New ground, Old blood
1664 Words
Judith wakes to darkness and pain.
Not the sharp kind that demands attention, but the dull, pulsing ache that settles into her bones like it plans to stay. Her wrists burn. Rope, she realizes vaguely. Her head throbs, each heartbeat echoing too loudly in her skull.
She blinks slowly.
A dim bulb flickers overhead. The air smells like oil and rust. Somewhere, water drips. Time feels wrong here, stretched thin, and unanchored.
“So,” a voice says casually, “you’re awake.”
She doesn’t answer.
A man steps into view, squatting in front of her as if she’s something curious rather than dangerous. He tilts his head, studying her face.
“You look disappointed,” he says. “Most people cry first.”
Judith lifts her chin. Her throat is dry, but her voice is steady. “You’re making a mistake.”
The man chuckles. “That’s what all the important ones say.”
Another voice joins in, colder. “She’s not important. She’s leverage.”
The word sinks in.
Leverage.
It shouldn’t hurt as much as it does, but it does.
They explain it to her slowly, almost kindly, as if she’s a child.
They can’t touch Alessandra. He’s too protected. Too feared. Too untouchable.
“But you?” the first man says, smiling thinly. “You’re different.”
She feels it then… the shift. The truth settling heavy in her chest.
She isn’t being punished for something she did.
She’s being punished for who she’s connected to.
They hurt her… not brutally at first. Just enough. A slap. A kick to her side when she doesn’t answer fast enough. A reminder that resistance costs more than silence.
She bites down on the pain.
And somewhere between one blow and the next, something inside her begins to twist.
This never would have happened before.
The thought slips in quietly.
Before Linda.
Before Leo’s eyes started following someone else. Before her office felt invaded. Before her control slipped.
She hates herself for thinking it.
Then hates Linda for existing.
In the darkness, her mind turns cruel.
I helped her. I pulled her out of nothing. I gave her a place she didn’t earn.
The guilt tries to rise… but pain crushes it.
And what did it cost me?
She remembers Leo’s smile… how it softened around Linda. How easily he stood beside her in public. How natural it looked.
Judith swallows hard.
He saw me for years.
Years of professionalism. Years of loyalty. Years of being right there.
And yet
It takes Linda.
Linda with her soft eyes. Linda with her innocence. Linda with her need.
The resentment burns hotter than the pain in her ribs.
Is it wrong to want to be loved without earning it?
Is it wrong to want to be chosen?
Her chest tightens.
Her parents never loved her freely. There was always purpose. Power. Expectation.
Her siblings loved her quietly… but distantly.
Everyone who showed her affection wanted something.
Except Leo.
Or so she thought.
Now even that feels like a lie.
When they leave her alone, the silence becomes worse than the violence.
Her thoughts spiral unchecked.
My life started falling apart the moment I met her.
The thought repeats. Sharpens.
If I hadn’t helped Linda, none of this would be happening.
She feels a stab of guilt… and crushes it.
No. I paid the price. I’m the one bleeding.
Her jaw clenches.
Love curdles into something darker.
By the time footsteps return, her hatred feels justified.
Alessandra finds her at dawn.
The doors don’t open gently.
They explode inward.
Chaos erupts… shouts, gunfire, screams that cut short.
Judith barely reacts.
She sits exactly where they left her, wrists still bound, back straight despite the pain screaming through her body. Blood dries at the corner of her mouth. Her eyes stare ahead, empty.
Alessandra freezes.
This isn’t what he expected.
He expected tears. Fear. Rage.
Not this.
“Judith,” he says carefully, stepping closer.
She doesn’t look at him.
Something inside him tightens violently.
He has seen broken men. He has broken them himself.
But this
This silence terrifies him.
He kneels in front of her, hands shaking for the first time in years as he cuts the ropes.
“Judith,” he repeats. “It’s over. You’re safe.”
She blinks slowly.
Safe.
The word means nothing.
Behind him, his men finish their work.
No one survives.
Alessandra doesn’t ask who sent them.
They die without speaking.
But he doesn’t care.
All he sees is the woman in front of him… untouched in posture, destroyed somewhere deeper.
He lifts her carefully into his arms.
She doesn’t resist.
She doesn’t cling.
She doesn’t even flinch.
And that scares him more than any enemy ever has.
When she finally speaks, hours later, her voice is flat.
“I want to go home.”
Alessandra nods immediately. “Anything.”
She closes her eyes.
Somewhere deep inside, hatred coils tighter.
Hatred for Linda.
Hatred for Leo.
Hatred for a life that was supposed to be controlled.
And as Alessandra watches her drift into a restless sleep, one thought rings through his mind with terrifying clarity:
Whoever did this didn’t just touch my weakness.
They broke something precious.
And he will never forgive that.
Linda
The first thing Linda noticed was how quiet everything had become.
Not peaceful… just empty.
Her room felt smaller than it ever had, the walls pressing in as if they had been listening to everything the world had said about her and decided to judge her too. Her phone lay face down on the bed, abandoned after hours of scrolling through things she wished she hadn’t seen.
Headlines.
Photos.
Comments.
She had stopped counting how many times her name had been twisted into something ugly.
She pressed her palms into her eyes.
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
Elevé had been a chance. A secret escape. A temporary detour until she could breathe. Instead, everything had exploded at once… work, the public, Judith’s silence, her parents’ suspicion.
A knock sounded at the door.
She stiffened.
“Linda?” her mum called from downstairs. “Someone’s here to see you.”
Her heart dropped.
She wasn’t expecting anyone.
When she reached the front door, she stopped short.
“Daniel?”
He smiled slowly, familiarly…. taller than she remembered, broader too, but with the same calm eyes that had always made her feel safe.
“Still staring like you’ve seen a ghost,” he said.
Her throat tightened.
Daniel Carter.
Her childhood best friend. The boy who had lived two streets away. The one who had left London years ago to study and work abroad.
She stepped forward before she realised she was moving and hugged him tightly.
“You’re back,” she whispered.
“For good,” he replied softly.
They sat on her bed later, the door closed, the world momentarily shut out.
Daniel listened. That was what he had always done best.
He didn’t interrupt as Linda spoke about Elevé, about Judith, about Leo, about the way her life had spiraled faster than she could catch up with. When her voice broke, he didn’t rush her. When she went quiet, he didn’t fill the silence.
“You look like you’ve forgotten who you were,” he said eventually.
She laughed bitterly. “I don’t even know who that is anymore.”
“You were the girl who didn’t need permission,” Daniel said gently. “The one who knew when to bend and when to walk away.”
Linda swallowed.
“I feel like everything good I touch turns wrong.”
“That’s not you,” he said firmly. “That’s pressure.”
The door opened slightly then.
“Linda?” her mum said. “Your friend Anna is here.”
Linda blinked. “Anna?”
Anna burst into the room like she always did… impatient, emotional, eyes already scanning Linda’s face for answers.
“I knew something was wrong,” she said immediately. “You disappeared. People are talking. And then I saw…” She stopped herself. “I came because I’m worried.”
Linda sank onto the bed again.
Between Daniel and Anna, something shifted.
She wasn’t alone anymore.
Anna sat beside her. “You don’t get to disappear on me,” she said, softer now. “Not after everything we’ve survived.”
Linda let out a shaky breath.
For the first time in days, she cried without feeling ashamed.
Elsewhere
In a quiet office far from London, Marco De Luca stood by the window, phone pressed to his ear.
“You’re certain?” he asked his assistant.
“Yes. Judith Hale. Daughter of Patrick Hale.”
Marco exhaled slowly.
“So the woman was never insignificant,” he murmured. “Interesting.”
“And dangerous,” the assistant added carefully.
Marco smiled thinly. “Danger has never stopped me before.”
Parallel Threads
Patrick Hale had learned the truth less than an hour after Judith was taken.
The reaction was immediate.
Phones rang across continents. Names were spoken that hadn’t been used in years. Power moved quietly but decisively.
And when Alessandra ensured Judith was placed under constant protection… even against her own family’s assurances… Patrick noticed.
He didn’t comment.
But he didn’t miss it either.
Linda
That night, Linda sat between Daniel and Anna on her bed, her phone buzzing relentlessly beside her.
Leo’s name flashed again.
She didn’t answer.
Not because she didn’t care… but because she didn’t know how to survive caring anymore.
“Maybe this is just a storm,” Anna said softly. “Not the end.”
Linda nodded, though doubt lingered.
She had gained something fragile tonight… support.
But outside her room, the world was still watching.
Waiting.
But,
Somewhere in London, Judith is healing in silence.
Somewhere else, a man is plotting patiently.
And Linda… caught between who she was and who she was becoming…has no idea which choice would cost her the most.
- Writer
