Chapter 261 Monster in the Foyer
Kieran drove like a man possessed.
The black SUV tore down the highway at speeds that made the engine scream in protest, weaving between cars with reckless aggression. He cut across lanes without signaling, clipped mirrors, forced sedans and trucks to swerve out of his path. Horns blared in a furious chorus. Drivers leaned out windows, shouting curses…“You fucking lunatic!” “Slow the hell down!”their voices lost in the roar of wind and rubber.
Amelia gripped the passenger door handle so hard her knuckles turned white. Her face was the color of old parchment, stomach lurching with every violent swerve. She swung from side to side in the seat, shoulder slamming against the window, then the center console.
“Kieran..slow down!” she shouted, voice cracking. “You’re going to kill us before we even get there!”
He didn’t answer. Didn’t even glance at her.
His eyes were locked on the road ahead, pupils blown wide, jaw clenched so tight the muscle jumped under his skin. Sweat beaded on his bare chest and back. His bare feet pressed the accelerator flat. The speedometer needle trembled past 140 km/h.
His phone buzzed violently in the center console.
He snatched it one-handed, thumb swiping to answer while the SUV fishtailed around a slow-moving delivery van.
“What the fuck do you want?” he snarled into the speaker.
Damon’s voice came through urgently.
“Knight. I just heard from the asylum where Jimmy was being held. He escaped last night. Slipped the guards during a transfer. No one knows where he is.”
Silence.
Absolute, deafening silence inside Kieran’s skull.
The phone slipped from his fingers. It clattered to the floor mat.
Damon’s voice kept going, tinny, distant…“Kieran? Knight? Talk to me…”
Kieran didn’t hear it.
He slammed the accelerator harder.
The engine roared louder.
Amelia screamed as the car lurched forward, tires losing grip for a second before catching again.
The Caldwell Estate gates appeared ahead.
He didn’t brake until the last possible second.
The SUV skidded sideways in a cloud of dust and gravel, tires smoking. He threw the door open before the vehicle had even stopped rocking.
Amelia stumbled out after him, legs unsteady from the ride. She made it two steps before she dropped to her knees and vomited violently onto the driveway, bile and breakfast splattering the stones.
Kieran didn’t wait.
He ran, barefoot, and shirtless straight through the open front doors.
Kieran didn’t stop.
He vaulted the low side gate, didn’t bother with the main one and sprinted up the long drive toward the mansion.
Then he heard it.
A scream.
Genesis.
He burst inside.
The sight stopped his heart.
His wife, his entire world lay sprawled on the floor. Gown torn. Face bruised and swollen, one cheek already purpling. Blood streaked from her split lip. A knife was buried in her shoulder up to the hilt and Jimmy straddled her chest, wild-eyed, manic, both hands pressing down, trying to drive the blade deeper into her body.
Her eyes were half-open, fluttering, unfocused. Her breaths came in shallow, wet gasps.
Time fractured.
Kieran moved.
He crossed the room in two strides and slammed into Jimmy with the full force of his body, shoulder check like a freight train.
The impact sent Jimmy flying backward; he hit the floor hard, knife slipping from his grip. Kieran dropped to his knees beside Genesis, hands shaking as he cupped her face.
Her face was a ruin of bruises. Breathing shallow, ragged. Blood soaked the front of her gown around the knife wound. Her eyes fluttered, unfocused, glassy like she didn’t even register him.
“Genesis,” he choked. “Baby, look at me. Look at me.”
No response.
Just a weak, wet gasp.
Suddenly pain exploded in his back, sharp, burning.
He turned.
Jimmy stood behind him, knife in hand, blood dripping from his split lip, grinning like a demon.
He’d stabbed Kieran, deep between the shoulder blades.
Amelia burst through the doors, saw the scene, and screamed.
Kieran didn’t flinch.
He reached back, yanked the knife out in one brutal pull, blood sprayed across the tiles and he threw it aside. It clattered and skidded.
At that moment he looked like something not entirely human.
A monster wearing Kieran’s face.
He stepped toward Jimmy.
Jimmy laughed though it carried a hint of nervousness and fear.
“I’ll do it again,” he spat, teeth red with blood. “I’ll gut her. I’ll gut those bastards inside her. I’ll do it over and over and over…”
Kieran’s hand wrapped around Jimmy’s throat.
The man who loved Genesis, the man who kissed her forehead and read baby books aloud in silly voices was gone.
What remained was something colder. Something older. Something that had lived inside him since he was a boy and learned the only way to survive was to become the monster everyone feared.
Kieran’s hand closed around Jimmy’s throat.
He lifted him clean off the floor—one-handed—and hurled him backward.
Jimmy crashed into a pillar.
Kieran was on him in an instant, straddling his chest.
And he started punching.
First blow, his nose shattered, blood sprayed in a fine mist.
His teeth cracked.
Second, his cheekbone caved with a wet crunch.
But he didn’t stop.
Punch after punch after punch, knuckles splitting open, blood flying, Jimmy’s face turning to raw meat under his fists. Bone gave way. Skin tore.
The sound was sickening, wet thuds, cartilage crunching, blood slapping against the tiles.
Amelia, kneeling beside Genesis, cradling her head, looked up.
Her eyes went wide with horror as she watched Kieran methodically destroy Jimmy’s face.
Jimmy laughed, gurgling, wet through broken red teeth.
“I’ll… do it… again…”
Amelia’s voice cracked.
“That’s enough, Kieran! You’re going to kill him!”
Kieran didn’t hear her.
Knight had taken over, cold, mechanical, relentless.
He kept punching, left, right, left until Jimmy’s face was no longer recognizable. Just a pulpy, red mask of blood and ruined flesh.
“KIERAN STOP,”Amelia rushed forward, grabbing Kieran’s arm.
“Kieran, please stop!”
He didn’t budge.
She yanked harder, crying now, tears streaming.
“He’s not moving! You’re killing him!”
Jimmy had stopped laughing. Stopped breathing. Stopped everything.
He didn’t budge.
She screamed his name again, tears streaming, pounding on his back.
Behind her, heavy boots pounded up the front steps.
“Police! Hands up! Now!”
Two officers burst in, weapons drawn. They had followed Kieran when he had been driving recklessly.
They shouted commands Kieran didn’t register.
They grabbed his arms. He shook one off like he weighed nothing.
The second officer tackled him from the side.
It took both of them, grunting, straining to peel him off Jimmy’s motionless body.
The second their grip loosened, Kieran wrenched free and staggered back to Genesis.
He dropped to his knees beside her.
She was pale. Too pale. Her gown was soaked dark between her thighs, her water had broken.
She wasn’t moving.
“Genesis,” he whispered, voice cracking for the first time. Tears cut clean tracks through the blood on his face. “Baby please. Stay with me. Stay with me.”
He gathered her against his chest, rocking slightly, one hand pressed to the knife wound in her shoulder, the other cradling her head.
Amelia knelt beside them, sobbing. “The ambulance is coming. They’re coming. Hang on, Genesis. Hang on.”
Genesis’s head lolled against Kieran’s shoulder.
Her breathing was shallow.
Too shallow.
And somewhere beneath the chaos, deep inside her, the babies were coming whether the world was ready or not.
Kieran pressed his lips to her forehead, tears dripping onto her skin.
“Please,” he begged, voice raw and broken. “Don’t leave me. Don’t leave us.”
Her chest rose once… twice…
Then stilled..