The morning air was crisp, and Ethan frowned as he stood outside Isaac’s house. He had rung the bell twice already. The blinds were drawn, and no lights were on inside. It was unlike Isaac to go off the grid, especially not without informing anyone—particularly after what had happened with Lucas. The wounds of that loss were still raw, and Ethan had made it a habit to check up on Isaac now and then.
Ethan pulled out his phone and dialed Isaac’s number again, only to be greeted by the familiar voicemail ssage.
"Isaac, it’s . Please call back. I’m outside your place—call the mont you get this."
Hanging up, he stared at the screen for a mont, then glanced back at the silent house. His brows furrowed deeper. He tried the doorknob. Locked.
Sothing wasn’t right.
He imdiately tapped Diana’s number.
It rang only once before she answered, voice sharp and alert. "Ethan? What happened?"
"I’m at Isaac’s place," Ethan said, pacing on the front porch. "I’ve called him, rang the bell, even knocked—no response. His phone is off or he’s not picking up. He’s not ho. It’s locked from the outside."
Silence.
Ethan could practically hear Diana process that information on the other end.
"Damn it..." Diana muttered. "He promised he wouldn’t do anything reckless."
"You think he went to investigate sothing again?" Ethan asked.
"It wouldn’t be the first ti. He’s been quietly digging into Lucas’s death, and you know Isaac—when he’s grieving, he doesn’t always think straight."
Ethan raked a hand through his hair. "I’m going to look for him."
"No!" Diana said sharply. "Ethan, no. Don’t. Leave it to and my team. Please. We’re better equipped for this."
"I can’t just sit back and wait—"
"You have a wife and two kids, Ethan," Diana interrupted, her tone softening just a little. "You have a family to protect. Let handle this. Isaac is my brother too, and I won’t let him get himself killed. I promise I’ll bring him back safely."
Ethan gritted his teeth but nodded, even though she couldn’t see it. "You better. If anything happens to him—"
"It won’t," Diana said firmly. "I’ll update you as soon as I find anything. Just go ho. Take care of Adrian and the babies. Trust ."
The call ended, but Ethan stood there for a while, staring at the locked door again. He felt a dull ache at the center of his chest. He hated this—this helplessness, this gnawing anxiety.
He whispered to the door, "Don’t do anything stupid, Isaac."
And then, reluctantly, he turned and walked back to his car.
Back at Ho
Adrian was in the nursery, softly singing a lullaby while Seraphina and Aurelius slept. He looked up when he heard the door open and saw Ethan walk in, his face dark and heavy.
"Did you find him?" Adrian asked quietly.
Ethan shook his head, walking over and wrapping his arms around Adrian from behind, resting his chin on his shoulder. "No. He’s not ho. And he’s not answering his phone."
Adrian’s breath hitched. "Do you think...?"
"Diana’s team is on it," Ethan said, trying to sound more confident than he felt. "She promised she’d find him. He might’ve gone out chasing a lead or sothing related to... Lucas."
Adrian closed his eyes and leaned back into him. "He’s still hurting."
Ethan didn’t reply for a long mont. Then he said softly, "We all are."
---
Diana moved quickly through the intelligence building. Luri was already at her desk, several monitors lit with digital maps and satellite feeds.
"Any signs of Isaac?" Diana asked as she approached.
"None yet," Luri said without turning around. "But I tapped into his car’s GPS. It shut off an hour ago just past the old checkpoint near Verdan Heights. No street caras in that area. Either he got out willingly or soone forced him out."
Diana’s jaw tensed. "Get coordinates. We’re going there."
"You’re going," Luri said. "I’m not letting you go blind. Taking one of the trackers and heading with."
Diana gave a sharp nod. "Let’s move."
--
The twins were asleep again when Adrian sat with Ethan on the balcony, tea cooling between their hands.
"I can’t stop thinking about what Isaac must be going through," Adrian said. "What if he’s hurt?"
Ethan pulled Adrian close and said firmly, "Diana will find him. We have to trust her."
Adrian closed his eyes. "I wish I had rembered earlier. Maybe I could’ve helped him more."
"You help us every day," Ethan said, kissing his temple. "And when he cos back, we’ll help him heal too."
Adrian nodded, trying to hold on to that fragile hope.
--
The car sped through the forest path near Verdan Heights, headlights slicing through the fog.
"There!" Luri pointed at the GPS tracker blinking faintly.
They screeched to a halt, jumped out, and found Isaac’s car hidden behind thick brush, door open, no one inside.
But there were signs—drag marks. A trail.
"He was here," Diana breathed. "And he’s not far."
She looked up at the darkened hills ahead, determination flaring in her eyes.
---
The cold warehouse reeked of mildew and copper, the dim lighting casting long, flickering shadows on the cracked floor. Chains clinked faintly as his wrists shifted, bound to the rusted chair. His lips were dry, cracked from hours without water, and his muscles ached from sitting in the sa position.
But all of that faded the mont he saw the figure step out from the darkness.
A tall man, sharp eyes behind rounded glasses, dressed in a long, high-collared coat—his every movent calculated and elegant. His white hair, slicked back, hadn’t changed over the years, nor had the way he held his chin high as if he owned the entire world.
Isaac’s breath hitched for half a second... before sothing snapped inside him.
And then he laughed.
Laughed like a man unhinged. Maniacally. Bitterly. A sharp sound that echoed through the empty chamber.
"Of course..." Isaac choked between gasps. His head dropped forward, shoulders shaking as he laughed harder. "Of course it’s you."
The figure before him said nothing.
"You know," Isaac rasped, "I thought maybe—just maybe—I’d get caught by so loyal goon of the secret organization. Or a greedy politician. Or a rival investigator I pissed off. But you?"
The light above flickered, revealing the lined, unreadable face of Dorian Shaw—the very man who had raised Isaac since he was six years old. His adoptive father. The head of the Shaw family.
The man Isaac had once looked up to. Trusted. Loved.
Dorian’s gaze was unreadable, his arms folded neatly behind his back.
"You’re as dramatic as always," Dorian finally said, his voice like dry parchnt. "I expected tears. But laughter?"
Isaac let his head fall back, resting it on the edge of the tal chair, still chuckling under his breath.
"Crying? For you?" Isaac’s smile turned cold. "No. I knew. I always knew, Dorian."
That na—Dorian—rolled off his tongue like venom.
"You’re not disappointed?" Dorian tilted his head slightly, curious.
"I’m betrayed, not surprised," Isaac said flatly. "That’s different. You lost the right to disappoint the day you threw out."
Dorian turned away then, walking to the far end of the room. The click of his polished shoes on the concrete floor was soft but deliberate.
He said nothing, but Isaac didn’t stop.
"Let guess... I got too close again, didn’t I? Dug up sothing you wanted to keep buried. Like a corpse in an ice chamber?"
Dorian froze mid-step.
Isaac narrowed his eyes. "Still keeping Luri’s mother on ice like a pretty little porcelain doll?"
"Enough," Dorian’s voice cracked like a whip.
Isaac leaned forward in his chair, chains groaning. "She’s dead, Dorian. She has been for decades. But you just couldn’t let go, could you?"
"You know nothing of what I lost." Dorian turned back to him, his voice suddenly low and dangerous. "Nothing of what I sacrificed."
"I know enough!" Isaac snapped. "I know she never ca back, no matter how many cults you shook hands with. No matter how many twisted experints you allowed into the Shaw labs. You sold your soul to revive hers."
Silence stretched.
The mory surged in Isaac’s mind, vivid and raw.
The hidden compartnt in the depths of the Shaw estate. The temperature-controlled chamber. The way the frost clung to her pale skin like a wedding veil. How serene she looked... and how wrong it was.
And the rage in Dorian’s eyes when Isaac found her.
"Get out," he had said coldly that night. "You’ve seen too much. You were never ant to."
And so Isaac left. With nothing but the stench of betrayal and the echo of Luri’s silent tears when she learned the truth.
That was years ago. He never returned.
Only followed orders when he was forced to. A ghost in the Shaw household.
"I did everything for her," Dorian said now, softly. "For my love. You think you know grief, Isaac? You think losing Lucas makes you understand pain?"
Isaac’s face darkened at the ntion of Lucas. "Don’t you dare say his na."
But Dorian pressed on. "You know what it’s like to lose soone precious. You’d do anything to get him back, wouldn’t you?"
Isaac fell silent.
"Even you," Dorian said, a glint in his eye, "even your precious moral code would shatter if you thought it could bring Lucas back to you."
Isaac looked away, jaw clenched.
Dorian smiled thinly. "The only difference between you and is that I have the resources. I have the vision. I am not afraid of what people call ’madness.’"
"You’re not a visionary," Isaac muttered. "You’re a coward who can’t accept loss. You’re afraid of letting go."
Dorian walked up to him again, staring down with a look of detached pity.
"I never wanted this," he said quietly. "But you forced my hand."
Isaac smirked. "You always wanted this. A reason to be the victim and the god. Soone to bla. Soone to betray."
Dorian’s eyes flickered—an emotion Isaac couldn’t read—and then the older man turned and walked away, disappearing back into the shadows without another word.
Isaac exhaled shakily, slumping in the chair.
The mont he was alone, the maniacal edge in his eyes faded. His chest trembled—not from fear but a hollow, weary ache.
I should’ve known. It was always going to end this way.
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