Chapter 99

Chapter 100

Surprisingly, Diana was eerily calm.

Liam wasn't here tonight, and Gemma had already been secretly transferred by the medical team. She was the only one left in this safe house now.

Even if Nicholas went to great lengths to find this place, he no longer had any leverage to force her to submit.

At the cabin door, Nicholas took the megaphone.

His low, hoarse voice cut through the wind, rain, and rotor thunder, penetrating the closed doors and windows to reach clearly inside.

"Diana, you and Liam broke our agreement when you ran. The island is fine now—the base is back up and running, and no one there has been hurt. I'm giving you one last chance. Come with me."

Diana looked at him for a moment, then suddenly pushed open a crack in the window.

Cold rain poured into the room, splashing against her face and soaking the stray hairs at her temples.

"Move the spotlight," she shouted over the roar. "Let me pack, and I'll go with you."

Nicholas didn't respond immediately.

She'd agreed too quickly. His instincts told him something was off.

He studied that pale, emotionless face behind the window, as if searching for a crack in her facade.

But Diana just stood there—no urging, no flinching.

After a silent moment, Nicholas finally raised his hand.

The spotlight slowly swung aside, its harsh white beam grazing the safe house's exterior wall before disappearing into the pouring rain.

Diana closed the window and walked into the bedroom, bending down to open the hidden compartment beside the bed.

The handgun Liam had left her lay quietly inside, next to a tactical knife.

Diana tucked the knife into the small of her back, then picked up the gun. She ejected the magazine to check it, then slid it back into place.

She gripped the slide and pulled it back hard.

The crisp metallic click was instantly swallowed by the roar outside.

She looked down at the gun in her hand. The warmth that had lingered in her eyes moments ago slowly drained away. When she looked up again, her eyes held nothing but unwavering resolve.

A minute later, Diana returned to the window.

The spotlight swept back, its blinding beam cutting through the rain to illuminate first her bloodless face, then the handgun in her hand.

Diana raised her arm and pressed the barrel against her temple.

Nicholas's expression changed instantly.

"Diana!"

He grabbed the edge of the cabin door, his body instinctively leaning forward, his voice suddenly stripped of its usual composure.

"Put the gun down!"

Diana let out a cold laugh, her gaze calm as she looked at him. Rain snaked down the glass, fragmenting his face into something blurred and broken.

"Nicholas, do you really think you can still threaten me?"

She tightened her grip on the gun. The dark barrel pressed against her temple, leaving a clear red mark.

"My mom's already dead. She died in the hospital. Her ashes have already been buried. The people on the island aren't my family—whether they live or die has nothing to do with me."

This was the lie she'd prepared for Nicholas.

She had to make him believe she had no one left in this world—nothing he could use against her anymore.

Only then would all those cards he'd played so successfully before become worthless.

"Go ahead and kill them. Take the whole world down with you—I don't care. I'd rather be heartless than go back with you, locked up again, controlled like a dog. I'm never living that way again."

The color slowly drained from Nicholas's face.

She wasn't bluffing.

Right now, Diana was willing to bet her own life. If he pushed one step closer, she might actually pull the trigger right in front of him.

This was worse than he'd imagined.

All his leverage had just become useless.

"Don't shoot."

When Nicholas spoke again, his tone had dropped sharply. The hardness was still there, but it couldn't hide the panic creeping into his voice.

"Diana, put the gun down first. Let me explain."

He yanked off his safety harness, ignoring the protests behind him, and leaned halfway out of the cabin.

"The grudges between our parents are over. I'm not going to hold that against you anymore. I'm not asking you to come back so I can keep hurting you."

Wind and rain tore at his voice, the megaphone crackling with harsh static. He had to raise his volume, practically shouting at her.

"Before we even officially met, I already liked you. All these years, my feelings for you have never changed. I just couldn't stand the thought of you leaving me—couldn't stand seeing you with another man!"

He stared at Diana fiercely, his fingers gripping the cabin door edge, tightening more and more.

Rain streamed down his clenched jaw. That face, usually so cold and composed, couldn't hide a trace of control anymore.

"Diana, I love you. Put the gun down. Wherever you want to go, whatever you want to do—I'll agree to it all."

Diana froze.

For a few seconds, the rotor noise, the wind and rain, Nicholas's shouting—all of it seemed to fade away at once.

She wondered if she'd heard him wrong.

Love?

The man who'd tormented her for years, destroyed her life piece by piece, pushed her to the point where even living felt like agony—he was saying he loved her?

The word sounded absurd, laughable.

"You love me?"

She repeated softly, then suddenly laughed.

"When I was strapped to that operating table, losing my baby—where were you? When I watched my mother's heart get wheeled into Lindsey's son's room—where was your love then?"

Nicholas's lips moved, as if he wanted to explain.

But Diana didn't give him the chance.

"You call humiliation love. You call imprisonment love. You call pushing me to the edge… love?"

The smile slowly faded from her face. The last flicker of emotion in her eyes went completely cold.

"Nicholas, your love makes me sick. I don't believe a single word of it."

Diana's finger slowly moved to the trigger.

That tiny movement struck Nicholas harder than any warning could.

"Now, take your people and leave. Otherwise, let's see what's faster—you breaking in, or me pulling this trigger."

Nicholas's breath caught.

The gale had already soaked half his body, but he held that rigid position, not daring to move an inch closer.

He couldn't risk it.

"Fine. I'll go."

Nicholas slowly retreated into the cabin, then raised both hands to show he wouldn't come closer.

"I'll have everyone pull out right now. Don't move—and don't hurt yourself."

The helicopter began climbing, its body backing away, gradually widening the distance from the safe house. The other aircraft scattered as well, adjusting their positions in the heavy rain as if they really were preparing to withdraw from the area.

Nicholas had no intention of actually leaving.

As soon as the main helicopter circled around to the front of the safe house and out of Diana's line of sight, he'd climb in through the back window himself and take that gun before she could react.

As the main aircraft pivoted, the spotlight swung toward the side of the safe house.

The blinding beam swept past Diana, and the bright window quickly darkened, her figure swallowed again by shadow.

In that brief visual blind spot, Nicholas grabbed the descent rope already dangling down and vaulted out of the cabin.

In seconds, his boots hit the mud and water behind the safe house with a heavy splash.

Nicholas bent his knees to absorb the impact and unclipped his harness. The soaked rope was yanked upward by the helicopter, vanishing quickly into the thick rain.

At the front of the safe house, Diana still watched the retreating aircraft, unaware of the figure that had appeared behind her.

Nicholas held his breath and moved closer, step by step.

The gale from the rotors still battered the exterior walls. Fragmented light and shadow flickered violently across the glass.

In the alternating light and dark, Diana seemed to sense something.

Just as she turned her head slightly, a flash of gunfire suddenly lit up the darkness.

The gunshot tore through the wind and rain. The bullet pierced Diana's forearm—the one holding the gun.