Chapter 56
Author’s pov
“Xavier p>
Cici’s shrill voice pierced the air as she rolled down the window of the white car they had just passed. Luna Dora sat beside her, her face unreadable, her posture composed and eerily still.
Alpha Xavier heard the voice—there was no question about that. But his expression remained terrifyingly cold, his features locked in a mask of icy indifference. He didn’t flinch, didn’t even glance in Cici’s direction.
Beside him, Cecilia turned toward him, watching carefully.
“Cici’s calling you,” she said, her voice measured, as if testing the waters. “Didn’t you hear her p>
Alpha Xavier offered no reply. Not a word. Not even a blink.
In the car’s side mirror, Cecilia caught sight of Cici’s growing desperation.
he woman flung open her door and jumped out of the vehicle, stumbling slightly in her designer heels as she began to chase after Alpha Xavier’s car.
One hand clutched her phone to her ear, presumably dialing Alpha Xavier in panic.
The scene might have been laughable to an outsider—except for the fact that Cecilia sat next to a man whose sanity seemed to be hanging by a thread.
Cici chased them all the way to the estate’s iron gates, her screams growing more frantic as the car advanced. To any onlooker, it would have looked like a complete emotional breakdown.
Luna Dora, however, didn’t move. She remained seated in her vehicle, arms folded neatly in her lap, eyes forward.
She neither instructed her driver to follow nor spared Cici a single glance of concern. It was as if the whole scene had nothing to do with her.
As the car disappeared through the gates, Cici collapsed onto the roadside. Her face twisted with fury as she stared at the shrinking outline of the vehicle. Her jealousy was unmistakable, her rage unhinged. It was clear she felt threatened—humiliated.
She had spent days trying to keep Alpha Xavier by her side, only to watch him drive away with Cecilia once again. In her distorted mind, it must have looked like a reconciliation.
As they left the estate, neither Cecilia nor Alpha Xavie noticed that a van had stopped in the woods outside the estate. It pulled out slowly as their car passed, following at a calculated distance.
Three minutes later, miles away, Alpha Sebastian received a voice message through his encrypted line,”Miss Cecilia has been abducted by her husband. I’m following them now. Do you want me to intercept and rescue her p>
Alpha Sebastian’s brow furrowed. He paused, considering the situation in silence.
Alpha Xavier’s mental state was unstable—intervening too early could provoke something worse.
After a moment, he sent a reply,
“Keep following them p>
A moment later, a simple “OK” hand emoji appeared on his screen.
The hunt had begun.
Cecilia’s pov
Meanwhile, I was gripping my seat belt with both hands, my knuckles white against the dark leather.
The speedometer had passed 140 mph—and was still climbing.
My heart pounded against my ribs, matching the roar of the engine.
Sweat gathered at the back of my neck, cold and sharp.
Outside, the world blurred into streaks—trees, signs, guardrails—vanishing in a dizzying rush I couldn’t process.
“Could you slow down a bit?” I asked, trying to keep my voice level. Calm. Non-confrontational.
I knew better than to provoke him when he was like this.
Xavier’s lips curved into something that looked like a smile, but it wasn’t. It was sharp, cold, and far from kind.
“Are you scared?” he asked, his eyes fixed on the road.
“I thought you weren’t afraid of anything anymore p>
There was something mocking in his voice. Something dangerous just under the surface. Like he wanted me to be afraid.
I swallowed the hundred things I wanted to say.
I kept my tone neutral. “I only have one life, and I’d like to keep it in one piece. You should value yours too p>
He didn’t answer. Instead, his foot pressed harder on the gas.
I tried again, this time using that calm, detached voice I’d perfected over the years. “Life is long,” I said, my words flat and even. “Everything passes eventually. No need to get emotional or impulsive p>
It sounded hollow—even to me—but I kept going. Talking kept me grounded. If I stopped talking, I might start screaming.
Then, without warning, he yanked the steering wheel to the right.
The world jolted sideways.
I slammed into the seat as the car veered violently off the main highway and onto a narrow side road, the tires skidding for a second before catching hold of the asphalt.
The new road was barely wide enough for two cars.
I straightened in my seat, jaw clenched.
My heart nearly stopped.
Trying to steady my breathing, I glanced outside.
Dense trees lined both sides of the road as the sky gradually darkened into twilight—that dangerous time between day and night when boundaries blur.
The man beside me felt like a stranger, possessed by something dark and unpredictable.
“May I ask where we’re going?” I ventured cautiously.
“I don’t know,” Xavier replied, his voice flat.
After five minutes of tense silence, I tried again. “There’s no deep hatred between us, is there? You made a mistake that men all over the world make, and I’m just a somewhat stubborn woman. We had beautiful love once, but time wore it away. We’re just following our hearts to the natural endpoint. I don’t resent you anymore, so please don’t bother me p>
Xavier turned to look at me, his eyes unreadable. “You’re really afraid of dying, aren’t you p>
I clutched my seatbelt tighter.
What did he mean by that? Was he so enraged by my insistence on divorce? Or was it the threat of making his intimate recording with Cici public that had pushed him over the edge?
My mind raced through potential escape routes.
Strangely, the first person I thought to call wasn’t the police—it was Alpha Sebastian, that seemingly omnipotent Alpha who kept appearing when I needed help.
But why should he rescue me again? What was I to him?
“Who are you thinking about?” Alpha Xavier’s question cut through my thoughts, an unmistakable edge in his voice.
I glanced at him. “I’m wondering when you’ll stop the car. What if we run out of gas? How will we get back p>
Deliberately steering the conversation toward mundane concerns.
Alpha Xavier fell silent again.
I carefully slipped my hand into my bag and an old phone in it. The phone Alpha Xavier had seized earlier was new—I kept important data on my old one, so I hadn’t fought too hard to get the new one back.
Instead of calling Alpha Sebastian, I sent my location to Harper every five minutes. But I don’t know what exactly message was sent.
We drove beyond the orchard, spent another hour on a highway, passed through a semi-rural area, then a small town… We kept driving deeper into nowhere until I completely lost track of where we were.
After nearly three hours, at past 9 PM, I was just hoping we’d run out of gas.
Eventually, the car sputtered to a stop at the foot of a mountain, miles from civilization. With spring just beginning, the night air hummed with insects and croaking frogs. Looking out, I saw only darkness, with tiny pinpricks of distant lights. Was this it? Was he actually planning to kill me?
“It’s just us now,” Alpha Xavier said, opening his window and lighting a cigarette. In the intermittent orange glow, his sharply defined, handsome face appeared and disappeared. He took long drags, loosening his tie with one hand, raking his black hair back carelessly.
“So what now?” I asked, exhaling deeply, resigned to whatever came next.
Alpha Xavier blew smoke rings while studying me. In the dim light, he took in my beauty, the way my nude-colored dress hugged my curves p>
He leaned closer, his smoke-tinged breath hot against my face. “I think the reason you’re being so heartless toward me is that we don’t have children p>
My blood ran cold.