Chapter 1 The Bullet Meant For Me

Aurora's POV

"You'll have to make a choice, you bastard! Your wife or your first love?"

I trembled in my binds, my once luxurious wedding gown torn and shredded, watching my fiancé’s eyes migrate on the screen between Liliana and Liliana. His Adam’s apple bobbed hard as the laptop remained on the wooden table where it was placed.

"I raise the ransom to 10 million, spare them both…"

"No!" Our masked kidnapper stomped his feet against the concrete floor, a plume of dust rising from his feet, and the metallic walls of the abandoned warehouse seemed to shrink as he waved his gun around, then pressed it into my head until I could feel the cold metal touch my scalp.

"Don't test me, Stone. Your family has always thought that it was untouchable... Felt on top of the world, didn't you? You didn't care about who you needed to stomp down to get there?"

His fingers hung dangerously over the trigger; I shook as far as my binds would let me, tears rolling down to the gag in my mouth… that muffled my cries.

But even as I had the gun pointed at my head, my husband was not looking at me; his eyes were purely placed on Liliana.

He stood between the two of us, planting his hands on the chairs that we were tied to, tilting his head slightly from side to side as he said, "tik...tok tik...tok... You have just 1 minute left to choose."

"You told me that I had 5 hours!"

"Well, you made me angry... 52 seconds..."

Nolan took a deep breath, his chest lifting. His eyes found me, and my tears intensified.

"Aurora... You've always been there for me, even after my father disowned me; you didn't leave my side. If it wasn't for you, I would have never gotten my position back and made Stone Corporations what it is today; I owe you everything..."

The tears in my eyes turned into waterfalls. It had already been 3 days of this torment, and each day that I watched my beloved so far, a little part of me died.

I just wanted this to end.

"But Aurora..." His gaze melted towards Liliana, "If I don't save her right now, two lives will be lost, rather than just one."

The sickening kidnapper laughed, "This is getting interesting... Let's see what you have to say!" He roughly tore off my gag and did the same to Liliana.

Gradually, I craned my neck towards the other captive woman in the room and asked, "Liliana, are you... Pregnant?"

For the longest time, silence swallowed the air around us, then she gave me a small nod.

"Y-yes, I am..."

I gasped. "Why didn't you tell me anything all this time? Is that why you needed more blood transfusions recently?"

She nodded again, and my head began to spin as my confused expression bounced between her and Nolan.

"Why didn't either of you tell me? We could have celebrated!"

The kidnapper was laughing even louder now.

"You're really not as smart as you look, lady. Think... think hard..." He grabbed the back of my neck, artificially twisting it between Liliana and Nolan, "Why do you think they wouldn't tell you?"

Neither of them could meet my eyes.

A horrifying thought took root in my mind, but I refused to allow it to flourish.

"Nolan wouldn't...he couldn't..."

"Two weeks ago, he was attending the merger of a former school friend’s company. At least that was what he told you. But what he was actually doing was enjoying a weekend Cruise with his wonderful first love to celebrate the pregnancy..."

Hearing this, I expected the man that I had loved without bounds for over 7 years to call it lies, but he just kept grinding his teeth and his eyes fixed on the floor as the kidnapper kept detailing months of secret meetups.

Suddenly it all made sense: the distinct smell of feminine perfume that I would always find on his clothes when washing, love marks I didn't leave on his body appearing, late nights at the office, receipts for restaurants that we never went to.

All of it where pieces were puzzles that are refused to see, now a clear, glaring image in my eyes.

"How could you?" I said; neither of them would speak, I said it again louder so that they couldn't hear the sound of my heart breaking into a thousand pieces underneath it.

"How long... How long have both of you been stabbing me in the back?"

Clara gulped, "It was an accident...we didn't-"

"So you fell on his d**k, right?" I snarled at her.

"Aurora, you don't have to yell at Liliana like that; she's not at fault. I'm...I'm the one who pursued her first when she came back," he said it like that was supposed to make my anger snap into nothingness, then continued shamelessly, "... Our life was steady, you are my anchor... But when Liliana returned, I suddenly remembered what it felt like to let down my sails again...to truly live, it was always meant to be temporary, something brief for old time's sake. In the end, it was you that will be my wife."

My vision swam as more tears flooded my eyes.

"Then what about the baby you're going to have... Was that going to be temporary too?"

He visibly flinched before he could speak; the kidnapper clasped his gloved hands together.

"Time’s up, make your choice, stone..."

Nolan looked at me, a look of regret playing through his features that made my insides churn with disgust.

"I hope you can forgive me, Aurora... I'll never forget you."

He looked straight at the kidnapper.

"I'll get you your money, cold, clean cash. Just don't hurt the mother of my baby."

F**king b*sterd.

He had no idea, no clue.

That she wasn't the only one.

But I didn't speak up.

"Stop hiding behind the pregnancy like a coward..." I sneered at him through my tears, "You chose her… you've chosen her every time you shared a bed with her. Don't pretend like you ever cared."

He couldn't even deny it; the kidnapper held up his gun to my head.

"Any last words?"

"If I die, you better hope I stay dead, Nolan Stone, because if I return, I'll make you regret the day you were born."