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Keifer's POV
The heavy wooden door of the Intensive Care Unit didn't make a sound when I pushed it open. It moved with a terrifying, smooth silence, as if the room itself was trying to hide the horrors contained within its four walls.
The moment the door clicked shut behind me, the muffled noise of the hospital corridor—the distant, frantic murmurs of doctors, the heavy footsteps of the others, the quiet weeping of Jane—was completely cut off.
I was left alone with the silence.
Except it wasn't truly silent. The room was alive with the mechanical, rhythmic sounds of machinery. The sharp, agonizing beep... beep... beep of the heart monitor sliced through the stillness like a blade, measuring the fragile threads of a life I had failed to protect. The hiss of the ventilator forcing air into lungs that used to breathe so easily on their own filled the space with a cold, artificial life
.
I stood frozen at the foot of the bed. My knees felt hollow, completely devoid of the strength that usually carried me through the darkest storms. For weeks, I had forced myself to play the part of the unyielding leader, the cold and untouchable monster who could bury his emotions beneath layers of arrogance and calculated indifference.
I had told myself that I was strong. I had convinced the others that I was holding it together.
But the moment my eyes fell upon the bed, the mask didn't just slip. It shattered into dust.
There she lay. My life. My love. My mutya.
Jay looked completely lifeless, swallowed whole by the stark white hospital sheets and the massive array of medical equipment surrounding her.
The vibrant, fiercely stubborn girl who used to challenge me with a single spark in her eyes was nowhere to be found. Her skin was a terrifying, translucent shade of grey, marring the warmth I used to crave.
Deep purple bruises bloomed across her jawline, and thick white bandages wrapped around her head, hiding the damage Vales had inflicted upon her.
My breath caught painfully in my throat, a suffocating weight expanding in my chest until I felt like I was drowning in the middle of a dry room.
The image of the video call flashed behind my eyelids—the sound of her voice crying out in agony, the heavy boot of that bastard pressing down on her fresh wounds. I had watched it happen. I had stood there, completely powerless, while the center of my universe was systematically broken by a monster.
I forced my leaden feet to move, stumbling blindly toward the side of the bed. Every step felt like walking through broken glass. I collapsed heavily into the rigid plastic chair beside her, my body shaking so violently that the metal legs scraped against the linoleum floor.
Slowly, hesitancy tracing every millimeter of my movement, as if I were reaching toward a flame that might burn me to ashes, I extended my hand. My fingers were trembling, covered in cold sweat. I reached out and gently slid my palm beneath her hand, lifting it with the utmost care.
Her hand was freezing.
The realization hit me like a physical blow. The hand that used to push me away in annoyance, the hand that had held onto me during our quietest moments, was entirely devoid of the warmth that kept me grounded. It felt heavy, limp, and fragile.
I brought her hand into both of mine, wrapping my fingers completely around hers, trying desperately to pour the heat of my own body into her cold skin. I cradled it against my cheek, my eyes burning with a sudden, uncontrollable surge of tears.
"Jay..." My voice came out as a broken, mangled whisper, barely recognizable even to myself. It was a pathetic, raw sound that scraped against the silence of the room. "Jay, please... look at me. I'm here."
She didn't move. The monitor just kept up its steady, uncaring rhythm. Beep... beep... beep.
A heavy tear finally broke free, tracking a hot line down my cheek before falling directly onto her pale wrist. The sight of my own weakness dropping onto her skin opened a floodgate I could no longer control
The arrogance, the pride, the cold fury I had clung to for hours—all of it dissolved, leaving behind a hollowed-out version of a man who was utterly, completely broken.
"I am so sorry," I choked out, pressing my forehead down onto the edge of the mattress, still clutching her cold hand against my face. My shoulders shook with the force of a sudden, violent sob. "I am so incredibly sorry, baby... I did this to you. This is all my fault."
The words poured out of me like an open vein, a confession whispered into the sterile air of a room that offered no forgiveness.
"I'm sorry for hurting you, Jay," I wept, my voice cracking beneath the weight of a year's worth of regrets. "I was so stupid. So incredibly blind. I let my own pride, my own foolish ego, come between us. I pushed you away when I should have pulled you closer. I made you believe that you were alone in the dark, that you couldn't rely on me. I wanted to protect you from my world, from the shadow of my father, but in doing so, I became the very person who caused you the most pain."
I lifted my head, my vision completely blurred by a thick sheet of tears, staring at her peaceful, unmoving face. I wanted her to yell at me. I wanted her to open her eyes, push me away, and tell me she hated me—anything would be better than this suffocating, terrifying stillness.
"And I'm sorry for lying to you," I continued, the guilt tearing at my insides like a wild animal. "I lied to you about my feelings at first. I kept secrets, thinking I was being clever, thinking I was using you against Aries but I was foolish."
I pressed her hand against my lips, my tears soaking into her skin. The smell of antiseptic was overwhelming, completely replacing the faint scent of salt spray and sweetness that I always associated with her.
"I broke your trust, Jay," I whispered, my voice dissolving into a series of jagged, breathless sobs. "You gave me your heart, you let your guard down around me even when everything in your life told you not to. You trusted me , Section E safe, to keep us safe. And what did I do? I broke your trust. I wasn't there when you needed me the most. I spent nearly two months staring at a watch, wondering where you were, while you were trapped in a hellhole fighting for your life."
The memory of Aries words that her text is at midnight through my mind—she had wanted to come back. She had wanted to give them a chance. She had been trying to find her way home .
"Why didn't I stop you?" I cried out, my emotional control completely vanishing as I let out a loud, agonizing wail, burying my face back into her covered side. "Why didn't I just tie you down? Why did I let you run off into your own investigations? I knew how stubborn you were, Jay. I knew you would never back down from a fight. I should have stood in your way. I should have dragged you back to the mansion, kicked and screaming, and never let you out of my sight. If I had just been stronger... if I had just been faster... you wouldn't be lying here right now."
My body trembled violently as the full force of my vulnerability exposed itself. I was completely undone. The feared leader of mafia world was reduced to a weeping child, clutching the hand of a girl, begging the empty room for a second chance he didn't deserve.
"You are my life, Jay," I rasped, my breath hitching as I squeezed her hand tighter, terrified that if I let go, she would slip away into the dark forever. "You are my queen. My entire world. Without you, there is no Section E. Without you, there is no Keifer. I am just a ghost walking around in a broken shell. Please... you have to fight this. You can't leave me unfinished. You can't let that bastard win."
I sat there for what felt like an eternity, the tears flowing freely, washing away the last remnants of the arrogant boy I used to be.
The beep... beep... beep of the monitor remained steady, a cruel reminder that while her heart was still beating, she was still so far away from me.
I leaned closer, resting my chin on our interlaced hands. The hospital room felt small, hot, and suffocating, yet it was the only place in the world that mattered right now. Every memory we shared began to play behind my closed eyelids, mocking my current helplessness.
I remembered the first time she had looked at me with that sharp, defensive edge—the way she refused to back down even when the odds were completely stacked against her. She was a weapon, yes, but she was a weapon I was supposed to keep safe.
"I remember the promise I made to myself when I first realized I loved you," I whispered, my voice sounding weak against the dull roar of the medical machinery. "I promised that I would build a world where you didn't have to look over your shoulder. I wanted to give you a life where you didn't have to keep your guard up twenty-four hours a day. But I messed it up, Jay. I let you suffer alone. How could I have been so incredibly wrong?"
I opened my eyes, staring at the faint blue veins running beneath the pale skin of her wrist. There were small, dark marks on her arms—telltale signs of restraints, proof that she had been held down against her will.
A fresh wave of agony hit my chest, sharp and physical, making it hard to take in a full breath. My own healing wounds, the ones I had sustained weeks prior, began to throb in sympathy, but I welcomed the pain. I wanted to feel it. I deserved to feel it. I deserved a fraction of the agony she had felt while trapped under Vales' thumb.
"When you were gone... Jay, do you have any idea what those one month and twenty-five days did to me?" I confessed, my voice dropping into a ragged, hollow rasp as the memories of her absence came clawing their way to the surface. "Every single day of those fifty-five days was a slow, agonizing descent into hell. Every morning I woke up hoping for a signal, a trace, an encrypted file—anything that would tell me you were still breathing. And when nothing came, day after day, week after week... something inside me broke."
I closed my eyes, the sheer weight of that dark timeline crushing down on my sanity.
"The pain was so great, Jay, that it turned me into a monster," I whispered, the confession tasting like ash in my mouth.
"When the sorrow became too much to carry, I buried it. I locked it away in the darkest corner of my soul, and I let the shadows take over. Without you there to pull me back, without your light to guide me, I lost my humanity. I became ruthless. I became a creature of pure, unadulterated malice. Ask Section E. They were terrified to look me in the eye. I didn't care about anything or anyone anymore. I tore through the underworld like a plague, destroying anyone who even breathed your name, torturing information out of scum, hoping for a single clue. I became a monster just to survive the agonizing reality of your absence."
I pulled her cold hand closer, pressing it hard against my beating heart, wanting her to feel the frantic pace of a man who had nearly lost himself entirely.
"I used to sit at the head of that table, staring at that watch , feeling the seconds tick away like drops of acid on my soul. The guys looked to me for answers, for orders, for some kind of logical plan, and I had nothing to give them because my mind was trapped in the dark wherever you were. I was a tyrant during those days, Jay. I pushed everyone away. I ruled with an iron fist and a bloodthirsty heart because the quiet parts of my mind were constantly screaming your name. I thought that if I became a monster, I could find the monsters who took you. But even with all that darkness... I still couldn't find you in time.
And then tonight... to see you on that screen... to see him touch you..."
I stopped, my jaw clenching so hard my teeth ached. The memory of Vales' smug face, his calm demeanor as he deliberately caused her pain, turned the lingering sorrow back into a lethal, heavy poison.
The monster I had cultivated for one month and twenty-five days didn't disappear—it just found its target.
"He called you 'Jean'," I muttered, the name sounding foreign and heavy on my tongue. "Who the hell is he? What part of your past did I miss? It doesn't matter. It doesn't change a single thing. Even if your past is darker than anything we've faced, you are still my girl. You are still the person who holds my soul in her hands. The monster I became during those fifty-five days? He belongs to you now. I will use every ounce of that cruelty, every shred of that ruthlessness, to butcher the people who did this to you."
I gently lifted her hand again, pressing the back of her knuckles against my cheek, letting the coldness of her skin soothe the burning heat of my tears. The room seemed to grow darker as the evening shifted outside the small hospital window, but I didn't move to turn on the lights.
I didn't want to see the sterile reality of this place. I just wanted to hold onto her, to pretend for a single second that she could hear me, that my words were somehow reaching whatever quiet place her mind was resting in right now.
"The doctor said you're stable," I whispered, trying to anchor myself to the only positive news we had received all night. "He said you're a fighter. I know you are. You've survived things that would have broken anyone else. You have to survive this, too. You have to come back to me so I can spend the rest of my life making this up to you. I will dismantle every wall built between us. I will earn your trust back, no matter how much time it takes. Just breathe, Jay. Just keep your heart ."
I sat in the quiet dark of the room, my breathing slowly syncing with the artificial rise and fall of her chest caused by the ventilator. The crying had finally stopped, leaving my throat raw and my eyes burning, but the vulnerability didn't completely disappear. It stayed there, a permanent ache in my chest, a reminder of how much I had to lose.
Slowly, the heavy weight of my grief began to shift. It didn't lighten, but it changed shape, hardening into an icy, unyielding armor around my heart. The tears dried, leaving trails on my skin that felt like scars.
The monster that inside me had been up fully, clear-headed and entirely focused on blood. I looked at her pale face one last time, my thumb gently tracing the back of her cold knuckles, sealing a promise that no longer belonged to the boy who had played games with secrets.
"I will make them pay, Jay," I promised, my voice dropping into a register that was completely devoid of warmth, echoing with a cold, lethal resolve. "I am going to step out of this room, and I am going to find Vales. I will dismantle everything he has ever built, brick by brick, life by life. And when I am done, he will understand exactly what happens when you try to take the queen away from her king.".
I leaned forward, pressing a soft, lingering kiss against her cold forehead, holding my breath as I stayed there for a final moment.
In the heavy quiet that followed my vow, a subtle shift occurred behind me. I hadn't heard the door click open, but suddenly, the sterile chill of the room was broken by a soft, familiar presence.
I felt a gentle, grounding hand press firmly onto my shoulder.
My posture went completely rigid. My walls tried to snap back into place, the cold instincts of the monster I had built instantly flaring. I began to turn my head, ready to bark a cold, dismissive command to whoever had dared to interrupt my final moments with Jay.
"It's me , Keifer."
The voice was quiet, raw with its own exhaustion, but steady. It was Jane.
I stopped resisting, my shoulders slumping slightly as she walked around the chair to stand beside me. She didn't look at me at first. Her eyes were fixed entirely on her sister's pale face, her expression a mix of profound grief and a terrifyingly sharp focus.
The silence stretched between us for a long moment, filled only by the mechanical hum of the ventilator.
"I know you love her, Keifer," Jane said softly, her voice barely louder than a whisper, yet it cut through me like steel. "I can see it. Anyone with eyes can see how much you are hurting right now."
I kept my gaze locked on Jay's hand, which was still cradled securely inside my own. I couldn't bring myself to speak. My throat felt entirely too tight, clogged with the ashes of my own regrets.
"And this idiot lying right here... she loves you the exact same way," Jane continued, a small, incredibly sad smile flitting across her lips for a fraction of a second before vanishing. "But you are both absolute idiots. You've spent so much time playing games, hiding behind walls, and refusing to just accept what is right in front of you."
A sharp pang of guilt flared in my chest. Jane didn't know the half of it. She didn't know the dark web of choices that had brought us to this hospital room.
"I know she hasn't forgiven you yet," Jane whispered, her tone shifting, growing heavier, grounded in a painful reality. "And she is completely right to hold onto that anger, Keifer. You lied to her. You kept secrets . You made a plan... you used us, you used Jay, just to get back at Aries and settle your own scores. You let your pride dictate the chess board, and it left her vulnerable."
Every word she spoke was an unvarnished truth, a mirror held up to my worst failures. I closed my eyes, waiting for the righteous anger, waiting for her to tell me to get out of the room, to tell me that I didn't deserve to be near her sister.
Instead, the hand on my shoulder tightened, providing a warm, comforting pressure that I completely didn't expect.
"But despite all of that... despite every mistake you've made, I am still going to support you," Jane said, her voice dropping into a register of fierce, unwavering loyalty. "Because I know that beneath the lies, your soul belongs to her. And I know that nobody in this world will tear the earth apart to bring Vales down faster than you will."
A sudden wave of warmth washed through my cold, numb body. The sheer weight of her forgiveness—or at least, her understanding—was a comforting lifeline in the middle of a raging storm. For a brief second, the isolation that had fueled the monster for fifty-five days cracked. I wasn't entirely alone in the dark anymore.
Jane reached down, her fingers gently covering both of my hands where they were still holding Jay's cold knuckles. The silent, shared touch was an anchor. It was an unspoken pact between two people who loved the girl on the bed more than life itself.
We stood like that for a long, quiet minute, a small island of peace inside a room defined by trauma.
Slowly, Jane pulled her hands back. The soft, comforting sister vanished, replaced instantly by the cold, lethal aura of the Angelo cousin I had seen through the corridor window just an hour ago. Her jaw set, and her eyes burned with a dark, terrifying determination.
"Go," Jane commanded, her voice dropping into an icy, unyielding tone that brooked absolute no argument. "Go take that bastard Vales down, Keifer. Butcher his operations. Burn his world to the ground. Don't worry about anything else."
She stepped closer to the head of the bed, her gaze locking onto Jay with a protective, fierce intensity.
"I will guard Jay," Jane promised, her voice echoing with a bloody resolve. "Nobody will touch a single hair on her head while I am standing here. Go get that bastard."
I stood up from the plastic chair, the vulnerable, broken version of Keifer fading back into the shadows of the room. I looked at Jane, giving her a single, firm nod of respect and mutual understanding.
The restraints were completely off. The monster was unchained, clear-headed, and entirely focused on blood.
I turned and walked toward the silent door. The hunt was on, and I would not stop until the world burned for what it did to her.
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Author's Note
Hello my absolute lovely readers! 👋✨💖
I hope you are all doing amazing, staying safe, and feeling okay! 🥰 How are you all holding up? I always want to check in on you guys because your well-being means the absolute universe to me! 🌎💌
I wanted to hop on here and give you a little personal update about what's been going on behind the screen. 🥺 Honestly, things have been a bit rough lately. I didn't perform as well as I wanted to on my recent exams, and my parents are a little angry with me about my grades. 😭💔
Because of this, I need to focus heavily on my studies and pull my marks up. My current plan is to wrap up my current books by December 📅. After that, I will be taking a mandatory, long study break from December until March 📚❄️ to focus purely on my final exams, and I will officially be back with you all after that wraps up! 🎓✨
But don't worry, darlings! Before my break starts, I am on a mission to finish up my active stories! 🦾🔥 Here is the official timeline before December hits:
1. First, I am going to completely finish and wrap up this book 💥👀
2. Immediately after this, I will jump right into finishing my other book, The Dark Side of Us 🖤🥀.
3. Lastly, I will continue working on my third book, Hell University II 🏰🔥!
Also, a quick question for my amazing readers—have any of you read my earlier books, Together in the Tangle 🌪️💞 and The Fire Hidden 🔥🤫? If you haven't checked them out yet, they are officially completed! You can go over to my profile right now and read their final epilogues to see how those journeys ended! 📖✨
From now on, I will be putting all of my daily energy into uploading chapters for this book until it's officially wrapped up, so we can smoothly transition into the next ones! 🏎️💨
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📱 A Very Special Message for My Snapchat Users: 📱
My dear, lovely readers, I have seen your notifications popping up, but I am so incredibly sorry that I haven't been able to reply to your messages on Snap for a short while! 😭💔
As a result of my exam grades, my parents have strictly restricted me from using my mobile phone right now. 🚫📱 I am actually writing and uploading all of these chapters using my laptop in secret so that I don't leave you guys hanging! 💻🤫 I truly hope you all can understand my situation right now, and please know I'm not ignoring you! 🥺❤️
✨ And an extra special message to my Moon 🌙, my Madam Ji 👑, and my Sugar 🍬: ✨
I know you all miss chatting with me so much, and trust me, the feeling is completely mutual! 🥺💞
Lately, I haven't been able to log on to chat properly, and I miss our daily conversations more than words can say. I really wish I could talk to you all right now, but until my phone restriction is lifted, I just can't. 💔😭
I hope you can understand and wait for me. I love you guys so much! 💖✨
Stay tuned for the next update, my loves, and keep those tissues handy! 🧻👁️
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