"I wished it should have been you to be with me first on my birthday," Logan said, wincing as his cracked lips pained. "And how lucky was I today?" He smiled in the dimly lit room.

Making my way through the group of criminals to the tunnels down towards the bastard had me think of all the ways to kill him.

But, as I entered the stinky room, I saw Logan all plastered but still with a devilish smile on his face. I glanced at Zearo, who had been constantly keeping his eye on my every action, and sighed. His looks made me uncomfortable, as if I wasn't fit to deal with the dirty world they were playing games in.

"I wonder if that's not the case with me." I chuckled, keeping my cool and avoiding my husband's glare. What did he think of me? A fool? Who couldn't even find out where Logan was?

"Look how you missed me. I'm glad I could finally see the sun after spending countless nights in darkness." He said weakly. For a second, I felt pity for how he was and I loathed myself for pitying such a monster.

"This sun can burn you for all the sins you've done in life," I said, walking towards him. He sat effortlessly amidst all the cuts and shackles around him as if he befriended the darkness and the pain.

"I'd gladly burn." He said and laughed like a maniac. Why do I always face such awful maniacs in my life? I wondered.

"Stop the nonsense." I heard Zearo roar and followed with a sudden jerk of my hand as he held it, dragging me out of the room. "What do you think you are doing?" I tried talking to him while he was busy dragging me out, gripping my hands. Anthony tried to break free, but a gigantic man halted him on his way.

"Getting you out of this building. You aren't safe here." He said hurriedly, and I snickered, considering it a joke that he was playing with me.

"I was the one who saved you," I said as a matter of fact and reminded him what happened a few minutes ago.

"And I'm grateful for that. Now you can leave." His audacity.

"Throwing the owner out of the building might end you up in jail," I suggested, pushing him away from me. His hold left a red mark around my wrist. "And I will not consider letting you go because you are my so-called husband." Annoyingly, I glared at him.

"Owner? Do you think I believe you? Those fools did, but I will never. It belongs to Oldie." He said confidently, and I shook my head. He thought lowly of me.

"I am in no mood to prove an egoist dumbhead like you about anything," I said, disappointed with him. I needed to talk to Logan and Zearo made it pretty impossible to do that. As I walked a little further, I heard Zearo double-checking it with Mr. Stone. "What an amazing husband." I shook my head and walked toward the room. The twins waited on their way and perhaps heard our conversation as they held their heads low.

"How long have they captivated him?" I enquired, and they looked at me, surprised whether I was talking to them. I raised my eyebrows and urged them to speak.

"Twenty-one days, give or take." They said, and I sighed. I've been in search of him and my husband hid him under my nose.

"Was it after my accident?" I asked again.

"Before that." They said, and I walked inside the room.

"Perhaps your husband doesn't like the connection that we have." Logan mocked, and I felt like slapping him hard on his face, but I held it back.

"You okay?" Anthony asked worriedly, and I felt terrible for worrying him so much over nothing. Nodding at him, I took a deep breath but ended up coughing as the nasty smell of decomposed walls hit my nostrils.

"Oh, sweet Liara. This place is not meant for delicate dolls like you." Logan kept on poking me, thinking when I'd lose my shit.

"Who are you working for? Who is your boss?" I asked him, holding his collar. He looked unfazed and chose not to answer my question.

"You've decided to not talk now?" I mocked him, folding my hands and raising my eyebrows. I knew he was a bully who'd never bow down to me and accept his wrongdoings.

"Alright. So, here's a small message someone sent to you." I clicked on the voice note that I got a hold of before entering the warehouse. He suddenly became more attentive, as if he predicted what I was going to play.

"Papa, I miss you." I clicked on the pause button, noticing any change in his behavior. He started fumbling and twisting the shackles and glared at me as if he would kill me any second.

"You will not touch her." He roared and I must say, he had a loud voice. I felt intimidated for a second.

"I don't need to," I said and pressed the play button again.

"Papa, they said they'd let me meet you but haven't taken me to you. Mama left me alone and now you also want to leave me alone?" My stomach churned as I heard her painful voice. Brian was right. Logan had a link that could make him weak. The amount of secrecy he had lived his personal life in was way out of my league.

"How did you find her?" Logan asked, his eyes turned red, and he was fuming with anger.

"That should not matter to you now that I already have here," I said, clicking my tongue. Looking at him after he listened to the clip, he changed into a different person. More grown-up and sturdy.

"A single scratch on her body and I will kill you with my own hands and will give you the most painful death ever." He hissed at me and I laughed. His audacity.

"You, being the father of a girl, run an extortion business and claim to protect her? You can?'' I asked him. The world he was helping to grow was dangerous and being a father of a girl, he let his daughter suffer because of him.

"I don't care about others.'' He said, glaring at me. I clicked my tongue and shook my head. "So do I." Of course, I wouldn't care about others if that meant hurting a lot of people.

"You are a heartless monster." He said, still shaking in the chair.

"Look who's talking." I mocked, smiling gently at him. I turned around and looked at the men surrounding me. They stared at me as if I was someone else. No one had any kind of sympathy or emotion in their eyes towards me. And honestly, I cared less about what others thought, anyway.

"I'm not your enemy. Tell me who is behind this and I'll let your daughter go." I said, assuring him.

''You are my biggest enemy. Since the very beginning, I have loathed you." He said, gritting his teeth. I shook my head at how ungrateful he was when I was letting him go.

"I've no personal issues with you. It's how the business happens. You can't blame me for that." I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"You haven't even cared about your mother. I wonder why you'd care about others." My ears buzzed as I heard him. I looked at him, confirming whether I heard him right.

"What did you say?" I asked. Anthony held my hand, but I pushed him away. Raising my right hand, I halted Zearo, who was attempting to support me. I walked slowly towards Logan, looking into his eyes. Grabbing Logan's collar, I repeated, "What Did you Say?" I felt as if thousands of needles poked my entire body. Out of the blue, he brought my mother maybe to trigger me and he was right. I was having trouble breathing and couldn't think properly, as he blamed me for something that I always thought was my fault.

"Did you find your mother's body after the accident?" He asked again. My grip around his collar loosened as images of that day flashed in front of me. We couldn't find anything that belonged to my mother. Grandma's body was found near the alley but couldn't trace my mom, resulting in us assigning search parties but still finding nothing.

"You did not, right? You were so hurried to take over her company that you declared her dead and did her funeral without being sure whether she was alive or dead." He said. His voice struck directly my heart, making it beat faster than usual. My legs grew weak, and I staggered back but felt a firm body supporting me.

"You better fucking shut your mouth before I rip your tongue out," Anthony growled as I felt the vibration in his chest. Composing myself, I looked him in the eye and said, "You do not know how we struggled back then and I'm in no mood to explain it to some lowly person like you." Found the place too clumsy and everyone looked at me as if I was a trickling bomb ready to explode. I sighed and held my hand in a fist because controlling my heartbeat was the first thing I needed to do.

My injury slowly started paining as I had been in a rush since the morning and I forgot to take the painkillers. Clutching my abdomen lightly as Anthony wouldn't find out about my pain, I stared at Logan, who had no remorse nor any fear that I'd hurt his daughter. My hatred for this man grew ten folds.

"This place isn't safe anymore. I'm taking him to my place." I announced and walked out of the room. Too many footsteps followed me.

"He is my hostage and I am not allowing you to take him anywhere," Zearo said, clutching my hand. I jerked his hand off me and looked at him.

"You held him hostage because he tortured your girlfriend. He paid for what you held him hostage. Now fuck off and let me take care of things before I lose my shit and push your girlfriend behind the bars for illegal activities." I said through gritted teeth and heard a few gasps.

"You two kids." I pointed at the twins, who stared at me with wide eyes.

"I didn't let you live just because you'd end up getting deeper into the illegal world. If you don't get back to a normal life, I will be the one to put you behind the bars." I warned them. They attacked me and I let them go just so they could live a happy life but now that I saw them helping Zearo, I couldn't control my anger and I was sure my eyes held my emotions letting them know I was beyond angry and my every single word was true.

"No, we will do as you say." They bowed to me and I asked Anthony to escort them out of the warehouse along with Logan.

"Beware, Luchellies men would still search for him. I want him in the building before sunrises and you must not lose him." Looking at Anthony, I said. To find out why he brought my mom, I had to keep him where I found it safe.

"You are going to regret this." Zearo hissed at me.

"I never do stuff that I'd regret later and sulk in a corner and meddle with other people's businesses just to find peace." I reverted to him. He was doing it to compensate for Julie. I wasn't doing it for anyone. My business was at risk if I didn't find the proper clue. Shimmers were my most costly buy, consuming most of my savings. I was not letting it go because of my husband's girlfriend.

"This is my city. So come to me if you ever need my help instead of giving me a headache." I said, pointing at the warehouse. His identity was hidden and him walking around hiding criminals under my nose had me at risk and I wouldn't take it for granted.

He sighed, and I walked away from him, still having my hand in a tight fist. I didn't feel him following me. That hurt a little, but I climbed my Lykan and drove it away after I saw Anthony and his men park their car in my building near Shimmers.

**†****†****†*****†*****†****†***†**

Phew! We have a long way ahead. Are you guys with me?

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