Those two were not ordinary people. Not even close.

According to the notes I’d written to myself, Whitney and Vito had already traced enough leads to dismantle several of the organization’s smaller operations. The lower-level players were likely already gone. That meant the people who had just stepped off that helicopter were something else entirely — the ones at the top, the ones who gave the orders.

The woman had looked at me like she wanted me dead. Not out of anger or impulse, but with the quiet, calculated hatred of someone who had already decided. I didn’t know her name yet, but I knew that look. She knew exactly who I was, and she had her reasons for despising me.

A chill moved through me, and underneath it — something that felt almost like hunger. I wanted answers. I wanted justice.

But then I looked down at my belly, round and heavy, and everything sharpened into a single priority.

I was five and a half months along carrying twins, already looking farther along than I was. I couldn’t run. I couldn’t fight. If I made a move now, with their guards standing within arm’s reach, I wouldn’t just lose — I’d risk the babies. Any one of those men could end this in seconds. So as much as every instinct in me screamed to act, I forced myself still. Surviving long enough to find Lewis was the only thing that mattered right now.

I stayed in the bathroom until a knock at the door pulled me out of my thoughts.

"Coco?" Sergio’s voice came through, tight with concern. "Are you alright in there?"

I opened the door. He took one look at my eyes and his expression shifted. "What happened?"

My hands were still trembling. I shook my head and kept my voice soft, careful. "I don’t know. I’ve never even met your parents, but something about them terrifies me. I’m scared for the babies."

His face went gentle in a way I hadn’t seen before. "Don’t worry. I’ll keep all three of you safe."

I let a beat pass before asking, "Who are they, exactly? They feel... powerful."

"Relationships with family can be complicated," he said, deflecting smoothly. "If you’re uncomfortable, you don’t have to go near them."

He was careful with every word. Too careful. I wasn’t going to get anything useful from him directly, so I stopped trying and did what he suggested — kept my distance. But I watched. The helicopter never left. It sat grounded on the island, and I couldn’t work out why. There was no reason for them to stay here for my sake. My children weren’t theirs. The island was completely cut off — no signal, no internet, nothing reaching the outside world. The only reason I could think of for them to stay was that they were hiding too.

If I could find a way to send even the faintest signal out, I could bring all of them down at once. But I had nothing. No jewelry, no tracker, nothing Sergio hadn’t already quietly removed.

A sudden kick pulled me back into the present. Then another. The twins were restless, responding to whatever tension was radiating off me.

I pressed my hand to my belly. Easy. I’ve got you.

Sergio noticed. "What’s wrong?"

"They won’t settle."

"Lie down."

I sat on the bed and stroked slow circles over my stomach until they finally calmed, and somewhere in that stillness, exhaustion pulled me under. Sergio’s voice was quiet as sleep took over. "Rest. I’ll keep watch."

I let him think I was asleep.

A few minutes after he slipped out, I sat up slowly, moved to the door, and eased it open without a sound. At the corner of the upper hallway, I could hear voices rising from below.

The woman’s voice cut sharp and furious through the air. "Have you lost your mind? You’re keeping her here — a woman carrying another man’s children?"

"That’s my choice," Sergio said flatly. "It has nothing to do with you."

The man spoke next, his tone tired and condescending. "You’ve always been stubborn. We let you walk away from the family, live however you wanted. But this woman is a liability. She’s carrying someone else’s cubs, Serg. You could have anyone — why are you so fixed on her?"

"You disgust me." Sergio’s voice didn’t rise, but the weight behind it was absolute. "You call it business. You treat lives like they’re disposable — use people until they break, then throw them away. Is there anything left in you that’s still decent?"

"Don’t you dare—" the woman started.

"From the moment I left the Ligendzas, I haven’t touched a single cent of your money," Sergio cut through her cleanly. "Whatever it cost to raise me, I paid back every last penny. This is my island. Get off it." His voice dropped into something colder, more final. "I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — I am not a Ligendza."

I pressed myself against the wall, barely breathing.

He wasn’t part of them. Or he had been once, as a child, and had spent years cutting himself free — changing his name, building a life that had nothing to do with what they were. Maybe what he’d seen growing up was what had driven him toward psychology, toward trying to repair people instead of destroy them. And if his crossing paths with me had truly been accidental, then he hadn’t known. He hadn’t known I was supposed to die.

That was why he’d sworn to protect me.

The woman’s voice came back, sharp with fury. "You think a name change rewrites your blood? Wake up. Power is the only thing that keeps people like us alive. Every person at the top got there by standing on someone weaker. That’s the world."

"I don’t want your world," Sergio said. "I want to live without blood on my hands." A pause, and then his voice shifted into something harder, rawer than anything I’d heard from him before. "The day you had Elena killed was the day I cut you off completely."

He let the silence sit for a moment.

"I will never forgive you for that."