Keifer POV
The air in the living room didn't just feel still; it felt dead. The static from the disconnected call hummed in my ears, a cruel ghost of the violence we'd just witnessed. Aion's small, shaking hands were still hovering in the air where the phone had been, his face a mask of pure, unadulterated shock.
Beside him, Angelo was a statue. But the wood of the sofa frame gave way with a sharp, sickening crack under his grip. That sound snapped the spell.
Move, Keifer. Move.
I didn't speak. I didn't cry out. I lunged for my keys on the coffee table, my vision narrowing until the world was nothing but the path to the door.
"Keifer, wait!" Percy's voice was distant, underwater.
I didn't wait. I was out the door and sprinting toward my SUV before the second "Jay!" tore from someone's throat inside the house.
My hands were shaking so hard I nearly dropped the keys, but the moment the engine roared to life, a cold, predatory focus took over.
I knew her route. I knew exactly which highway she took from the office.
As I floored it down the driveway, my phone synced to the car's Bluetooth. "Alex! Pick up the damn phone!" I roared at the dashboard.
It picked up on the first ring. Alex sounded breathless, his voice tight with a fear that mirrored my own. "I saw the GPS spike, Keifer. The car's impact sensors just went off. I'm sending the coordinates to your HUD now."
"Is she—" The word died in my throat. I couldn't say it.
"Her vitals from the seat sensor are erratic, but she's alive," Alex said, his voice cracking. "But Keifer... the heat sensors are rising. The car is on fire."
I didn't respond. I couldn't. I pushed the SUV to its absolute limit, the speedometer climbing into numbers that should have terrified me. The night blurred into a kaleidoscope of streetlights and shadows.
Every second felt like an hour. Every heartbeat felt like a hammer against my ribs.
Please, Jay. Please don't leave me like this.
I rounded the final bend of the highway, and that's when I saw it.
The orange glow wasn't just a flicker anymore. It was a beacon against the black sky. Her sleek black car was unrecognizable, crumpled against a concrete pillar like a discarded toy.
Smoke billowed into the air, illuminated by the rhythmic, taunting flash of the hazard lights of the truck that had hit her.
I slammed on the brakes, my car skidding to a halt meters away. I was out of the door before it even fully stopped moving.
"JAY!"
The heat was a physical wall, pushing me back, but I didn't care. I ran toward the twisted metal, toward the woman who held my entire world in her hands, praying to a God I hadn't spoken to in years that I wasn't too late.
Then suddenly,
BOOM 💥
The car exploded . The heat from the wreckage was a physical blow, a scorching wave that singed the hair on my arms as I sprinted toward the twisted metal.
My heart wasn't beating; it was thundering, a frantic rhythm of Jay-Jay.
I was ten feet away, my hand outstretched as if I could reach through the air and pull her from the furnace, when the world turned orange.
The explosion wasn't like the movies. It was a deep, guttural roar that vibrated in my teeth.
A concussive force slammed into my chest, throwing me backward onto the hard asphalt. I skidded, the gravel tearing at my palms, but I didn't feel the sting. My eyes were locked on the fireball where my Jay-Jay—my life—had been seconds ago.
"JAYYYY!"
The scream didn't feel like it came from my throat; it felt like it was ripped from my soul. I tried to scramble up, my legs weak and shaking, ready to dive back into the inferno. I would burn with her. I wouldn't stay in a world where that car was her coffin.
"Sir! Sir, stop!"
A firm hand caught my shoulder, spinning me around. I was ready to strike whoever was stopping me, my eyes wild and bloodshot, but I stopped when I saw a woman in a torn floral dress. She was trembling, her face pale.
"Are you that girl's friend? The one in the black car?" she stammered.
I grabbed her arms, probably too hard, my voice a broken rasp. "Yeah, I'm... I'm her husband. Please, tell me where she is! Is she okay? Is she in there?" I pointed a shaking finger at the fire
The woman shook her head quickly, tears welling in her eyes. "No, no! Just before it went up, a group of men—they looked like they were nearby—they pulled her out. She was bleeding so much, oh God, so much blood... but she was breathing. They put her in a van and said they were taking her to the hospital by the river. The one across the bridge."
"The hospital by the river," I repeated, the words a lifeline. I didn't wait for another word. I didn't even thank her properly.
I bolted for my SUV, the engine screaming as I pulled a U-turn that left rubber smoking on the road.
I drove like a maniac. Red lights were suggestions; speed limits didn't exist. Halfway there, my phone erupted. It was Aries.
"Keifer! Where are you? We're at the crash site—it's just fire, Keifer, tell me she's not—"
"She's at the Riverside Hospital!" I yelled over the wind. "Some locals pulled her out before the blast. Get everyone there. Now!"
I arrived at the hospital in a blur of screeching tires. I didn't even park; I left the car idling at the emergency entrance and sprinted inside. The sterile smell of bleach and floor wax hit me like a wall.
"Jay! Jay Mariano Watson! Where is she?" I roared at the receptionist.
The nurse looked up, startled by the man covered in soot, blood, and desperation. "Sir, you need to calm—"
"Where is she!?"
"Operating Theater Four," she blurted out.
"She's in surgery."
I ran. I found the double doors marked 'OT' and tried to shoulder my way through, but two orderlies caught me. "Sir, you can't go in there! It's a sterile environment!"
"Let me in! That's my wife! JAY!" I was begging now, my knees hitting the floor, my forehead pressed against the cold glass of the door.
A flurry of footsteps echoed down the hall. Aries, Percy, Kyle, and Angelo skidded around the corner. Angelo didn't even look at me; he looked at the 'In Use' light above the door, his face ashen. Percy caught me under the arms, hauling me up, while Aries stood guard like a sentinel.
"Stay back, Keifer," Aries said, his voice thick. "Let them work. If you go in there and she gets an infection because of your clothes, you'll never forgive yourself."
Slowly, the waiting room began to fill with the sound of a family breaking. Jay's mother and my mom arrived together, collapsing into each other's arms, their sobs echoing off the high ceilings. Her Tita was in the corner, clutching a rosary so tight her knuckles were white.
Then came the Section E boys. These were the guys Jay turned into boys—the ones everyone called 'The Emotionless.'
They stood in a row against the wall, but their masks were gone. Tears tracked through the dirt on their faces, their shoulders shaking in silent, rhythmic grief. The girls were huddled together, Jane leaning heavily into Kyle as he tried to whisper comforts he clearly didn't believe himself.
Mia and Ben were off to the side, their professional veneers shattered as they barked orders into their phones, calling in every specialist and security team member they knew.
Movement at my waist made me look down. Aion and Leo were there, their small faces streaked with tears. Aion grabbed my hand, his grip surprisingly strong.
"Ate will be fine, right?" he whispered, his lip trembling. "She's a superhero, Keifer. Superheroes don't die."
I pulled them both into me, burying my face in their hair so they wouldn't see the terror in my eyes. "She will be. She has to be, Aion. She can't leave us. She knows we're lost without her."
Even Ion, usually the most stoic of us, had fat droplets of water clinging to her lashes.
Behind us, our dads—men who had led industries and faced down rivals—sat in the plastic chairs, their heads bowed, silently sobbing into their hands.
Time became a distorted thing. Minutes felt like hours. Every time the OT door swung open, the entire room gasped in unison, only for it to be a nurse carrying supplies.
Finally, after what felt like an eternity, the light flickered off. A surgeon stepped out, pulling off his mask. He looked exhausted, his gown splattered with the red of Jay's life force.
I was on my feet before he could speak. We all were.
"She's out of danger," he said, and the collective exhale in the room was loud enough to be a shout. "The internal bleeding was extensive, and she has a severe concussion, but she's a fighter. We've stabilized her. However, the next twenty-four hours are critical. She needs to remain in the ICU under strict observation."
The relief was a physical weight lifting off us, but it was quickly replaced by a cold, sharp clarity.
As the nurses wheeled Jay's bed toward the ICU—her face pale, surrounded by tubes and wires—the group arrived. Liam, Aya, Zia, Max, and Alex walked in, their faces not filled with relief, but with a murderous, focused intensity.
Aya walked straight up to me. She held a tablet, her fingers trembling with rage. "It wasn't a glitch, Keifer. And it wasn't an accident."
The room went deathly silent.
"The truck that hit her was registered to a shell company,"Max hissed. "The driver was a mercenary. We traced the encrypted signal that triggered the biometric 'glitch' in the office. It came from the Mariano estate's old server."
My blood turned to liquid nitrogen. "Who?"
"Lucas," Liam spat, his hands curled into fists. "And Jay's grandparents. They wanted her out of the way to reclaim the assets. They thought if they killed her, the empire would revert to them."
The silence in the waiting room shifted. The sobbing stopped. The grief curdled, darkening into a toxic, overwhelming rage.
I stood up slowly, my joints popping. I looked through the glass of the ICU at Jay—my beautiful, fierce Jay, lying there broken because of the greed of her own blood.
I turned to the others. My voice was no longer a rasp; it was a blade. "I need to make that bastard regret the day he was ever born. I'm going to make him wish he'd stayed in that car instead of her."
Angelo stepped forward, his eyes twin pits of black fire. "I'm coming."
"We're all coming," Aries said, his voice a low growl. Kyle, Percy, Cin, Yuri, and the entire Section E unit stepped forward as one. It wasn't a group of men anymore; it was a pack of wolves.
Jane walked over to me, her eyes red-rimmed but her jaw set. She placed a hand on my chest. "You handle Lucas. The girls and I... we'll handle Mr. and Mrs. Mariano. They think they're untouchable because of their age? They're about to find out how wrong they are."
The plan formed with terrifying efficiency. Denzel and Grace stayed at the hospital to guard Jay. The kids were ushered into a car to be sent to a safe house. The women and my mother headed for the Mariano mansion, their faces grim and determined.
Me, the brothers, and Jay's tactical team headed for the cars. We weren't going to a police station. We were going to the warehouse where Alex had pinned Lucas's location.
The drive was silent. The city lights blurred past, but all I could see was the flash of that white light and the sound of Jay's voice cutting off before she could finish saying "I love you."
"You thought you were playing a game for a throne, Lucas, but you forgot one thing: you didn't just attack a CEO, you attacked my world—and now, I'm going to show you exactly how slow and painful it is when a world ends."
-----------------------------
A/n
That was an emotional rollercoaster! 🎢Keifer is officially in "beast mode," and I hope you all are ready it! 💀🔥
Target for next chapter :30+ comment 🎯
See you soon 💕
Bye 👋