Chapter Six
757 Words
“Yes, Seraphina. Haynes attended the same high school as us. How don’t you even remember him? He was the most popular guy while I was the most popular lady, of course,” Adeline chuckles. “Yet him, on the other hand, whom I expected not to remember you, actually does remember you.”
“You mean he knows us?”
“Yes, he did know us, but I didn't expect him to recognize you. I knew he would probably recognize me, but there were chances that he wouldn't since I barely remember what he looks like too.”
“And you didn’t deem it necessary to tell me?” Seraphina asks angrily.
“I'm sorry, Phina, but I knew you would refuse if you were aware of the chances of him recognizing us.”
“You are sick, Adeline. Really sick,” Seraphina says, picking up her files and putting them in her bag. She storms out, leaving Adeline behind.
Adeline scoffs, picks up her bag, and heads out too, following Seraphina.
*****
Seraphina had barely taken three steps outside when the first gunshot tore through the night.
Screams erupt around her. People scattered, diving behind cars, tables, walls—anything.
Seraphina doesn't even have time to react before a burning bullet rips through her shoulder.
Her breath hitches.
Then her knees buckle.
“PHINA!” Adeline’s scream shattered through the chaos as she moves forward, catching Seraphina just before her body hits the pavement.
Blood seepes between Seraphina’s fingers as she presses a trembling hand to her wound. Her vision blurr, the world spinning into violent shapes and noise.
“Somebody help us! Please!” Adeline cries, her voice cracking through terror.
Another round of gunshots exploded—closer this time—forcing her to crouch over Seraphina, shielding her with her own body. “Oh God, Phina, stay with me. Please stay with me.”
Seraphina gasps, her chest tightening, her voice barely a whisper. “A-Ade… I… I can’t… breathe—”
“I’ve got you,” Adeline sobs. “I’ve got you.”
More gunfire burst across the street. They are sharp, ruthless, planned—the kind that doesn’t come from panic but from a mission.
Unbeknownst to them, Haynes Van Doren and his men are the ones behind it. They were hunting down a pair of runaway traitors who had chosen the wrong night to make their last stand. The bullets weren’t meant for Seraphina… but she was caught in their storm.
As the shooters vanish into the shadows, the streets grow quiet, smoke drifting across the ground like a ghost.
Finally, the injured and affected are rushed into the hospital by some people.
“Help me lift her!” Adeline yells, her voice wild with fear.
Together, they carry Seraphina into the hospital. Adeline holds her tightly, whispering every desperate prayer she’d ever known until they arrive at the operating room.
Hours felt like years.
But Seraphina fights.
With enough treatment, the bleeding stops… the monitors steady… and her breathing even out.
When her fingers finally twitch, Adeline shoots upright.
“Phina?” she whispers.
Seraphina’s eyes flutter open, dazed, fragile, searching the white ceiling overhead.
She takes a slow breath.
“A—Adeline?” she murmurs, her voice thin but alive.
Adeline breaks into tears. She feels relief, terror, and gratitude all colliding at once.
“You scared the hell out of me,” she whispers, gripping Seraphina's hand.
Seraphina blinks slowly, trying to piece together the flashes of chaos.
“What… happened?”
Outside the hospital room, leaning silently in the shadows… Haynes Van Doren stands watching her through the glass.
His jaw clench.
His eyes dark.
His guilt is a blade buried deep.
He didn’t realize that Seraphina would be affected by this.
And though Seraphina doesn’t know it yet, her life has just collided violently and irrevocably with the most dangerous man in New York.
*****
Haynes returns to the den and tortures one of his men who shot Seraphina. “Tie him up,” he instructs his men.
They tie him up, and he tortures him to the point of death. “You don’t mess with what belongs to me. No one does. How dare you injure my woman!” he yells angrily as he tortures him brutally.
*****
Adeline meets up with Haynes, who demands that she signs a contract with him.
“Marry me for six months, Miss Everleigh. After six months, we automatically get divorced,” Haynes says to Adeline, emotionless.
- Writer
