Contract Marriage After a Crazy Night

Chapter 289

~Octavia~

I didn’t have the capacity to process his childhood trauma. Every second was an agony I could physically feel in my chest, a phantom, aching pull in my arms where my newborn daughter should have been.

My phone notification went off signaling a message dropped.

I stepped away from Franklin’s side, my fingers trembling as I picked up the device. The notification on the lock screen displayed no name, no contact info.

I swiped the screen, my heart hammering a frantic, agonizing rhythm against my ribs.

The message contained a small, five-second media file followed by a single block of text. My thumb hovered over the play button, a sickening, icy dread paralyzing my throat. I pressed it.

The video loaded instantly. My breath caught in my throat. A sharp, choked gasp before it could leave my lips.

It was Lael.

She was wrapped securely in her white cotton onesie, her tiny thumb tucked neatly into her mouth as she slept, entirely oblivious to everything around her. The camera lingered on her face for two agonizing seconds before cutting to black.

Beneath the video file, the text appeared, that could only belong to one woman:

"She has her father’s eyes, Octavia. What a pity it would be if they never opened again. Come to the abandoned warehouse at the North Docks. Come alone. If I see Franklin, if I see a single security uniform, or if a cellular tracker registers within a mile of this perimeter, the child dies tonight. You have thirty minutes."

A terrifying feeling washed over me. Come alone.

I looked up from the screen. Franklin was already stepping toward me, his brow furrowed as he saw the ghost-white expression on my face. "Octavia? What is it? What did the message say?"

If I showed him the text, his protective fury would completely take over. And Maria would pull the trigger before he even enters. She knew Franklin’s movements. She expected him to hunt her. But she didn’t know me. She severely underestimated a mother.

"It’s... it’s a text from Annie," I lied. I put the phone into my pocket , completely hiding it from his sight. "She... she heard about Flynn’s accident on the news scanner and is panicking. She wants to know if we’re okay."

Franklin let out a rough, frustrated breath, his hand rubbing across his bearded jaw as he turned his attention back to the head of security. "Tell her we’re fine.." He shoved his hands into his pockets.

While Franklin’s back was turned. I slowly backed away toward the rear corridor of the foyer. My heart was pounding so hard I was certain the entire room could hear it.

I slipped into the shadows of the back hallway, heading straight for the staff exit that led to the garage. I didn’t grab a coat. I didn’t grab a weapon. I only had the phone in my pocket and the raw, desperate maternal instinct screaming in my ear.

I opened the door quietly. I headed straight for the car Olga used for running errands, the keys were always kept in the magnetic box beneath the wheel well.

My hands shook as I retrieved the key, threw myself into the driver’s seat, and started the engine. I slipped out into the dark city streets completely unnoticed. There was no security, they were more focused on something else.

I was entirely alone, driving to a monster who had spent her entire life planing the destruction of the family. I had no backup, no plan, and no protection.

But as I reached there, I wiped the moisture from my cheeks. My grip tightened on the steering wheel until my knuckles cracked.

I am coming for you, Lael.

I stepped out of the car. I walked toward the rusted door of the warehouse, my fingers slipping into my pocket to grip my phone.

I pushed the door.

"I’m here!" I called out, my voice echoing hollowly against the distant corrugated steel walls. "I’m alone! Where is my daughter?!"

A sudden, sharp click shattered the darkness.

There it was. The black plastic infant car seat, sitting entirely isolated on the cracked concrete.

"Lael!" I choked out, my maternal instincts completely shattering my clinical composure. I lunged forward, my feet sprinting across the dusty floor, my arms reaching out to rip my child from that cage—

"I wouldn’t take another step if I were you, Octavia."

The voice dripped from the darkness above like liquid ice. A British accent, it cut through the warehouse with absolute authority.

I froze..

A figure slowly stepped into the light. The sharp click-clack of her heels echoing like a countdown timer.

When her feet touched the concrete floor, she stepped fully into the white light.

My breath completely left my body. It was like looking at a ghost.

The woman standing before me possessed the exact, sharp bone structure and piercing gaze of Franklin’s deceased mother, like I have seen in the pictures.

This woman’s face was a mask of cold, unyielding malice. She wore an black trench coat, her leather-gloved hands folded neatly over a small, sleek black plastic device in her palm.

Maria Flemington.

"You really are remarkably compliant," Maria murmured, her dead, pale blue eyes scanning my disheveled appearance with a look of amusement. "Franklin would have brought an army. He is so tragically predictable, just like his stubborn father was. But you... you actually value the asset."

"She is not an asset," I hissed, my hands curling into tight fists at my sides as I kept my eyes locked on the car seat just ten feet behind her. "She is a baby. She is my daughter. Take whatever you want Maria. Just let me take my child and walk out of here."

Maria let out a soft, melodic laugh that sent a shiver of pure terror straight down my spine.

"You think this is about money?" Maria asked softly, taking a slow step toward the car seat, her coat trailing behind her like a shadow. "How delightful of you. Franklin’s father thought he could erase me. And now, my own son... my own blood... looks at Franklin like he is some sort of god."

"Flynn is a failure," she spat, her voice dropping into a harsh whisper. "He allowed himself to be broken by a common girl, and then he allowed Franklin to look down on him. I didn’t send him here to be a cousin, Octavia. I sent him to take what belongs to us. But since he couldn’t do it... I had to come finish the work myself."

She reached down, her gloved fingers lightly tracing the edge of Lael’s pink fleece blanket inside the car seat. My heart violently leaped into my throat.

"Please," I gasped, dropping to my knees on the cold concrete, all my pride completely evaporating beneath the weight of my daughter’s life. "Please, Maria. Don’t hurt her. She’s innocent. Take me instead. Kill me if you want revenge, but let her go."

Maria looked down at me, a cruel, satisfied smile spreading across her pale lips.

"A fair trade," Maria whispered, her eyes gleaming with a terrifying, absolute madness. "But unfortunately, Octavia... the Flemington bloodline needs to understand what it feels like to be completely erased."