The Billionaire's Dark Bride

CHAPTER THREE

Lena stood in the middle of her shattered apartment, her chest barely breathing as she stared at the image in her hands. It was a picture of her daughter.

Emily

Her two-year-old daughter giggled as she played with a stuffed bear in her nursery. On the back, scrawled in jagged red ink: “Stop searching, or she’s next.”

Her fingers tightened around the photo, crumpling the edges. The surrounding room was in complete disarray. The curtains were drawn over, the drawers ripped out, papers scattered, furniture overturned. Someone has been here. Someone who knew about Emily.

Lena’s phone buzzed in her pocket, and she snatched it up, her heart pounding. It was her daughter’s nanny.

“Ms. Moone, Emily’s fine,” the woman said quickly, sensing Lena’s panic. “She’s napping, just like always.”

Lena let out a shaky breath, her grip on the phone tightening. “Keep her there. I’m on my way.”

She grabbed her gun from the hidden compartment in the closet, checked the bullets, and hurriedly tossed it into the pocket under her jacket. Her mind raced as she locked the apartment behind her. Whoever had done this wasn’t just sending a message, they were declaring war.

And Lena was ready to fight back.

The drive to the nanny’s house was oddly very fast. Lena’s hands clenched the steering wheel hard as her knuckles turned white. She kept checking her rearview mirror, her anxiousness toppling over her.

But the streets were quiet, almost eerily so.

When she pulled up to the house, the nanny was waiting at the door, holding a sleepy Emily in her arms. The girl's dark curls were tousled, her cheeks flushed from her nap. She blinked at her mother, her green eyes, much like her father's, lighting up with slow recognition.

“Mama!” she squealed, reaching for her.

Lena’s heart melted as she took her daughter into her arms, holding her close. Emily smelled like baby shampoo and warmth, a clear difference to the cold fear gripping Lena’s chest.

“Thank you,” she said to the nanny, her voice tight. “I’ll take it from here, thank you.”

The nanny nodded, her expression worried. “Is everything okay, Ms? Moone?”

“Everything is fine,” she said, though she wasn’t sure she believed it.

"Mommy!"

Lena held onto her baby tight. Too tight.

Emily pulled back, her tiny hands pressing against Lena’s cheeks, as they walked to the car. "Why is your face like that mommy?"

Lena softened, smoothing back Emily’s messy curls. "Like what, baby?"

"Like a monster," she half whispered.

Lena inhaled sharply.

A monster.

Yeah. She was a monster.

But her daughter didn't need to know that.

She kissed Emily’s forehead and scooped her up. "Let’s go home, baby."

The hospital room was quiet. The only sound was the soft beeping of the monitors. Lena lay in bed, exhausted but unable to sleep. In her arms, swaddled in a pink blanket, was baby Emily, cuddled up like a ball.

She was so small, so perfect. Lena traced a finger over her daughter’s tiny hand, marveling at the way Emily’s fingers curled around hers.

The door opened, and Adrian walked in. He looked disheveled, his tie loosened and his hair a mess. He had been in meetings all day, but he’d dropped everything when Lena called.

“Is she…?” he started, his voice enthusiastic.

Lena nodded, shifting so he could see the baby. “Meet your daughter Adrain.”

She watched as he stared down at their daughter, his expression unreadable. For a long moment, he didn’t move, didn’t speak. Then, slowly, he reached out and brushed a finger over Emily’s cheek. And she could swear, she saw tears in his eyes.

“She’s beautiful,” he said, his voice soft.

Lena looked up at him, surprised by the tenderness in his voice. For the first time since they’d met, there was no tension, no petty games, just the two of them, staring at the tiny life they’d created. And he kissed her, there and then, and the next thing he said shocked her.

“I love you Lena” he said as he looked at her with his warm green eyes.

Lena snapped out of her trance, as she drove into the safe house, a small, hidden apartment on the outskirts of the city. She had used it before, back when she was still working as a fixer. It was almost empty, just a couch, a table, a single bed, but it would do.

Emily fussed as Lena carried her inside, her little face scrunched up in protest. “No, Mama,” she whined, squirming in Lena’s arms.

“I know, sweetheart,” she murmured, kissing the top of her head. “We’re just going to stay here for a little while.” Like a… secret adventure.

Emily’s protests faded as Lena set her down on the couch and handed her a stuffed bear. The toddler clutched it to her chest, her thumb slipping into her mouth as she looked around the unfamiliar room.

Lena’s heart ached as she watched her daughter. Emily was too young to understand what was happening, too innocent to know the danger they were in. And that made it even worse. She hated herself for putting her daughter at this risk.

The call came at midnight.

Lena was sitting at the table, her laptop open, scrolling through files about Adrian’s accident. The phone buzzed, and she picked it up, her stomach twisting.

“You have 24 hours to walk away,” a contorted voice said. “Or the next photo we send won’t be so pretty like your daughter.”

Then, the line went dead.

Lena stared at the phone, her blood running cold. She looked over at Emily, sleeping peacefully on the couch, and something inside her snapped.

She grabbed her gun, checked the bullets again, and whispered to herself.

“I’m done playing nice. Adrian’s mother and Belinda had better watch their backs.”

Then she slipped out the door, her eyes hard with determination, as she carefully locked the door, hoping to be back before Emily could wake up.

Back at the hospital, Adrian gripped the edges of his bed, as a strange sense of déjà vu hit him hard. Somewhere, deep in his mind, a memory stirred. It was that woman from before holding a baby, its green eyes soft, looking back at him with love.

And he remembered kissing her, and whispering “He loved her.”

But before he could grasp it, it vanished again.

He shook his head, frustration bubbling up inside him. Why did he feel such anger when he thought of her? But the sight of her face made his chest tighten with something he couldn’t name.

Love?

As he closed his eyes, an image of her flickered in his mind again, this time with a child, a little girl with dark curls and his piercing green eyes.

His eyes snapped open.

Emily.

The name came out of nowhere, but it felt right. Familiar.

Who was she?

And why did the thought of her make his heart ache?

But before he could probe further, a nurse bustled around him, injecting him, and his head went blank again …