KEIFER POV
I didn't stop for the gates. I drove the SUV straight through them, the sound of crashing metal barely registering over the roar of the blood in my ears.
The moment I stepped out of the car, I heard it.
A scream.
Her scream.
It was a sound of pure, unadulterated agony that sliced through the air and hit me right in the soul. My vision went red.
I didn't wait for my security team. I kicked the front doors open so hard they hit the walls with a bang like a cannon shot.
I saw them.
Two men were holding Jay-jay up by her arms, her head lolling forward, her face bruised and bloodied. And standing over her, his foot on her small, broken form, was the man who gave me life and spent the rest of it trying to ruin it.
"GET. YOUR HANDS. OFF HER!" I roared.
The sound of my voice made everyone freeze. My father turned around, a slow, smug smile spreading across his face as if he'd been waiting for this performance.
"Ah, Keifer. You're just in time," he said, not moving his foot an inch. "Your wife is quite the teacher. She's been trying to educate me on the properties of... leftovers."
I looked at Jay-jay. She slowly lifted her head, her eyes puffy and bloodshot, but when she saw me, a tiny, broken whisper escaped her lips.
"Keifer... you're... safe..."
She wasn't worried about her face. She wasn't worried about her foot. Even now, with my father standing on her, she was relieved that I was okay.
The monster inside me finally broke its chains.
"Let her go," I said, my voice dropping to a low, lethal vibration. I reached into my jacket, my hand closing around the cold steel I usually kept for emergencies. "Because if you don't, I won't just take back the company. I'll make sure you never walk out of this house again."
"You wouldn't," Kaizar challenged, though I saw the flicker of doubt in his eyes.
"Try me," I hissed, stepping forward into the light. "You touched the only thing in this world I actually give a damn about. There is no 'business' left between us. Only blood."
My heart stopped beating. The world turned silent, the only thing I could see was the glint of the blade pressed against Jay-Jay's throat.
"JAY-JAY!" I yelled, my voice cracking.
She was sobbing now, her small body shaking so hard I was afraid she'd slide against the edge of the knife herself. Her eyes were fixed on mine—red, swollen, and filled with a pain I had caused by being too slow.
"Fucking let her go!" I roared. I took a step forward, but the pressure of the knife increased, drawing a tiny, thin line of red on her skin. I froze. "Don't. Don't touch her."
"You found one hell of an annoying woman," Kaizar hissed, his fingers tangled in her hair, pulling her head back to expose her neck. He looked at her with pure disgust. "She is just like your mother. Annoying. Stubborn. A waste of space."
I felt the bile rise in my throat. My mother had died trying to protect us from him, and now 10 years later history was trying to repeat itself with the woman I loved.
"I've been asking her where your fucking brothers were," Kaizar continued, his voice dripping with venom. "But she refused to tell me where the fuck they are. She'd rather take a beating than give up two boys who aren't even her blood."
I looked at Jay-Jay. Through the blood on her lip and the tears on her face, she gave me a tiny, weak shake of her head. She was telling me not to tell him. Even with a knife to her throat, she was still protecting Keigan and Keiran.
I don't deserve her.
"She's a Watson now," I said, my voice dropping to a deadly, calm whisper. I didn't care about the money. I didn't care about the factory. I just wanted my wife back. "And Watsons don't bow down to cowards like you."
"Is that so?" Kaizar laughed, the sound echoing chillingly in the room. "Let's see if her 'loyalty' stays when I start cutting."
"IF YOU TOUCH HER AGAIN, YOU WON'T LEAVE THIS HOUSE ALIVE!" I screamed, my hand tightening on my gun. The guards around us shifted, sensing the shift in the air.
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JAY-JAY POV
Everything was blurry. The pain in my foot and my face was nothing compared to the cold metal pressing against my neck. I could smell the iron of my own blood and the heavy, terrifying scent of Kaizar's anger.
"Keifer…" I sobbed out.
I was so scared.I wanted to tell him everything. I wanted to tell him where the boys were just so the knife would go away.
Then I saw Keifer's face. He looked... broken. His eyes were wild, filled with a depth of agony I had never seen before. He wasn't the arrogant billionaire right now; he was just a man terrified of losing his world.
And I realized... I am his world.
If I gave up the boys, Keifer would never forgive himself. He'd spend the rest of his life being a slave to this monster just to keep us safe.
"Don't… tell him…" I gasped out, the knife stinging my skin as I spoke. "Keifer… don't."
"Shut up!" Kaizar growled, pulling my hair harder.
I looked at Keifer, trying to send him all the strength I had left.
I still haven't even told him I love him back. I can't die yet
I used to get into so much trouble when I was a teenager that fights were basically part of my daily schedule.
I remembered Aries and Percy. Those two idiots used to drag me to the gym for "self-defense classes" because they were tired of patching me up. One of the lessons they drilled into my head was exactly like this: What to do when someone puts a knife to your throat.
"Focus, Jay-Jay! If you panic, you're dead meat. Wait for the moment he gets cocky," Aries' voice echoed in my head.
Kaizar was too busy gloating, his eyes fixed on Keifer. He was laughing, thinking he had already won. He was holding my hair back, but his grip on the knife had shifted just a fraction of an inch—enough for me to breathe.
Now or never. Truly gago ka, Matandang Watson.
I didn't pull away. Instead, I leaned into him, catching him off guard. I dropped my weight suddenly, making myself heavy, and at the same time, I grabbed his wrist with both hands.
"Augh—!" Kaizar gasped as I twisted his arm away from my neck using the leverage Percy taught me.
In one swift, desperate motion, I slammed my head back—straight into his nose.
CRACK.
The sound was sickeningly satisfying. Kaizar roared in pain, his grip on my hair loosening as blood started gushing from his face. I didn't stop there. I channeled all the anger I had for him stepping on my foot and delivered a sharp, high-velocity kick—right between his legs.
"AHHHHHHH!"
He collapsed like a sack of rotten potatoes, the knife clattering to the floor.
"JAY-JAY!" Keifer's voice was like a thunderclap.
I didn't even wait for my vision to clear. I scrambled away on the floor, ignoring the sharp pain in my foot. Before I could even stand, I felt a pair of strong, familiar arms scoop me up.
KEIFER POV
My heart nearly leaped out of my chest. I watched in stunned silence as Jay-Jay—my sweet, clumsy, food-loving wife—turned into a literal whirlwind of violence. She moved with a jagged, street-wise precision I had never seen before.
The second she was free, I was there.
I tackled her to the ground, shielding her body with mine as my security team finally swarmed the room. Gunshots echoed—suppressed thuds hitting the walls—as my men took down my father's guards.
"I've got you! I've got you!" I gasped, clutching her to my chest so hard I was afraid I'd break her. I was shaking, the adrenaline and terror finally crashing down on me.
"Keifer..." she sobbed into my neck, her hands clutching the back of my shirt like she was drowning. "The fries... I really... I really think I burned them... in my head..."
I let out a shaky, hysterical laugh, kissing the top of her head over and over. "Forget the fries, Jay. I'll buy you a hundred fast-food chains. Just breathe. Please, just breathe."
I pulled back just enough to look at her face. Her cheeks were swollen, her lip was bleeding, and there was a thin red line on her neck. My blood turned to ice again. I looked over at my father, who was groaning on the floor, clutching his face and his groin.
I stood up, pulling Jay-Jay behind me. I picked up the knife he had used on her.
"Keifer, no!" Jay-Jay grabbed my hand, her eyes wide and pleading. "Don't... don't be like him. The boys are watching."
I looked up. Keigan and Keiran were standing at the top of the stairs, their faces pale but safe.
I looked down at the pathetic man on the floor.
"Get him out of here," I directed my head of security, my voice devoid of any emotion. "Hand him over to the police. Give them all the evidence of the factory arson and the kidnapping. I want him in a cell where he can never see the sun again."
"You... you'll regret this, Keifer!" Kaizar wheezed as they dragged him out.
"The only thing I regret," I hissed, "is not meeting Jay-Jay sooner so she could have kicked your ass years ago."
Once the house was cleared, I turned back to Jay-Jay. She was trying to stand, but her hurt foot gave out. I caught her instantly, lifting her into my arms.
"Ate Jay!" Keiran and Keigan came sprinting down the stairs, throwing their arms around her waist as I held her.
"I'm okay... I'm okay," she whispered, patting their heads, even though she was clearly exhausted.
She looked at me, her bruised face crinkling into a tiny, painful smile. "Keifer"
"Yeah?"
"Next time you make pancakes... don't leave the house. They get really lonely when they're cold."
I leaned my forehead against hers, my eyes stinging. "Never again, Jay. Truly... never again."
"Keigan, call the doctor! Now!" I yelled over my shoulder, my voice commanding but laced with a tremor I couldn't hide.
I swept Jay-Jay up into my arms, carrying her bridal style. She felt way too light, her head resting weakly against my shoulder. I ignored the soot on my clothes and the ache in my own body as I bypassed the mess in the living room and headed straight for our suite.
I placed her on the bed as gently as if she were made of thin glass. My hands were shaking as I grabbed the first aid kit. I pulled up a chair, sitting as close as I could, and started dabbing the blood off her neck with an antiseptic wipe.
Every time she winced, I felt a physical pain in my own chest.
"You should have just told him where Keigan and Keiran were, Jay," I said, my voice thick. I was focused on the thin red line on her neck, then moved to the swelling on her cheeks. I felt like a failure. "Everything in this house is replaceable. They would have been fine, I would have found them. But you… you could have died."
She looked up at me, her eyes tired but still holding that stubborn spark I had grown to depend on.
"If I did, I would regret it," she said softly, her voice raspy. "They're my family too, Keifer. You don't give up family just because a scary old man asks you to."
I stopped cleaning her wound and just looked at her. Her face was bruised, her lip was split, and she was exhausted, yet she was still the strongest person I knew. I felt a surge of something so deep and overwhelming it made my throat tight.
How did I get this lucky? Truly. I don't deserve a girl who fights like a lion cub just to protect our family.
The silence between us changed. It wasn't the heavy, icy silence from this morning or the terrifying silence of the standoff. It was warm. It was safe.
I leaned in, my heart hammering against my ribs. I wanted to kiss her more than I wanted my next breath, but I hesitated—I didn't want to hurt her bruised lips. I was going to settle for a kiss on her forehead, a silent promise to never let this happen again.
But Jay-Jay didn't wait.
She reached up, her small hands shaky as they cupped my face, and she closed the gap herself.
When her lips met mine, the whole world just vanished. It was a soft, salty, and desperate kiss. It tasted like tears and copper, but mostly, it tasted like forgiveness.
I melted into it, my hand moving to the back of her head, holding her as delicately as I could. I poured everything into that kiss every I'm sorry, every thank you, and everything I was too scared to say out loud yet.
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