Chapter 5

Aurora's POV

I paused in shock. For a second, I thought I'd misheard him.

"You want me to... what?" My voice came out shaky, thin as glass.

On the other end of the line, Jace's reply was slow, deliberate. "Come back to me. As my wife. With your son."

The breath hitched in my chest, sharp and unsteady. My grip on the phone tightened until my knuckles burned. For one absurd heartbeat, hope dared to flare in me, did this mean he believed me at last? That he had accepted Alex?

"Jace..." My throat constricted. "Does that mean you're saying... he's yours?"

Silence stretched, weighted and suffocating. Then his voice slid through, calm and lethal.

"I don't give a damn if the boy is mine or not. That isn't the point."

My heart cracked all over again. Of course. Stupid me. For a second, I thought maybe he'd changed. That maybe the man who once swore I was his entire world still lived somewhere behind that steel façade. But this wasn't about Alex. It was never about Alex.

"You don't care?" I whispered, heat prickling my eyes. "My son...our son's life is hanging by a thread, and you're..."

"I care about you," he cut in. His tone sharpened, firm as a blade. "The only way I'm lifting a finger, Aurora, is if you come back. To me. To my house. To the life you walked away from."

I staggered a step back, colliding with the edge of the hotel desk. He wants me? I laughed quietly. Perhaps if this had happened the first few days after I'd left years ago, I would have jumped at the opportunity but this was different. This was just a means to capture me, hold me in his stupid cage but it wasn't going to work. Not now, not ever.

"You can't be serious," I told him.

"You know I don't play games." His voice was maddeningly even, the sound of a man used to control, used to obedience. "You want me to help your boy? Fine. Pack your things and bring him home. Otherwise..." He let the pause drag. "Don't waste my time again."

Anger surged in me so hot, so fierce, it threatened to spill over. But beneath it was terror. Especially because of how little time Alex had left, terror that Jace might be his only chance.

"You think you can hold a child's life hostage just to get your way?" My voice trembled, but with fury.

"This isn't about the boy." His tone dropped, rougher now. "It's about you and me. You know it. I know it. I've given you one condition. Agree to it, and Alex will have everything money and medicine can buy. Refuse..." He let the word dangle, poisonous.

I clenched my jaw so hard it ached. "You're unbelievable."

"And yet," he said, dark amusement curling around his words, "you're still on the line."

The sheer arrogance in his voice made my stomach twist. He thought he had me cornered. He thought he could snap his fingers and I'd crawl back into his world, like the desperate, lovesick girl I once was.

Not anymore.

"Have you forgotten, Jace?" I said tightly, searching for the one weapon I had left even if it was fake. "I'm married."

That landed. I could almost hear the way his breath hardened, the sharp scrape of his teeth grinding together.

"You expect me to believe that?" His voice was low, dangerous now.

"You saw the ring in your office, do you think I'm lying?," I asked him calmly.

"Aurora..." he began but I interrupted him.

"I have a husband, Jace. One who would likely do everything in his power to take care of me, one who never neglects me and our son, Alex has a family as do I. I'm not yours to claim anymore."

There was a sound on the other end, not quite a laugh, not quite a growl. Something darker. "Then divorce him."

My heart lurched. He said it so simply, like tearing a life apart was just another deal to close. Like my choices, my dignity meant nothing.

"Go to hell," I snapped.

"Already there," he shot back without hesitation.

"Then stay there," I spat, my voice shaking with rage. "Because I'm not going back to you. Not ever. If you want to help Alex, then do it without your damn strings. If it's a test you want to take then take the fucking test to know if he's yours. If not..." My voice broke, but I forced the words out anyway. "Then fuck off, Jace."

For a second, silence. Then I heard it, the rough exhale of his breath, the faint scrape of his hand against glass. He was angry. More than angry.

"You're still the same stubborn little fool," he said finally, his tone low and guttural. "You think you can walk away from me, build a life, lie to my face, and I'll just stand by? You're wrong, Aurora. Dead wrong."

"Good," I bit out. "Then stay wrong. Because I'm not yours to own, not yours to command. Not anymore. And besides I already did it. What are you going to do about it?"

The fury rolling off him was almost tangible through the phone. "You'll regret this."

"Maybe," I whispered. "But at least the regret will be mine. Not yours."

And with that, I hung up.

The moment the call ended, I collapsed against the wall, phone still clutched in my shaking hand. My lungs fought for air, my chest heaving like I'd just run a marathon.

My eyes stung, but I refused to let tears fall. Not for him. Not again.

But the weight of what just happened pressed down on me. He wasn't bluffing. If Jace said he wouldn't help unless I came back, then he meant it. Which meant Alex's chances...

I shook my head violently. No. I wouldn't let myself spiral. Not yet.

I had to think. I had to find another way.

I tried to sleep that night but the accursed sleep never came. I tossed and turned through the night, replaying every word, every pause, every hint of threat in Jace's voice. The room felt colder, emptier, with his shadow still lingering over me.

By dawn, I was as hollow-eyed as a ghost staring at her own reflection.

He doesn't care if Alex is his.

He just wants me.

The words dug into me like claws, carving out every shred of hope I had left.

Still, I made myself a promise as the first light of morning crept through the curtains: If Jace Carter thought he could buy my soul with my son's life, he was wrong.

I would fight. For Alex. For myself. For the freedom I'd clawed my way into, piece by piece, after he shattered me.

And if I had to go through hell to find another way to save my boy... then so be it.

Chapter 6

Jace's POV

The moment Aurora walked into my office, the world tilted. For five years, I had trained myself to forget her face, to bury the curve of her smile, the sound of her laugh, the warmth of her skin. But the instant those hazel eyes locked on mine, every wall I had built came crashing down.

I wanted to kiss her. God, I wanted to pull her into my arms, crush my mouth to hers, and erase the years apart in a single, punishing kiss. I wanted to lift her onto my desk, tear that prim little dress off her body, and make her remember that she belonged to me, that she always had, and always would.

But then... I saw the ring.

The glint of metal on her finger was like someone had poured acid over my eyes. My relief turned to fury so fast it made my chest ache. She had married another man. She was married and living happily, while I spent nights drowning in whiskey and work, haunted by her silence. Haunted by her disappearance.

I'd thought she would come back. That first month after she left, I did nothing. Why would I? Aurora had always been docile, soft-spoken, the kind of woman who would hide behind me rather than face the world. I thought she was punishing me, waiting for me to chase her. I told myself I'd give her time, that she'd crawl back into my arms because she couldn't survive without me.

But weeks turned into months. No calls. No messages. No trace.

By the time the silence became unbearable, I had already torn through half the city with investigators. Every lead dried up before it started. It was as if she had fallen off the face of the earth.

I hated her for that. I hated her for vanishing, for taking away the one thing I had never thought I would lose. Especially when I fought so hard to get it.

And then today, she appeared in my office like some cruel mirage. Hair glinting in the light, chin tilted high, eyes burning with a fire I didn't remember her carrying so freely. She wasn't the same Aurora I'd married. She was sharper. Harder.

When she shoved that picture into my hands, I barely looked at it. My blood boiled too fast. I saw a child's face in a blur, then the flash of that damn ring again. And the word just kept on playing like a loop in my fucking brain. She's married. She has a baby. She has a perfect life and a perfect husband. She belonged to someone else now.

To be sincere, my sight was a fucking blurb with the rage I felt at her having a perfect life while I was haunted by her. The house was too fucking empty without her murmurings or her singing...and it wasn't even good singing but I've always liked it. It showed she had personality.

Fuck!

The second she walked out of my office, I sat at my desk, fingers gripping the arms of my chair so tightly my knuckles almost cracked. She had no right. No right to vanish, then come back and throw her perfect little life in my face as if I were some stranger she needed a favor from.

I should've been happy she was gone. I told myself that a hundred times. Especially after what she put me through, after what her family put me through. But the truth was, I wasn't. I had spent five years tearing the world apart for her shadow.

And when I finally saw her, all I wanted was to pin her down and never let her leave again.

And so I decided to strike a deal. I called her.

When I told her the only way I'd help her was if she came back to me, I expected hesitation. Maybe even quiet tears, the way she used to cry when I was too harsh. But what I got? A woman with fire in her voice. A woman who spat venom at me, cursed me, told me to go to hell.

She wasn't begging. She wasn't even soft.

She was fierce.

And damn me, but I liked it.

The quiet Aurora I remembered had never raised her voice at me, never told me to fuck off. That had been her weakness, and perhaps my weapon. But this Aurora? This one who dared to defy me, who looked me in the eye and told me she would rather burn than bow?

I loved it as much as I hated it.

I always knew she had this fire in her but she didn't show and now that I was on the receiving end of it...I loved it and I hated it at the same time.

Both truths tangled inside me until I didn't know if I wanted to kiss her or throttle her.

She should need my help. She should be on her knees, begging me to save her and whatever pathetic excuse of a family she had built. Instead, she rejected me.

Me. Jace Carter. The man who had given her everything she never asked for. The man she had left.

My hand raked through my hair as I paced the length of my office, fury boiling hotter with every second. She thought she could waltz into my life, throw her little tantrum, and vanish again?

No. Not this time.

I wouldn't let her walk away. Not again. Not after five years of silence that almost broke me.

I slammed my palm on the desk, picked up the phone, and dialed a number I hadn't used in years.

"Knight," a deep voice answered after two rings.

"I need you to find someone," I said, my voice low and sharp.

A pause. "You don't usually call me for something like this. Who?"

"My wife." I told him.

Another pause. "You mean Aurora."

My grip on the phone tightened. Of course he remembered her. I had pestered him with trying to find her. "Yes. She showed up today. Out of nowhere. And she's wearing a ring that doesn't belong to me. She has a kid too."

"You want to know if the kid is yours?"

I grit my teeth. "I don't care whose he is." That was a lie. A sour one that tasted bitter on my tongue. But I couldn't admit the thought scared me. "I want everything. Where she's been. Who she's been with. What she's hiding. I want it all.".

"And the cost?" Knight asked.

"I don't give a damn about the cost. Get me answers."

There was a low whistle. "Alright boss. I'll see what I can do but don't get your hopes up, we couldn't find her before I doubt we can find her now especially if she wants to stay hidden."

"I don't care. Just...do something. Help me." I told him.

"I'll try my best." He said before ending the call.

My chest heaved as I leaned against the desk, staring at the city lights through the glass wall of my office.

She thought she could tell me to fuck off. She thought she could stand there, wearing another man's ring, and pretend I wasn't the only one who could save her.

She was wrong.

Aurora could fight me, curse me, spit fire all she wanted. But she was still mine. She always would be.

And I would make sure she remembered that.

Because this time, I wasn't letting her go.