Chapter 4

Helen's POV

Nicholas's hands tightening like steel vises around my throat, cutting off my air entirely.

"Let... me... go..." I choked out, desperately clawing at his unyielding wrists.

He didn't let go. Instead, he violently yanked me away from the wall, dragging me by my bruised throat down the cold, metal-grated hallway of the syndicate headquarters.

"Nicholas... stop... I can't breathe!" I gasped, my boots violently scraping against the floorboards.

"You wanted your father's gun, Helen?" he roared, his eyes wild and completely unrecognizable. "You wanted your precious heirloom to remind me of my debt?"

"Boss, wait! She's sick!" Calvin yelled, frantically chasing after us down the corridor.

Nicholas ignored him. He kicked open the doors to the syndicate’s waste incinerator room.

The blistering heat hit my face instantly.

With a brutal shove, he slammed me to the floor.

I coughed violently, black blood splattering the ground. Every muscle in my body spasmed as the ten-year-old Eclipse toxin flared up, triggered by the violent impact.

Nicholas reached into his tailored jacket and pulled out the custom antique Browning pistol.

My eyes widened in absolute terror. "No! Nicholas, please! That's my father's! It's all I have left of him!"

"You don't deserve this gun! You don't deserve the Cole name!" he bellowed, brandishing the weapon over the flames.

"Nicholas, you know me! We've bled together for ten years!" I screamed, my voice echoing off the concrete walls. "Why would I use a burner phone to hire thugs? It's a blatant setup!"

"Because you're desperate!" he roared back, his face twisted in a cruel snarl. "You lost your title, you lost your engagement, and now you're losing your mind!"

"I am dying!" I sobbed, coughing up another splatter of black blood. "I don't have the strength to stand, let alone orchestrate a kidnapping!"

"She is trapped in a burning warehouse because of you!" he screamed, completely ignoring my defense. "You use your parents' memory to shackle me, and now you use it to murder the woman I actually love!"

"Nicholas, I beg of you! Punish me, but don't destroy his legacy!" I cried, reaching for the hem of his pants.

He looked down at me with pure, sickening disgust.

Right in front of my eyes, without a single second of hesitation, he tossed the Browning straight into the roaring, high-temperature furnace.

"No!" A guttural, agonizing shriek ripped from my throat.

I lunged forward with explosive, desperate speed, plunging my bare hands directly toward the open furnace door to fish it out.

"Helen, stop! Are you insane?!" Calvin yelled, rushing into the room.

It was too late. The blistering metal grating seared through my flesh instantly.

The horrifying, agonizing stench of burning skin filled the air.

"Help me! I have to get it!" I sobbed hysterically, the backs of my severely burned hands blistering and bleeding, but the intense flames pushed me back.

Through my blinding tears, I watched helplessly as the last remaining memory of my father melted into a useless, blackened puddle of scrap iron.

My heart physically shattered in my chest.

"Get up," Nicholas commanded coldly.

"Nicholas... my hands... it hurts so much..." I gasped, shaking violently as the deadly poison spiked my fever to lethal levels.

"Take her to the underground water dungeon," Nicholas ordered his guards, his voice completely devoid of any human empathy.

Calvin's face went pale. "You can't do this! Boss, she's burning up! If you put her in that freezing water, the shock alone will kill her before the poison does!"

"I don't care!" Nicholas roared, striking Calvin across the jaw. "Anyone else want to defend this murderer? Throw her in. Now!"

Two massive guards hauled me off the ground by my burned arms. I screamed in agony, but they relentlessly dragged my limp, poisoned body down into the dark, stinking depths of the Sterling estate's lowest level.

The heavy stench of rot and stagnant water hit me before the bone-chilling cold did.

I hit the freezing, filthy water with a violent splash.

The icy, biting sludge immediately flooded over my chest, seeping into my open wounds and burning my lungs.

"Please... it's too cold! Let me out!" I gasped, my teeth violently chattering.

The extreme cold clashed lethally with my poisoned, boiling blood.

Nicholas stood at the iron grate above, looking down at me from his high horse.

"Nicholas, don't leave me here..." I whispered, my voice barely a ghost, my severely burned hands desperately clinging to the slippery stone wall.

"Listen to me very carefully, Helen," he sneered, his tone absolute and utterly merciless. "If Valerie loses her life in that fire, I will make you pay with yours!"

He didn't wait for my answer. He turned on his heel and walked away.

The heavy iron doors slammed shut, echoing like a gunshot, plunging me into pitch-black darkness.

The freezing water ruthlessly gnawed at my bones.

My vision blurred, my consciousness fading rapidly into a terrifying, icy void.

As the filthy water lapped at my chin, the agonizing truth finally washed over me.

The man who owed me his life had just signed my death warrant.

My eyes fluttered shut. My grip slipped from the wall.