CHAPTER THREE- Wolves don’t forget
1145 Words
KAIDEN
“Kaiden?” Eli called, voice low as he poured two glasses of scotch. “You don’t have to walk this path.”
I didn’t answer right away.
The city of Milan stretched out before me like a glittering mirage—mocking, indifferent, asleep. From the top floor of my mansion, everything looked so small. But the weight in my chest felt like it could crush buildings.
“I’m not walking,” I said quietly, my eyes locked on the reflection in the glass. “I’m hunting.”
Eli didn’t say anything. He didn’t have to. He knew what it was. He’d been there when I pulled my father’s charred body from the wreckage. He’d been there when my mother woke from her coma and found she couldn’t walk again. He’d been there for every broken piece I had tried to glue back together since the day everything burned.
Everything is gone. Because of them.
Because of the Donovans.
He handed me the scotch, but I didn’t drink.
Instead, I let the silence crawl over us.
“You sure you’re ready to see her?” Eli finally asked, his voice more hesitant now. The girl. Kayla.”
The name hit harder than I expected. I swallowed it like poison.
“I’ve seen her,” I muttered. “More than she knows.”
His eyes flicked up to mine, searching. “You’ve been watching her?”
“I needed to understand her. How she lives. How she moves. What she fears. She’s the only one in that damn family who doesn’t play pretend. She’s… different.”
“She’s not like the rest, Kaiden,” Eli said, leaning against the glass. “You don’t look at anyone else the way you look at her.”
“I look at her the way I look at everyone,” I snapped. “As leverage.”
He raised a brow but didn’t push. He knew I was lying. I knew I was lying.
But I couldn’t afford the truth.
“She works at that diner,” I continued, forcing my voice flat. “Takes double shifts. Comes home exhausted with a kid in her arms. No help. No one. She’s already cracked… just not shattered. Yet.”
“Maybe she doesn’t deserve to be shattered,” Eli said.
“She bears the Donovan name,” I said coldly. “That’s all that matters.”
I drained the glass, the scotch burning down my throat like truth I didn’t want to admit.
“Tonight’s the event. Her father has no choice but to announce my proposal. Their company is collapsing. I hold the lifeline. And she… she’s the price.”
“You’re toying with a woman and a child for vengeance,” Eli said. “You think that’s justice?”
My eyes darkened. “Justice died the day my sister burned alive.”
The silence hung between us like a blade.
I’ll get the car ready,” Eli muttered, pushing off the glass.
By the time we arrived at the Donovans’ estate that evening, I was draped in shadow and silk—black suit, black tie, black intent. I watched from a distance as the party unfolded. Crystal chandeliers. Laughter that tasted like lies.
And there she was.
Kayla. Sitting alone with her daughter while her sister basked in gold like the family’s prize.
She looked like a statue no one ever noticed, until it cracked.
Before I reached her, she was already halfway to the door.
“Running already, Mrs. Blackwood?”
“You don’t get to call me that,” she said, backing away.
“I already did,” I say, taking a slow step forward. “You’re mine now.”
“I’ll rot in hell before I ever bear the Blackwood name,” she snarled.
And damn it… the way she said it made something twist in my gut.
“Then you’ll burn in it,” I whispered, my eyes gleaming. “Because you’ll be mine, Kayla—chained to me, forever.”
She turned and ran.
But I didn’t chase her.
I didn’t need to.
Because the match had already been struck.
⸻
Later that night, as I walked towards my mom’s room, memories flooded in—bloody glass, screaming, fire.
It should’ve been me.
But instead, my father and sister died in that fire. My mother survived—but barely. Crippled. Trapped in silence. All because of a betrayal I never saw coming.
That betrayal had worn a Donovan smile.
My fists clenched as I entered my mother’s room. She was sleeping, her fragile frame curled under thick blankets, her wheelchair resting quietly beside the bed. I kneeled and gently brushed her hair back.
“I’ll make them pay,” I whispered. For Dad. For Lily. For you.”
Her fingers twitched. Just a little.
I didn’t know if she had heard me. But I hoped she did.
⸻
I left her side and headed toward my wing of the mansion. The weight of the day pressed against my spine. The vision of Kayla’s haunted eyes clung to me like ash.
I opened my door and froze.
"Are you serious, Kaiden?"
I didn’t flinch.
Valentina stood up from the bed—my ex-fiancée, clad in designer fury.
“You think you can just toss me aside and marry some nobody?”
“I used you, Valentina. For your power. “Nothing more.” I was blunt.
Her face twisted. “You bastard.”
She hurled a crystal decanter at me. It shattered just inches away.
Then she threw something else. A vial.
The liquid hit the edge of my shirt and sizzled. Acid.
I ripped the fabric off, hissing in pain. My skin burned.
Eli stormed in, grabbed her before she could do more damage, and dragged her out screaming.
“You’ll regret this! You’ll crawl back to me!”
The door slammed shut behind her.
I stared at the floor, at the burn spreading down my chest.
“She’s obsessed,” Eli muttered. “She won’t stop.”
“She will,” I said, voice low. “Or she’ll be erased.”
I sat on the edge of my bed, shirtless, bandaged, exhausted—but it wasn’t the acid or the screaming that haunted me.
It was Kayla.
The fire in her. The pain. The way she looked at me like I was every nightmare she’d ever known.
I should’ve relished it.
Instead, I couldn’t stop replaying it.
Why her?
Why the hell did it feel like she saw right through me?
Why couldn’t I stop thinking about her?
I should’ve been thinking about deals. Power. Control.
⸻
I woke up to the buzzing sound on my phone.
One message.
A familiar number. Just a sentence.
“She’s gone”.
I stared at it.
Then smiled.
Slow. Cruel. Unforgiving.
Let the game begin.
- Writer
