Chapter 358

Vincent spared no breath on words. With a sharp flick of his wrist, his bodyguards stormed in, surrounding the scene like a tightening net. A single silent command rippled through the air.

"Don't let them through!" Claude's voice cracked like a whip.

The two forces collided instantly-fists, shouts, and bodies crashing together in a surge of chaos. Cries rang out, echoing across the cemetery.

Unmoved by the uproar, Vincent forged ahead, his long strides cutting straight toward the narrow path where Hannah desperately pushed the wheelchair to safety.

Claude's eyes narrowed to slits. He shoved an attacker aside and lunged forward, blocking Vincent's path."Don't you take another damn step!"

But before he could close in, one of Vincent's elite guards slid into position. Claude was driven straight into combat.

Vincent's eyes burned with a relentless intensity, every step he took steady and unyielding.

The sky broke open, releasing a thin veil of rain that misted the path, turning the air damp and heavy.

Hannah clenched her jaw and forced the wheelchair forward, her arms straining as the wheels jolted over the uneven, mud-slick ground.

The wheelchair rattled violently, but she refused to glance behind her. Her focus was fixed ahead-just keep moving. Faster! She had to go faster.

But then, disaster struck. A jagged tree root caught the wheel with a sharp crack. The sudden stop pitched the chair forward in a violent lurch.

"Ah!" Margaret's terrified cry split the drizzle-drenched air. Her frail body pitched forward uncontrollably,helpless against the force.

Hannah's face drained of color as she instinctively lunged to catch Margaret. The force of the fall was too much-her hands only managed to clamp onto Margaret's arm before the momentum dragged her down to her knees.

Margaret's fragile leg struck a jagged rock, and the searing pain made her slip into unconsciousness instantly.

In a blind panic, Hannah fumbled to check her mother's condition, her trembling fingers hovering uselessly,afraid that touching the wrong place might hurt her mother more.

Then, a shadow fell across them. A tall, commanding figure loomed above-Vincent. He leaned down,his voice low and chillingly comnposed. "This is the second fucking time you've tried to escape!"

Hannah's grip on her mother's arm tightened desperately. Resistance would mean nothing here. Her only choice was to stall-to bargain-until Claude arrived.

Slowly, she lifted her face. The hatred that once burned in her eyes was gone, leaving only a hollow emptiness. Her voice broke into a lifeless surrender. "Vincent, I give in. I'll stay by your side,forever."

For a fleeting instant, Vincent's hardened mask cracked, and something unguarded stirred across his features. The storm in his eyes went still. "You won't try to run again?" His voice came rough,almost unsteady.

"I won't," Hannah answered in a quiet murmur.

His stare pinned her in place as he leaned closer, his tall frame casting a heavy shadow. "Do you really mean that?" he demanded firmly.

Her gaze didn't waver as she answered, "I've never once lied to you."

The words twisted inside him. His hand lifted on instinct, reaching for her cheek-then froze when he realized her eyes weren't on him at all. They were fixed on Claude.

Bitterness cut through him like a blade. A jagged laugh broke from his chest, and the hand meant to touch her curled slowly into a fist.

He suddenly closed the space between them, his breath hot and searing even through the chill of the rain,his voice dripping with rage at her lies. "I almost believed you!" His gaze cut into her like sharpened steel,merciless and unrelenting. "But all you're doing is buying time."

Straightening with icy composure, he delivered his words like a verdict. "Stop looking-your precious Claude won't be coming. Chances are, he's too broken to even stand." He deliberately uttered the last sentence.

"What the hell did you do to him?" Hannah's chest constricted, her voice sharp with panic. A torrent of regret and fury roared through her veins. Claude had taken that risk for her sake, and if she could choose,she would rather see him walk away unscathed.

"What happened to him?" she demanded again, her voice trembling.

Vincent snapped his head toward her, his eyes locking onto the raw concern shining in her expression-concern not for him, but for Cclaude. A brutal wave of jealousy and anguish crashed through him, threatening to swallow him whole.

He strodeforward in a single, brutal step, his hand clamping around her chin, forcing her head up until her eyes had nowhere else to look but at him. "So he means that much to you?"

The words rasped out of his throat, trembling with hurt and fury. "Not even a corner of your heart left for me? Why don't you even care if I bleed, if I break? All you see is Claude-always Claude. He's flawless in your eyes, isn't he?"

"Yes!" she screamed, throwing the truth at him without hesitation."At least he wouldn't lock me up like some deranged man!"

"Deranged?" Vincent let out a jagged laugh, one that cut like broken glass. His hold on her chin grew merciless, his stare unraveling into something wild, something dangerous.

"If madness was what you wanted to see.s." He bent close, his breath scorching against the cold curve of her ear, his voice dropping into a deep, savage growl. "Then I'd have already chained your ankles to the bedframe, made sure your eyes saw nothing but me from sunrise to dusk. Your world would shrink down to one thing, one person. Only me. That would be madness."