Chapter 87 CHAPTER 87
No one leaves
“Everyone stays where they are.” His voice was a growl, deep and commanding.
Beside him, Julian adjusted his cufflinks with deliberate calm, his expression cold, eyes burning with rage beneath the surface. The world had just tilted, and neither man was willing to let it spin out of their control.
Security had already locked down the gates, radios buzzing as men moved swiftly to secure the mansion. Some guests whimpered, others tried to plead, but Ares silenced them all with a glare sharp enough to nail them to their chairs.
One by one, people were inspected, frightened mothers clutching children, trembling fathers explaining they had nothing to do with the ambush. The armed guards marched them to the gate and, after a nod from Julian, released them into the street.
By the time the crowd had thinned, only two women remained.
The first was the nun, except now her veil had been torn away, revealing what no one had expected: Tessa. She stood against the wall, her chest rising and falling with heavy breaths, her eyes bloodshot, rimmed with tears. Her hands twisted together as if she didn’t know whether to pray or strike.
The second was Chloe. She had tried to slip out with the others, blending in, hiding under her borrowed hoodie. But Julian had caught her wrist in mid flight. Now she stood trapped, her pulse hammering so loud she thought everyone could hear it.
The police had been called, security confirmed it with curt updates but they had not yet arrived. This left the estate in a tense purgatory, ruled only by Ares’s authority and Julian’s iron presence.
Ares finally turned, his dark eyes locking on the woman who had once been the most dangerous name on his lips. He walked toward her slowly, like a storm advancing across a silent field. Each step echoed on the marble of the patio, dragging the silence tighter around everyone present.
“So…” His voice was low, deadly. “You’re Tessa.”
Tessa lifted her chin despite the tremble in her frame. “Don’t act surprised. You recognized me the moment y’all removed that veil.”
Ares’s lip curled. “What was the plan? To hide in plain sight? To live next door as some holy woman while you plotted to take what’s mine?”
Her laugh came sharp and bitter. “Yours? They are my children, Ares. Or have you rewritten history so much that you’ve erased me entirely?”
Julian’s brow arched as he poured himself a drink from the abandoned bar table, watching the exchange like a spectator at a gladiator fight. “This should be good,” he muttered under his breath.
Ares ignored him. His focus was only on Tessa. He took another step closer, voice rising. “Don’t play that card with me. If someone had told me you’d stoop to kidnapping, I wouldn’t have believed it. But look at you now—parading as a nun, creeping into my world, waiting for the perfect moment to strike.”
Tessa’s eyes blazed. “Kidnapping? You dare accuse me of that when you, Ares, are the king of abductions? You stole my kids and brought them to Japan thinking I won’t do anything?”
He flinched slightly, but his mask of power didn’t crack. “Don’t twist this. You’re the criminal here. You should be rotting in jail and you Chloe, how did you even escape? How did you crawl back into my life?”
For a moment, Tessa didn’t answer. She let the silence stretch, her breathing heavy, until she finally spat, “Maybe you should ask yourself why the walls of that prison couldn’t hold her. You and your wife kidnapped my kids…”
Chloe, desperate to avoid their crossfire, took a timid step backward. “I… I don’t know what any of this is about,” she stammered, her voice high pitched with fake confusion. “I’m just a waitress. I don’t know them. I swear…”
Julian cut her off with a sharp laugh, dragging her back by her arm as she tried to edge away. “Spare us the act, sweetheart. You’ve been buzzing around this story for far too long to be innocent. What are you, stupid? Do you think covering your face with a hoodie makes you invisible?”
Chloe’s heart dropped. She swallowed hard, but her words tumbled out anyway. “I really don’t know anything! Please, let me go—”
Her pleas only earned her another mocking chuckle from Julian. “You’re not fooling anyone.”
Tessa’s head whipped toward Chloe then, eyes narrowing, nostrils flaring like a storm breaking. “You.”
The venom in her tone froze Chloe in place. Before anyone could stop her, Tessa lunged forward, seizing Chloe by the collar. “Where are my children?” she screamed, shaking her like a rag doll.
Chloe gasped, eyes wide. “I—I don’t—”
“Don’t lie to me!” Tessa’s grip tightened, her knuckles white. “You think you can hide them from me? You think you can take them away from their mother?”
The garden was still, everyone watching, even the guards uncertain whether to interfere.
Ares stood back, arms crossed, cold eyes fixed on the scene. For once, he didn’t move to stop it. He wanted answers just as much as Tessa did.
Julian dragged Chloe back, but Tessa broke free, clawing forward again. The two women crashed into each other, Chloe fighting back with desperate pushes and kicks, Tessa fighting with the fury of a mother denied.
They tumbled to the grass, hands pulling at hair, nails scraping across skin, grunts and gasps filling the air.
Ares and Julian exchanged a glance but didn’t step in. They stood like men watching a storm, waiting for it to exhaust itself.
Finally, after long, breathless minutes, both women collapsed to the ground, sprawled on their backs, chests heaving violently. Sweat gleamed on their skin, hair tangled, clothes rumpled, but neither had won.
They simply lay there, staring up at the open sky, their rage spent but their hatred still burning.
The silence that followed was deafening. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.
Ares’s voice broke it at last, calm but edged with steel. “Tessa, Chloe, for the last time where are my kids?”