The Forgotten Heiress

Chapter 6:Running in the dark

Chapter 6: Running in the Dark

I moved quickly but quietly.

The back stairs led to a small door near the kitchen that the staff used. I slipped through it without turning on any lights. The night air outside was cool and smelled like rain. I kept to the shadows along the garden wall until I reached the back gate.

Marcus was already there. He opened the passenger door of a dark car without saying a word. I got in and we pulled away from the mansion before the two men could circle around the house.

For the first few minutes neither of us spoke. Marcus drove fast but carefully, taking side streets instead of the main roads. The city lights blurred past the windows.

“They were sent to scare you,” he finally said. “Julian wants you to sign the divorce papers tonight. If you refuse, they were supposed to make sure you understood what would happen next.”

I looked out the side mirror. Another car had appeared behind us. It was the same black car I had seen earlier, but now the headlights were on.

“They are following us,” I said.

Marcus glanced at the mirror and pressed harder on the gas.

“Hold on.”

He turned sharply onto a narrow street lined with old warehouses. The car behind us stayed close. Marcus took another quick turn, then another. The tires squealed against the wet road. My heart beat faster, but my hands stayed still in my lap.

We came out onto a wider road. For a moment I thought we had lost them. Then the black car appeared again, this time pulling up beside us. The driver’s window rolled down.

I saw the man’s face clearly under the streetlights.

It was the same man from the old photographs. The one who had worked for the people who destroyed my family. Victor Lang’s associate. He looked straight at me and smiled like he recognized me too.

Marcus swerved hard to the left and sped through a red light. Horns blared behind us. The black car tried to follow but got blocked by a truck. Marcus kept driving, turning down smaller streets until the city became quieter and the buildings grew older.

Finally he slowed down and pulled into a narrow alley behind an old brick building. He turned off the engine and sat still for a moment, listening.

“We lost them,” he said.

I let out a slow breath I had not realized I was holding.

Marcus led me inside the building through a side door. The safe house was small and simple. One room with a bed, a table, and a single lamp. It smelled like old wood and dust. He locked the door behind us and checked the windows.

“You can rest here tonight,” he said. “No one knows about this place except me.”

I sat down on the edge of the bed. For the first time since the night Julian brought Sophia home, I felt the weight of everything pressing down on me. My shoulders ached. My mind felt heavy.

Marcus placed a glass of water on the table beside me.

“You did well tonight,” he said quietly. “Most people would have panicked.”

I did not answer. I just nodded.

When he left the room to check the outer door again, I took out the safe phone.

There was already a new message from an unknown number.

The words glowed on the small screen.

You cannot hide forever, princess.

I stared at the message for a long time.

Outside, the city was quiet. Inside the safe house, the only sound was the soft ticking of an old clock on the wall.

They knew who I was now.

And they were no longer trying to hide it.