the engine noise seemed to fade for a moment.

The bald man’s expression changed instantly as understanding hit him, and he sucked in a sharp breath that betrayed even his hardened nature.

“That’s…” he muttered, struggling to find the right words, “that’s not just cruel. That means this kid is already dead.”

The scarred man let out a cold, mocking laugh as he looked at the terrified little girl, his eyes carrying the kind of cruelty that came from doing evil for too long without ever being punished.

“Do you have an opinion?” he sneered, as if the child’s suffering was nothing more than entertainment.

The van shook slightly as it continued moving, but inside, the atmosphere felt heavier than steel, pressing down on everyone except the men who had already lost whatever humanity they once had.

Lily’s small body trembled violently as she shook her head in denial, tears rolling down her face without pause, her voice breaking as she tried to hold on to the only hope she had left in the world.

“L-Lily won’t die…” she cried, her voice shaking so much it barely formed words. “Daddy… Daddy will come and save me…”

The bald man turned toward her with a twisted grin, as if her innocence amused him in the worst possible way, and he leaned closer just enough for his words to land like knives.

“Where is this daddy of yours, huh?” he said cruelly. “You keep talking about him like he’s some kind of hero, but you are just a bastard. Your mother probably doesn’t even know who your father is.”

“I’m not a bastard!” Lily sobbed harder, her small hands struggling against the rope as if her whole body was trying to reject the words. “I have a daddy… you bad men, my daddy will not let you get away with this!”

The bald man laughed loudly, a sound filled with mockery and satisfaction, as if breaking her hope was more enjoyable than anything else in his life.

“If you really had a daddy,” he said slowly, dragging out the words, “he would have come already. Or maybe he is already dead, and that is why no one is coming for you.”

Lily shook her head desperately, refusing to accept it even as her tears blurred her vision.

“Daddy isn’t dead…” she insisted weakly. “He will come. Daddy will come for Lily.”

The bald man’s grin widened as he leaned back comfortably, enjoying her pain like it was a show made just for him.

“When?” he asked mockingly. “Tomorrow? The day after? You are going to surgery tonight, little girl, and by tomorrow even if your daddy shows up, he won’t even find you alive to look at.”

“No…” Lily whispered, her voice breaking completely now as fear finally overwhelmed everything else. “No… I will see my daddy… I will see him…”

Her cries filled the van, raw and helpless, but the men ignored her completely as if she was nothing more than noise in the background of their job.

The bald man turned forward again and barked orders sharply, his tone shifting back to business as if he had not just crushed a child’s heart.

“Find a place without surveillance cameras,” he said. “Switch cars and make sure we are not followed.”

“Got it, boss,” the driver replied, nodding as the van sped up through empty roads.

At exactly 1:00 p.m., the silence of Redwood Falls was shattered by the sound of a military jeep screeching to a violent stop at the gates of an abandoned factory.

The door had not even finished opening before Alexander moved.

Bang.

He kicked it open with such force that it slammed against the frame and rebounded, and in the next instant he was already out of the vehicle, charging forward with a killing intent so heavy it felt like the air itself was reacting to him.

An hour earlier, he and Marcus Hale had landed at the Texas military airport, and the moment their boots touched the ground, classified intelligence had already been waiting for them.

Without hesitation, they had taken control of a military jeep and driven at maximum speed across the state, ignoring every rule, every limit, and every warning because none of it mattered anymore.

Only Lily mattered.

Marcus followed closely behind him, his expression tense as they approached the factory entrance, his instincts screaming that whatever was inside was already gone.

“Are you certain Lily’s last signal came from here?” Alexander asked coldly without turning his head, his eyes scanning every broken structure with precision.

“I am certain,” Marcus replied immediately. “Our tracking system locked onto this exact location. There is no mistake.”

Alexander did not respond.

He simply walked forward.

His gaze stopped at a side door inside the factory, and without slowing down or hesitating even for a second, he raised his hand slightly and waved it once.

Boom.

The metal door exploded into fragments, scattering across the floor like broken bones.

Inside, only silence waited.

And then he saw it.

A pile of shattered phone parts scattered on the ground, crushed beyond repair, abandoned like trash.

For a single heartbeat, everything inside Alexander went still.

Then the killing intent exploded.

Not in sound, but in presence, so heavy and absolute that even Marcus, a man trained for war, felt his entire body react instinctively with shock.

They were too late.

Marcus stood frozen behind him, swallowing hard as he understood something without needing it to be spoken.

Redwood Falls was no longer just a location.

It was about to become a storm.

And the man standing in front of him was not a commander anymore.

He was a father who had already decided that nothing in this world would be left standing if his daughter was not brought back alive.