Vyan stood still. Every muscle in his body locked in place as the three masked n faced him from the entrance. One held Elian tightly, a gun pressed to the boy's head, while the other two lingered like shadows.
Then, suddenly, one of them broke formation and darted toward the kitchen.
A beat of silence.
Then a sharp shriek pierced through the air. It was clearly Samantha.
Followed imdiately by a loud thwack. The sound of sothing hard colliding with flesh and bone ca.
Soon, a body hit the floor.
It was too quiet after that.
Amy whimpered in Vyan's arms, instinctively sensing sothing was terribly wrong. His hold on her tightened, shielding her trembling fra as he turned her face inward and gently cupped her head with his hand.
"Shh, it's okay, baby," he whispered. "Close your eyes for a bit. Dada will take care of everything."
As Amy quieted under his gentle touch, his eyes turned cold. He sharply analyzed everything within that brief mont. One thing was crystal clear: his first priority was to keep the kids safe and not scare them more than they already were.
He looked at the masked man gripping Elian and asked calmly, without a hint of panic, "What do you want?"
The man smirked. "Isn't it easy to guess?" he drawled.
"Money?"
"No, that's not enough. We want revenge."
"From whom?"
"Adrian Evans, obviously," the man replied, with venom curling at the edge of his voice. "He should know what it's like to lose soone he loves."
With that, the man hoisted Elian into his arms roughly. The child yelped, small limbs flailing before he was crushed to the man's chest, held tightly like a hostage prize.
Elian's wide eyes brimd with tears, his lip quivering, but he didn't cry.
He didn't scream.
He just looked at Vyan.
Helplessly.
Silently pleading.
Save .
Honestly, he didn't have to say a word.
Because Vyan was already going to.
His jaw clenched. "That doesn't an you should hurt little children," he said, voice low and controlled, like fire beneath ice. "He's five. He has nothing to do with whatever twisted plan you have."
The leader's laugh was dry. "It doesn't matter. Evans will know what it's like to lose. That's the point. We don't care about anything else. He takes pride in having never lost before, right? Well, he'll taste that loss soon, and it'll be the most devastating one ever."
Vyan's eyes darkened as he brushed his bangs, subtly covering his forehead scar. "Alright then. You want him to feel what it's like to lose?"
The man raised an eyebrow.
"Then how about… you take his life?"
Elian gasped softly, his teary eyes snapping wide in disbelief. He looked terrified—not because he believed Vyan would betray his daddy—but because he didn't understand why Vyan would suggest that.
But then, Vyan caught his gaze. And with nothing but a flicker of his eyes, he reassured him.
It's okay. I've got this. I promise.
Vyan took a step forward, his eyes never leaving the man holding the child.
"Which ans… take . If you want Adrian Evans to suffer, then make feel what it's like to lose my life."
There was a heartbeat of silence.
Then, he uttered, "Because I'm Adrian Evans."
Elian's eyes widened again, as if he instantly what Vyan was planning to do. He discreetly shook his head, pleading, don't do this.
But Vyan didn't waver. He had to bet on it. On the fact that these n had never personally seen Adrian before. Because if they had, they'd have made a comnt on Vyan's appearance. Everyone did. Everyone who had t Adrian before, all of them made a comnt on Vyan upon seeing him and how they looked alike.
But these n showed no such reaction. Which could only an one thing: they didn't know Adrian personally. They were working under soone else's orders.
Vyan stared into the eyes of the masked n, holding Amy like a shield of love, a trembling warmth against his chest.
"If it's revenge you want," he said, "I'm right here."
Vyan's chest tightened as one of the masked n let out a harsh, humorless laugh. He took a step forward, gun still pressed against Elian's temple.
"You?" the man sneered, voice muffled behind the mask. "You're Adrian Evans? You don't look older than twenty-five, if I'm being generous. How could you have a five-year-old child?"
"I can't believe you people ca here without knowing what I look like." Vyan squared his shoulders, staring into the man's eyes without wavering. "Why don't you look up on the internet?" he challenged. "You'll see that I am Adrian Evans, and no one else."
There was a mont of silence as another thug aloft a phone. Swiftly, he tapped the screen, his brow furrowing. He leaned closer to the others and whispered, "Yeah, bro… he actually looks like Adrian." He swiped, showing them a headshot of Adrian Evans in a sleek suit, the sa facial features, sa built, and sa hair.
It was hard to tell apart the eye color due to the reflection, and who really cared about the eye color? He wasn't a celebrity whose entire biodata could be found on internet.
From what they did find, the man holding the baby in front of them was, in fact, Adrian Evans. Perhaps, his face just aged slower than most people. Genetics and all that.
The leader glowered, lifting his mask's edge to snarl. "How can this be?" he muttered. "At this hour, Evans should be at the firm. At ho, there should only be a maid and a babysitter, no family."
"Maybe the babysitter didn't co." The man with the phone shrugged as if that explained everything. "Maybe that's why Evans took the day off to spend ti with his kids. Hell, I'd do the sa if there was no one to look after my kids."
A grunt rumbled from the leader. He looked at Vyan like sizing up a stubborn animal. "All right, fine." His tone turned sharp. "But the order was to take along a kid. We can't leave both of them alive." He stepped forward and pointed at the baby secured in Vyan's arms. "If you want us to spare this child's life, you give us that one."
Vyan's eyes flared red. Amy was tucked against his chest, pale and sick, her face buried in the curve of his shoulder. He could feel her tiny heart beating fast in fear, her hands trembling, barely holding back her cries.
"You want a little baby as your hostage?" he snarled. "Are you even human?" His gaze flicked to the gun, widening his stance. "Get so sense. I'm offering you my life—! Your enemy is , isn't it? So, why do you have to ss with my children? They did nothing to you."
His arms tightened around Amy. "Just leave them alone. Want to make suffer? Do it. Torture . I don't care what you do with —make pay. But leave my children out of this."
Vyan's lips ford a bitter line. "My wife is an FBI agent; surely you know that. Both of the kids have sensors on them. The mont they step out or if their body temperatures drop, she'll know. And she'll co imdiately with reinforcents. So it's your call. Decide wisely."
He paused, head tilting. "As for ? I don't have any sensors on . You can trust on that."
For a heartbeat, the room held its breath. Obviously, the entire thing was a bluff. But it was worth a shot.
A dull clench of teeth echoed beneath one of the masks. The leader's eyes flicked to the baby in Vyan's arms then at Elian in his own arms.
"Fine," the leader spat, nodding to his comrades. He roughly let go of Elian, dropping him to the floor with a grunt. The boy tumbled onto the floor with a harsh thud.
He let out a yelp more in surprise than pain, clutching his side as he looked towards Vyan with frightened eyes.
"You two, go and destroy every communication device in this apartnt—the landline, intercom, phones, laptop, computer, everything," the man barked, and the other two quickly got to work.
Vyan willingly handed over his phone, which was snatched and instantly smashed into the ground.
"Now, co with us quietly, Evans," the man added.
Vyan didn't flinch. The storm inside him was tightly leashed.
Slowly, he walked towards Elian and helped him up on his feet. He pressed a gentle hand to his back. His other arm loosened, hesitating just for a heartbeat before beginning to lift Amy toward her brother.
With his eyes, he told him, everything will be fine. You just take care of Amy in the anti.
Elian didn't say anything. He only nodded, his chin trembling, his arms extending stiffly as Vyan gently transferred Amy into them. The baby clung to his shirt at first, sensing what was happening.
"Dada," she whimpered. "Dada, no…"
Vyan swallowed hard. Her small face crumpled, and her hands reached for him even as she lay against Elian's chest, kicking and twisting, desperate to return to the arms of whom she thought was her father.
Vyan felt sothing inside him snap, like a thin thread stretched too far. But he held his ground. He couldn't afford to break the act. He couldn't tell them what was going through his mind.
Amy started to wail, clinging to her brother like a lifeline. "Yeeyan, Dada leave. No… Dada stay… stay."
Elian wrapped his arms around her as tightly as he could, even as tears slid silently down his cheeks.
Vyan's heart shattered.
But he didn't fall weak.
He turned around and faced the three masked n. "You can take now."
The leader smirked cruelly, stepping closer. "You'll regret this, you know. You'll soon understand what a huge mistake you just made." He leaned in, eyes gleaming with vicious satisfaction. "You'll know what hell really feels like."
But Vyan didn't show any reaction.
Instead, he tilted his head slightly and gave the man a look so disinterested, so utterly unimpressed, it was almost insulting. There was no fear in his gaze.
It unnerved them. How could a normal person be so unaffected in this situation?
Well, unbeknownst to them, Vyan was not normal. Not by the standards of this world at least.
We will see, he thought silently, as his lips curved into the faintest ghost of a smirk. We will see who walks through hell. Because you ssed with the wrong person.
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