President's Daughter's Bodyguard-Chapter 124: What She Chose
Chapter 124: What She Chose
And so, the fire had gone quiet, not because it was dead but because everything around it had finally stopped fighting.
What remained was breath, pain, movement, and the long echo of what had just ended.
Aidan worked without hesitation. He moved through the mountain like the man had memorized it in another life.
His team came in fast and controlled, weapons lowered only once it was clear there was no one left standing who could hurt anyone again.
Bodies were restrained. Fires were put out. Doors were opened, and that chanting room turned into something else entirely, stripped of its power the moment the women were told to lift their heads and move.
Danielle stayed on her feet through all of it. She did not let herself sit.
The moment Argash fell and the hold loosened, something inside her hardened instead of breaking.
She helped the women first.
Not because they asked, but because they were unfamiliar with the process or the outside world.
So brainwashed, kidnapped, beaten and tortured, poor ladies no longer knew how to live their lives.
Some of them had been standing barefoot on stone for so long that they forgot how to walk. Some still bowed when Aidan’s team spoke to them, their bodies moved out of habit even after the threat was gone.
Danielle went to them one by one, untying wrists, guiding hands, pulling them gently and carefully.
After all, they were women too...but Danielle spoke clearly on purpose.
She moved them out of the chamber and into the open mountain air. One by one. Then in groups.
Then all together...
Aidan watched her and let her lead. He saw the way the women followed her without question. He understood it without needing to name it.
Vehicles came. Medical teams followed. Lights cut through the dark road as the transport lined up like a moving spine from the mountain down toward safety.
Danielle stayed with the women until every single one of them was accounted for. Until every single one of them was loaded into an ambulance or transport vehicle.
Until wrists were freed, blood cleaned, blankets placed around shaking shoulders. She counted them even when she lost track of the number.
Aidan stood beside her once and placed a jacket over her shoulders. She didn’t react or actually thank him.
However, Danielle accepted it as if warmth was a technical necessity and nothing more.
When the last vehicle pulled away, she finally turned.
Theo was still there...
He had been treated enough to survive the trip but not enough to hide what the night had taken from him.
Blood had dried dark against his clothes. His movements were slow and restrained by pain and medication.
His strength had carried him through what mattered and then gave out the moment it was no longer required.
Danielle went to him immediately, and sat beside him with intention, took his hand, and stayed.
Aidan watched from a distance. He understood this too.
Theo was carried next.
His transport was quieter. Medical staff walked and rushed with urgency but without panic. Danielle rode with him without being asked. Her hand never left his.
When they reached the hospital, the world became doors and lights and movement again. Theo was taken where she could not follow immediately.
Danielle waited without sitting, standing still as the hallway passed around her. Aidan stayed near but did not push.
Hours passed slowly.
Eventually, Theo was stabilised, but not completely healed...well, at least he was alive and breathing properly.
Danielle was allowed to sit near him while machines replaced what his body could not do on its own. The people around her spoke carefully but she focused only on the rise and fall of his chest.
She stayed there through the night.
In the morning, Aidan spoke to her about leaving, about her father, about safe locations and controlled environments and contingency plans. He spoke kindly and slowly and with respect.
And Danielle listened without interrupting, but then she had to shake her head.
There was no way that the president would’ve been happy to see her and Theo alive. And...her boyfriend wasn’t fully healed, so the job was to make sure he got better.
Danielle didn’t return calls or ask for protection beyond what kept the hospital secure. She did not request to be relocated.
What the bunny did was-stay...stay behind her man.
She helped with the women when she could, visiting the ward where they were placed, checking numbers again, making sure they were treated as patients and not evidence.
Danielle corrected people when they used the wrong terms. She refused to let fear turn into protocol.
And when she was done, Theo was waiting for her in his ward.
Even if he was in deep sleep, Danielle cleaned his hands and watched the machines. She counted breaths when sleep would not come since she didn’t sleep much herself.
Days stretched and compressed around them.
Theo did not wake at first. Then he did, briefly. Then longer. His body fought quietly, super stubborn even in stillness.
Danielle spoke to him when he was unconscious and when he was not. Sometimes about nothing. Sometimes about everything.
And Aidan came and went. He coordinated outcomes. He handled questions no one should have been allowed to ask yet. He dealt with what followed destruction and called it resolution instead of fallout.
Danielle let him since all she cared about was to stay where Theo was.
On the fourth day, someone asked her if she wanted to move to a secure residence, and once again, the bunny said no.
On the fifth, someone asked if she intended to return to her father...She said no.
On the sixth, Theo squeezed her hand...Barely, but it happened.
She leaned forward without thinking and rested her forehead against his fingers.
Theo was in such a condition because of her father who didn’t allow them to leave early.
And Frank’s body was gone because of the president...and Frank was always nice to her and treated her with dignity and as a human being, unlike her father...
"Bunny?" Finally, Theo called her name.
"Please, save all your strength, Theo. I will need your help to take down my father."
