HIDDEN LOVE

The Wire Snaps

*CHAPTER 26: The Wire Snaps*

Crackle.

The yellow bulb flickered.

Rain hit the black wire —

*SNAP!*

The wire broke free and fell straight toward Avery's wet head.

"AVERY!"

Jaxon didn't think. He DOVE.

He tackled the chair, Avery in it, both crashing to the wet concrete floor just as the live wire hit the metal chair where her head was a second ago.

*BZZZZZT! CRACK!*

Blue sparks exploded. The chair burned black.

If she was still tied to it, she would be dead.

Avery was on top of Jaxon now, both soaked, his black shirt completely wet through. He ripped the tape from her mouth.

"JAXON!" She sobbed, her lips trembling, her face inches from his.

He was breathing hard, holding her tied hands. "You're okay. You're okay. I got you."

Behind them —

Mira swung the rusted metal rod with all the strength of a mother who hid her daughter's father in coma for 3 years and slapped her for wanting to see him.

*THWACK!*

It hit Chloe's back. Chloe screamed and fell, her red dress tearing.

"You took my daughter from Room 203!" Mira screamed, hitting her again, crying and furious. "She visited her father in secret for 3 years! No one knew! She was alone! And you took her!"

Chloe crawled, bleeding from her lip, still holding the knife.

Richard tried to run with the briefcase.

Mira turned and threw the rod at his legs. He fell.

"You! You are David's rival! You cut his brakes! You tried to assassinate him! You made me marry you! You tried to unplug him tonight!"

At the exact same second —

*St. Mary's Hospital — Room 203 — 1:03 AM*

Ethan was sitting next to David's bed, guarding the machine, holding Avery's silver bracelet.

Beep... beep... beep...

Suddenly, David's finger twitched.

Then his hand.

Then —

His eyes opened.

After 3 years in coma.

The first thing he whispered, voice broken:

"...Avery?"

Ethan jumped up. "MR. COLE! HOLY— NURSE! NURSE!"

Back in the warehouse —

Jaxon finally untied Avery's hands.

Avery threw her arms around his neck, soaking wet, shaking, crying into his black shirt — the shirt she liked.

"You came... you wore the shirt..."

Jaxon held her tight, his face buried in her wet hair. The spicy tension from all those nights under the same roof, the kitchen at midnight, the almost-kiss — it all exploded.

"I fell first, Avery. Under the same roof. I fell first."

Avery pulled back, tears and rain on her face, lips so close to his.

"Then kiss me... like you should have 3 years ago."

Behind them, Chloe screamed, grabbing the knife again and lunging at Avery's back —

But Mira stepped in front of her own daughter for the first time in 3 years.

---

*CHAPTER 27: A Mother At Last*

Chloe lunged.

Knife aimed at Avery's back.

Avery didn't see it — she was looking at Jaxon, inches away from his lips, after waiting 3 years under the same roof.

Mira did.

For 3 years she hid David in coma.

For 3 years she slapped Avery for asking about her father.

For 3 years she let Avery visit Room 203 alone in secret. No one knew.

Not anymore.

Mira stepped in front.

"AVERY NO!"

*Snikt.*

The knife went into Mira's arm, not Avery's back. Deep.

Mira screamed but didn't fall. She grabbed Chloe's wrist with her other hand and bit it — like an animal, like a mother.

Chloe screamed and dropped the knife.

At that exact moment —

*WEE-OOO-WEE-OOO!*

Blue and red lights flooded the warehouse. Police.

Ethan burst in with 4 officers, soaking wet, shouting:

"POLICE! EVERYBODY DOWN!"

Ethan had called them from Room 203 the second David woke up.

Richard tried to run with the briefcase — papers flying everywhere.

An officer tackled him. "RICHARD COLE, YOU ARE UNDER ARREST FOR ATTEMPTED MURDER OF DAVID COLE!"

Chloe was handcuffed on the floor, red dress torn, mascara running, screaming:

"NO! JAXON IS MINE! HE DUMPED ME! SHE TOOK HIM UNDER THE SAME ROOM!"

Jaxon didn't even look at her. He pressed his soaked black shirt against Mira's bleeding arm.

"Mrs. Cole — stay with me."

Mira cried, looking at Avery. "My daughter... I took the knife... I finally protected you... like I should have 3 years ago..."

Avery knelt and held her mother's face, crying.

"Mom... you... you bled for me..."

For the first time, Avery called her Mom, not Mira.

Mira sobbed.

Then —

A sound at the warehouse door.

A wheelchair? No. Footsteps. Slow, weak, but walking.

Everyone turned.

David.

In a hospital gown, IV still in his hand, supported by Ethan and a nurse — awake after 3 years in coma.

His face was pale, his eyes weak, but alive.

He looked at the burnt chair where the electric wire sparked. At Richard handcuffed. At Chloe handcuffed. At Mira bleeding.

Then he saw her.

His daughter. Tied, wet, alive.

"Avery..." he whispered, voice broken from 3 years of silence.

Avery froze.

The father she visited in secret for 3 years. Every Sunday. No one knew. She talked to him in coma. She cried under his bed. She left the silver bracelet with 'A' charm.

"Dad?"

She ran — legs shaking — and collapsed into him.

David fell to his knees holding her, both crying, father and daughter after 3 years.

"I heard you," David whispered into her hair. "Every time. In coma... I heard you... you said... you were lonely under the same roof... you said you fell for Jaxon..."

Avery sobbed harder.

Jaxon stood behind them, Mira in his arms, his black shirt soaked in blood and rain.

Mira looked at David — her ex-husband she buried alive for 3 years for money.

"David... I'm sorry..."

David looked at her, then at Jaxon protecting her.

"Later," David said quietly.

Then he looked at Jaxon — the boy who fell first for his daughter under the same roof — and nodded once.

"Thank you for finding her."

Police dragged Chloe and Richard out.

Chloe was still screaming: "JAXON! YOU WILL REGRET THIS! SHE IS NEW TO LOVE, SHE KNOWS NOTHING!"

Jaxon finally turned, walked to Avery — still on the floor with her father — knelt, took her cold hands, and took her silver bracelet from his pocket and put it back on her wrist.

He leaned close and whispered only for her to hear, spicy and soft:

"Under the same roof, you fell new to love. But I fell first. And I'm not letting go again."

Avery blushed even while crying.

---

*End of Chapter 27 — The Reunion*

Want *Chapter 28: The hospital morning after — Avery in Jaxon's black shirt sleeping on his chest, David awake watching them, Mira asks for forgiveness, and Ethan reveals Chloe's pregnancy twist?*