Chapter 69 A taste of obsession

Chapter 69 A taste of obsession
The doctor straightened, adjusting his glasses as he finished checking the monitors.

Kieran stood by the window, his silhouette dark and imposing against the glass. He hadn't moved for hours, his mind replaying the carnage at the warehouse over and over again.

"How is she?" He asked. 

"She is stable, sir," the doctor replied, keeping his head down. "But the damage is extensive. Multiple fractures, severe internal bruising, and signs of long-term malnutrition. She is badly hurt—it's a miracle she survived the trauma. We've attended to the wounds, but the physical healing will take time. The psychological toll... that is another matter."

Kieran didn't offer a thank you. He simply nodded, a silent command for the doctor to leave. He escorted the man to the door, his eyes lingering on the hallway for a moment as if expecting Aurielle to come around the corner. But the hallway remained empty.

When he stepped back into the room, the atmosphere had shifted.

Delphine was beginning to stir.

Her light blue eyes—fluttered open. Her lips parted to reveal a sharp, painful moan that sliced through the quiet room. Her gaze was hazy, scanning the familiar  ceiling until it landed on the tall, rigid figure standing at the foot of her bed.

"K... Kieran?"

The sound of his name on her lips made his chest tighten. She winced, trying to force herself upright. "Ahhh!"

She let out a strangled scream of agony as her battered ribs protested. Kieran moved before she could even finish the sound. He rushed to her side, his large hands surprisingly gentle as he caught her shoulders. He helped her up, carefully stacking pillows behind her back to support her broken frame.

"Are you okay?" he whispered, his voice uncharacteristically soft.

Delphine nodded weakly, her breath coming in shallow gasps. She looked at him with a mix of terror and an overwhelming, ancient love. She opened her mouth, her voice trembling as she prepared to speak. "I... I have so much to tell you. Elias, he—"

"Stop," Kieran cut her off, his eyes boring into hers with a desperate, sharp intensity. He didn't want a long story. He didn't want excuses. He wanted the one thing he had been denied his entire life.

"Just tell me nothing but the truth," he commanded, his grip on the edge of the bed tightening until his knuckles turned white. 

"Are you the person I've been looking for?" he whispered, his voice cracking. "Are you my real mother?"

Delphine's eyes flooded with fresh tears. She looked at him, really looked at him, and nodded. "Yes, Kieran. I am your mother."

Kieran staggered back, his shoes scuffing against the  floor as he nearly lost his footing. The world tilted. "How?" he choked out. "Elias... he..."

"Elias lied about everything," Delphine sobbed, the words tumbling out in a rush of decades-old pain. "Your real  father and I were poor, Kieran. So poor we couldn't even buy salt. I left you in the village with him so I could come to the city to find work. I became Elias's headmaid. I sent every money back to that village so you could have a life."

She reached out a trembling, bruised hand, but didn't dare touch him

"When your father died, I couldn't leave you there. . I brought you to this mansion.... "You were so young, you didn't truly know me yet," she cried. "And when Elias saw you-those blue eyes, that spirit—he saw a solution to his own failure.
Elias couldn't have a son of his own. He refused to let the D'Angelo crown pass to his brothers. He didn't adopt you, Kieran; he stole you."

Delphine whispered, "He gave me a choice, Kieran,""He told me I could stay as his headmaid—his favorite maid—as long as I never called you 'son' again. He used me, Kieran. He took what he wanted from me in the dark of night, calling me his 'favorite pussy' while I cleaned his floors by day. I endured his touch, his breath, his filth... just so I could be in the same house as you. Just so I could watch you grow."

Kieran felt a single, hot tear track down his cheek. The woman who had served his tea, the woman he had walked past a thousand times without a second glance, had been his shield. She had been the "favorite" not out of love, but out of a mother's desperate sacrifice.

The cold, ruthless Don vanished in an instant. Kieran walked to the bed and, for the first time in his life, he let go of his pride. He pulled his mother into a tight, desperate embrace. Delphine gasped in shock, her eyes widening as she felt the weight of her son's head on her shoulder. Despite the agony in her ribs, she wrapped her arms around him, holding him back as his tears hit her. 

"You're my mother," he murmured against her, pulling back to cup her face with both hands, searching her features. "You're actually my mother."

She nodded, leaning into his touch, but the relief was short-lived. Her expression suddenly sharpened with terror. "Kieran, Elias is dead."

Kieran pulled away slightly, his brow furrowing. "I saw the body. Who did it?"

"Aurielle," Delphine whispered.

Deep down, Kieran wasn't happy Elias was dead. Not like this. He felt a bitter, hollow ache in his chest. He wanted to be the one to kill the man who had stolen his mother's soul and his own childhood.

Aurielle had taken that from him. She had ended the monster, but she had also ended Kieran's chance at the only vengeance that mattered.

"She was there," Delphine continued. "But Kieran... she was frantic. She was looking for her son. I think your son is missing. Elias was taunting her, and she... she was overwhelmed. She shot him."

Kieran's mind raced. If Elias was dead and Aurielle was asking about Adrien, it meant the nightmare was far from over. A surge of relief washed over him—he and Aurielle weren't siblings. Their love wasn't a sin. But that relief was instantly replaced by a cold, gut-wrenching fear.

"I fainted shortly after," Delphine grabbed his hand. "I don't know where she went. But Kieran, she's in trouble. If Elias didn't have the boy, then someone else does. And they have Aurielle too."

She squeezed his hand, her voice gaining a sudden, fierce strength. "Go, Kieran. I can take care of myself now. Find your wife. Find your son. They need you."

Kieran didn't want to leave her, but he knew she was right. His woman, his son, and their unborn child were out there. He kissed his mother's forehead and stood up. 

"I'll be back," but before he left, he'd signalled for  maids to help her, and guards to station themselves at her door.  

....

Aurielle's pov

My head felt like it had been stuffed with wet cotton. The sweet, cloying scent of the chemical cloth still clung to the back of my throat, making my stomach churn.

I forced my eyes open. Everything was blurred, washed in a sterile, freezing blue light. I wasn't in the warehouse anymore. I wasn't on the dirt.

I tried to move, but my knees hit something cold and unyielding. As my vision snapped into focus, my breath hitched. I was in a cage—a literal, floor-to-ceiling enclosure of reinforced steel bars and plexiglass. It was a clean, modern dungeon, designed to strip away every ounce of human dignity.

"Mommy?"

The voice was tiny. Fragile. It sounded like it was coming from a million miles away, yet it was right in front of me.

I spun around, my heart leaping into my throat. Across the narrow, dark aisle, in a cage identical to mine, sat a small figure huddled on a thin mattress.

"Adrien?" I choked out, my voice cracking. "Adrien!"

"Mommy!" He scrambled toward the bars, his little face streaked with tears and grime.

I lunged forward, hitting the bars so hard the metal hummed. I shoved my arms through the gaps, my fingers straining, scratching at the air. "Adrien, baby, come here! Give me your hand!"

He stretched his tiny arm out, but the gap between our cages was just wide enough to be cruel. Our fingertips were inches apart—a gap that felt like an ocean.

"I'm scared, Mommy," he sobbed, his lower lip trembling. "The man... he said he will kill me."

"He won't hurt you. I'm here! I'm here, Adrien! I promise I'm going to get you out!" I shook the bars with a sudden, primal strength, the metal rattling against the floor. "Do you hear me? I'm going to kill him! I'm going to—"

Then I heard footsteps. 

Clip. Clop. Clip. 

I immediately went quiet, pulling Adrien's gaze to mine. "Stay back, baby. Stay in the corner," I whispered. 

A pair of impeccably polished, handmade Italian leather shoes stopped right in front of my cage. My eyes traveled up—past the sharp crease of charcoal trousers, past a tailored blazer—until I hit those ash-grey eyes.

Valentin stood there, looking like he had just stepped out of a boardroom instead of a kidnapping. He held a crystal glass of amber liquid, swirling it slowly.

"I've been waiting for you to wake up," he said lightly. "I was starting to think I miscalculated the dosage."

"If you touch my son—"

He smiled. He fucking smiled. 

"Oh, Aurielle," he murmured. "If I wanted him dead, he wouldn't be breathing."

My heart stopped. 

"You know what fascinates me?" he continued conversationally, pacing slowly between the cages. "How mothers always believe love makes them powerful."

He stopped between us.

"It doesn't."

His gaze flicked to Adrien.

"It makes you predictable."

Rage surged through me so violently my hands trembled.

"What do you want?" I demanded.

Valentin tilted his head, his ash-grey eyes roaming over my face, lingering on my lips before dropping to the swell of my stomach. "I've spent months watching Kieran ruin his life for you. He's obsessed. He's weak. He turned a lethal empire into a playground for a woman who looks like she'd break if the wind blew too hard."

He reached through the bars, his  fingers catching my chin and forcing me to look up at him. I tried to spit at him, but he gripped me tighter, his thumb bruising my skin.

"I've been wondering," he whispered, his voice dropping to a gravelly, intimate crawl. "What is it that he sees in you? Is it the fire? I think I want to taste what he tastes. I want to feel the heartbeat of the woman who brought the King of the D'Angelos to his knees."

I shoved his hand away, "You're a pathetic rat, Valentin. Kieran will peel the skin from your bones for touching me."

Valentin didn't flinch. He just laughed—a dry, hollow sound that echoed off the cold walls.

"By the time he realizes you're gone, I'll have already found out exactly what makes you so special. And once I'm done with you..." He glanced over at Adrien, who was trembling in the opposite cage. "I think the boy will make a very fine student. I'll teach him to hate the name D'Angelo just as much as I do."