Chapter 1
After six years buried in the Federal Advanced Research Facility’s Abyss X-11 project-five thousand meters beneath the North Atlantic-my surface leave had finally been approved.
Six years without sunlight, without breathing real air. For the states, I’d sacrificed everything-my identity, my family. They’d even sent a death certificate to my husband.
Now I was racing to Stratmore Enterprises, my heart pounding with excitement to surprise Caleb.
I saw something that made my blood turn to ice when I’d just pulled into the parking lot. My daughter Lila Stratmore was standing there shaking, cornered by some woman dragging a little boy along. But Lila was supposed to be in school.
This woman was even screaming in my daughter’s face, jabbing her finger at her.
Then she reared back and slapped Lila so hard the crack echoed through the entire lot. “Get on your fucking knees and apologize!”
Watching my baby girl slowly drop to her knees-humiliated and broken-something inside me erupted.
I slammed the car door and crossed the pavement in a flash, landing a slap so hard it nearly knocked her off her feet.
Lila’s face went dead white with terror. When she snapped back to reality, she started hyperventilating.
“Oh my God, Ma’am, you need to RUN! You just hit my dad’s assistant-She’s going to make you pay!”
I was vibrating with pure rage but forced myself to focus on Lila. “Baby, she’s just your dad’s assistant. What the hell gives her the right to make you kneel?”
That broke my tough little girl. She didn’t even cry when she got slapped, but now tears were streaming down her face.
But she still wouldn’t explain. Just kept desperately trying to shove me away. “Please, I’m begging you, just GO! You don’t understand what she can do!”
The woman got right up in my face, radiating pure arrogance.
“You’re dead, bitch! You’re fucking DEAD!”
“Caleb Stratmore owns this entire city, and you just made the biggest mistake of your life!”
I pulled out my secure phone and speed-dialed my husband.
“Your assistant just says you own this city, Caleb. Well, I’m back, and I’m here to blow it all to hell!”
Right now, I just wanted to talk to Caleb Stratmore properly.
After six years, how the hell had he been taking care of our daughter? How could he let his assistant treat our baby like this?
“I don’t know who you are, and I don’t know how you got this number.”
My husband’s cold voice came through the phone without hesitation.
“But just for that threat alone, nobody’s gonna be able to save you!”
The next second, the line went dead.
So fast I didn’t even get a chance to say a word back.
I stood there staring at my phone, completely stunned.
He didn’t recognize my voice. Hell, he didn’t even recognize the phone number.
This was my old number from six years ago, and he didn’t even have it saved in his contacts!
Six years of missing him, thinking about him every damn day, and I just got slapped in the face with reality.
Seeing my call get hung up, his assistant smirked.
“Bitch, I thought you were somebody important. Turns out you’re just some random nobody who crawled out of nowhere.”
I clenched my fists, trying to hold back my rage.
I thought maybe there was some misunderstanding, but now my heart just sank completely.
Of course. Six whole years with no contact.
I’d been stuck in a place so deep that satellites couldn’t even reach it, running the same experiments day after day.
He’d moved on. I should’ve expected this.
But when I left, he promised me he’d take care of our daughter.
The bright, happy girl I remembered should be blossoming into a beautiful young woman by now.
Instead, she was skin and bones from malnutrition, looking like she might collapse at any moment.
That terrified look on her face felt like a knife twisting in my chest.
“Come on, let’s go home.”
I grabbed Lila’s hand through my tears, ready to get her out of there.
I had six years to make up for. I was going to make her the happiest girl in the world again.
“You hit me, then threatened Mr. Stratmore on the phone. You really think you can just walk away?”
Cheryl Dalton stepped in front of me with a cold smile.
“Are you seriously trying to hold me here against my will?” I asked, narrowing my eyes.
“Freedom? Ha! You wanna talk about freedom in Washington D.C.?”
“Listen up, bitch-in this city, even the air you breathe belongs to the Stratmores!”
Cheryl’s laugh was vicious and crazy.
My face went dark.
All these years I’d been serving my country in that godforsaken place, and the government had probably been secretly helping Caleb Stratmore to compensate for my sacrifice.
I never thought they’d let him get this arrogant.
Suddenly, Lila pulled away from me and dropped to her knees, begging.
“Ms. Dalton, please let this lady go! She doesn’t even know you and my dad-that’s why she upset you. I’ll apologize for her.”
Seeing that broke something in me. Tears just started pouring down my face.
This was my baby girl, the one I thought about every night, the one whose picture I had to hold against my chest just to fall asleep!
Now she was on her knees in front of these animals.
How much had I failed her these past six years?
Cheryl was about to say something dismissive when the little boy she was holding suddenly got an idea.
“You want to apologize for her? Fine. Clean up that toy you made me drop, and I’ll let her go.”
“Okay, okay, I’ll clean it up right now.”
Lila quickly picked up what looked like an expensive drone toy.
12:40
The little boy added with a smirk.
“But you can’t use water. I want you to lick it clean.”
Lila’s face changed, and she said instinctively.
“Ethan, I… I’m your sister. How can you make me lick your toy?”
“Bullshit! Don’t flatter yourself. You’re just the bastard kid my dad had with some dead woman. I’m my parents’ only real child. So are you gonna lick it or not? If you don’t, don’t blame me for what happens next.”
“I’ll do it!”
Lila looked at me once.
Then she turned back with tears in her eyes, stuck out her tongue, and started to lick that drone.
