Chapter 76 Chapter Seventy-five
ARA
“I didn’t come this far to let you live, Thayne.” Ethan’s tone was steady and final, the kind that made my stomach drop before my mind could catch up.
The words hit the air like a death sentence.
Ethan reached up and tore the mask from his face, the motion deliberate, almost theatrical, as if he wanted us to see him now. To recognize the man who’d been hiding in plain sight.
I thought he was taken away after Thayne rescued me? What was he doing here now? And how? What was his motive this time?
“I came to finish you.”
The corridor erupted.
Nurses screamed as they spilled out of nearby rooms, clipboards clattering to the floor, shoes squealing against polished tiles as panic spread like wildfire.
A security alarm shrieked to life, sharp and piercing, but it sounded distant to me—like it was happening in another world entirely.
All I could see was the gun in Ethan’s hand. Black and steady, still raised.
Madison lay crumpled on the floor behind him, blood seeping through her fingers as she gasped in ragged, broken breaths.
The woman who’d tried to kill my sister was bleeding out at the feet of the man who’d just confessed he’d come to kill Thayne.
Nothing made sense anymore.
Thayne stepped forward, placing himself squarely in front of me and Millie without hesitation. His body was rigid, controlled, like a predator locking onto its prey.
“Put the gun down,” he said calmly.
Ethan laughed. It was the sound of someone with nothing left to lose.
“Step away from them,” Ethan continued, his gaze locked on Thayne. “I don’t need the girls. I only came for you.”
My pulse thundered in my ears.ly. As if that word didn’t carry a body count behind it.
“Step away or I'll be killing four people instead of one.” Ethan said, waving the gun.
“Why?” The word ripped out of me before I could stop it. It sounded wrong, too loud and too thin, like it didn’t belong to me.
“You were gone. You were supposed to be gone.” My hands trembled as I shouted, fear and fury tangling in my chest. “What do you want from us? From me? You already tried to kill me once—what more do you want?”
Ethan’s laugh was sharp and jagged, bordering on hysterical.
“You think I'm here for you, nobody wants you, slum girl. Oh, you really don’t know?” he snapped back. His eyes were bloodshot and wild, the kind of red that came from sleepless nights and burning obsession.
The gun never wavered in his grip. “I want what I was promised.”
My stomach dropped.
“Your father,” he continued, his voice rising, cracking at the edges, “promised to make me his heir. Me. All I had to do was convince all of New York that I was his first son.”
The words slammed into the corridor like gunfire.
“And now?” Ethan snarled, gesturing violently with the weapon. “Now it’s all falling apart because of this ridiculous memory-loss bullshit.”
His gaze locked onto Thayne, pure hatred blazing.
“I’m here to finish this,” he said, voice shaking with rage. “I’m here to end you, Thayne. You’re standing in the way of everything I was supposed to have.”
The silence that followed was suffocating.
And I knew, deep in my bones, that Ethan wasn’t bluffing.
“What are you even talking about?” Thayne asked.
His voice was steady, but I could feel the shift in him. In the way his body tightened, the way his shoulders squared like he was bracing for impact.
Ethan’s lips curled into something ugly.
“Your father played us both,” he spat. “We had a contract. Signed and sealed.” He tapped his chest with the gun. “You might be his blood, but he doesn’t want you.”
Thayne snarled at that unkind statement.
“He wants me,” Ethan went on, his voice rising, cracking with obsession. “He promised me the name. The legacy. The wealth.”
He took a step forward.
“And if you’re still breathing,” he said coldly, “I lose everything.”
The gun lifted higher.
“So don’t take this personally,” Ethan finished. “I just can’t afford to let you live.”
“So you came all this way to die over a man who doesn’t love you.” Thayne told him, unfazed.
Thayne didn’t wait for a response. He moved.
One second he was standing in front of me, solid and immovable, and the next he was a blur of motion.
Fast, precise, terrifying. I barely had time to gasp before everything exploded into chaos.
“Thayne—!” I screamed.
Ethan reacted on instinct. His finger tightened on the trigger and the gun went off.
The sound cracked through the corridor like a bomb.
I flinched hard, my hands flying to my ears, convinced I’d just watched Thayne die.
But he was already on Ethan, like nothing had happened.
Thayne slammed into him with brutal force, his shoulder driving into Ethan’s chest, sending both of them crashing into the wall.
The gun skidded across the floor, spinning wildly before disappearing under a gurney.
Nurses screamed again, scattering like birds.
Millie was crying behind me. I pulled her back, shielding her with my body, my heart trying to tear its way out of my chest.
Thayne grabbed Ethan by the collar and smashed his head into the wall.
Once. Twice.
Ethan grunted, blood bursting from his nose, but he didn’t go down easy.
He swung wildly, his fist catching Thayne in the ribs with a dull thud.
Thayne didn’t even flinch.
He drove his knee up into Ethan’s stomach, hard enough that I heard the air leave his lungs in a strangled gasp.
Ethan folded forward, coughing violently.
“You talk too much,” Thayne said coldly.
He grabbed Ethan’s wrist, and twisted.
There was a sickening crack, and Ethan screamed like a woman.
The sound echoed down the corridor as he dropped to his knees, clutching his broken arm.
Security finally burst through the doors, weapons raised.
“DOWN!” someone shouted.
But Thayne wasn’t finished.
He yanked Ethan up by the hair, forcing his head back so they were face to face.
“You don’t get to threaten my family,” Thayne said quietly.
Family. The word hit me like a punch.
Ethan laughed, even with blood running down his chin.
“She’s not your family,” he spat, eyes flicking to me. “She’s just collateral.”
That was the wrong thing to say. Thayne slammed his fist into Ethan’s face thrice in the space of three seconds.
Ethan went limp, collapsing to the floor like a puppet with its strings cut.
Security swarmed in immediately, dragging Ethan away, shouting orders into radios. Someone kicked the gun farther out of reach.
I barely registered any of it.
My legs gave out under me.
I sank against the wall, shaking so badly I couldn’t tell where my body ended and the fear began.
Thayne turned and his eyes found me instantly.
The fury was still there, blazing, but beneath it, there was something else. Something fierce and unguarded.
He crossed the distance in three strides and dropped in front of me, gripping my shoulders gently but firmly.
“Are you hurt? If you feel as much as a bruise anywhere, tell me.” He said, scanning my face, my arms, and rubbing my stomach.
I shook my head, breath hitching. “You… you could’ve been shot.”
His jaw tightened. “I wasn’t.”
“That gun—”
“I wasn’t,” he repeated, firmer now.
Behind him, paramedics were rushing to Madison, their voices were urgent as hands began pressing gauze to her chest. I saw blood. Too much blood.
“Thayne,” I whispered. “Madison—”
He didn’t look back.
“She’ll live,” he said coldly. “If she deserves to.”
The words should’ve scared me.
Instead, they made my chest ache.
Sirens wailed outside. More security and police.
As Thayne reached down to help Millie to her feet, she didn’t take his hand.
She launched herself at him.
Her small arms wrapped around his waist, her body shaking as sobs tore out of her. She buried her face in his shirt like he was the only solid thing left in the world.
“Thank you,” she cried, clutching him tightly. “Thank you for saving me and my sister.” Her voice broke. “I know she’s your wife-to-be, but please… please don’t let her hurt anymore. She’s hurting.”
Her words and tears soaked into the fabric of his shirt.
Two things happened at once.
Thayne stilled.Completely.
He muttered something under his breath, too low for anyone else to hear, then shook his head sharply, like he was fighting something clawing its way back to the surface.
Slowly, he lifted his gaze.
Those blazing green eyes locked onto mine.
His nostrils flared. His jaw clenched. And then, recognition hit him like a storm breaking loose.
“My little lamb,” he growled.
The sound wrapped around my spine, deep and possessive and achingly familiar.
My breath left me in a rush. The way he said it. The way his eyes burned.
Thayne had finally remembered me.