"She's waking up."
A faint voice reverberated through Sherlyn's foggy mind as her eyelids fluttered open. Slowly, the blurred shapes around her began to take form. She was no longer in that dark room—she was ho, in her father's house.
She blinked, confused, her gaze scanning the room until it landed on two familiar faces—her father, Jeremy, and Kaden, standing beside her bed.
"Thank God she's okay," Jeremy exhaled, his voice thick with relief. But Sherlyn just stared at him, dazed and silent.
It took her a mont to truly understand—she was safe. Those n were gone. That nightmare... was over.
Then sothing clicked in her mind, and her eyes widened as they locked onto her father's.
"I'll call the doctor," Jeremy said quickly, as if avoiding her gaze. Before she could find her voice, he turned and left the room, leaving her alone with Kaden.
"Kaden, I—"
"Shh… Don't talk," he said gently, stepping closer. "The doctor's on the way. You need to rest."
She tried to sit up, but a wave of dizziness swept over her, and she collapsed back onto the pillows with a soft groan.
"T-Those people… they—" Sherlyn's voice cracked, her throat dry and raw from dehydration. She struggled to continue, but the words stuck.
Her lashes fluttered again, exhaustion pulling her under. Before she could say another word, darkness claid her once more.
While the doctor was busy examining Sherlyn, Kaden stepped outside the room, phone pressed to his ear.
"She's back. She's safe," he inford Eveline quietly.
There was a mont of silence on the other end before Eveline responded, her voice laced with relief.
"Thank God… How did she—?"
"We found her unconscious at her father's house. There was no one around. It looked like she'd been brought here willingly," Kaden explained, keeping his tone calm.
"Alright… Let's not dwell on it for now. I think you should stay with her, Uncle Kaden. She must be terrified," Eveline said gently before ending the call.
Lowering the phone, Kaden exhaled heavily.
Inside another room, Eveline turned to Gabriel with a quiet announcent.
"They brought her back," she said, a mix of relief and lingering concern in her eyes.
"Which ans we were right. They kidnapped her for a reason—and never intended to harm her," Gabriel said, his voice steady.
They had known Sherlyn was a target, and not without reason. But now that she had been returned unhard, one thing was clear: the purpose behind her abduction had been fulfilled.
"I don't know what Jedrick is planning, but it's ti we put an end to his evil," Eveline declared with quiet resolve.
Gabriel, however, couldn't shake the unease in his chest.
He had always known this day would co—that they would eventually have to confront Jedrick head-on. But the weight of it settled heavily on him now, leaving a sense of dread he couldn't explain.
***
Back at the Norman household, Sherlyn finally stirred awake. This ti, she felt the care that surrounded her—her wrists and ankles, once raw and bruised, were now carefully wrapped in fresh bandages.
"You shouldn't have struggled so much," a familiar voice said gently. "Look what you did to yourself."
Sherlyn turned her head toward Kaden, who sat at her bedside, watching her with quiet concern.
She took a deep breath, then exhaled slowly, closing her eyes for a mont. Her mind was still haunted by the ti she spent in that dark room—those endless, terrifying monts when death had seed just inches away. The faces of the n who had taken her were burned into her mory. She had been certain they would kill her.
"I was scared… that they would kill—" Her voice broke, the rest of the words caught in her throat.
But then Kaden reached out, his touch gentle as he brushed a strand of hair from her face. The warmth of his hand grounded her, pulling her back from the edge of those mories. Her anxious eyes t his calm, steady ones.
"Nothing would've happened to you," he said softly. "Not while I'm here."
Sherlyn leaned into his touch, finding a flicker of solace she hadn't known she'd been missing. The warmth, the steadiness—it grounded her in a way nothing else could.
She had never imagined sothing like this would happen to her. One mont she was living her life, and the next, she had been ripped away—kidnapped, drugged, and left to fear for her life. And just when she thought it was all over… she was brought back. Returned without explanation, without harm.
It didn't make sense. Her rational mind was struggling to process it all.
Soone had taken her... only to drop her back ho as if nothing happened.
Why?
Then, a mory stirred. A faint whisper from the dark, slipping through the haze of the drug they had injected into her.
A voice—low and rough—had said sothing. Sothing that echoed now, clearer than before.
'It's ti to drop her back ho. Her father must be waiting for her'
Her breath hitched.
That voice. That sentence. It wasn't random.
And suddenly, fear crept back in—not for what had happened, but for what hadn't.
"Kaden, there's sothing I need to tell you," Sherlyn said suddenly, her anxious eyes locking onto his.
Kaden nodded calmly, moving to help her sit up. He gently adjusted the pillows behind her so she could lean against the backrest of the bed.
Sherlyn hesitated. Her heart was pounding, uncertain if what she rembered was real or just a fignt of her imagination. But the words she had heard… they didn't feel like a hallucination. She rembered them clearly, right before the darkness pulled her under.
It wasn't a dream. She was sure of it.
"I heard one of them say sothing," she began slowly, her voice still raspy. "Right before I passed out."
She looked at Kaden, needing him to believe her—because what she heard had changed everything.
However, the reaction she got in return left her confused.
How co he wasn't surprised?
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