Chapter 15
June
Nothing.
And everything.
I hated it when my mind buzzed like this—when every thought was a loose wire sparking against the next, a storm with nowhere to land. I’d been here before, in moments of crisis, when the world demanded action and all I could give it was noise.
“Where to?” the driver pressed, voice sharper this time.
My mouth opened but no sound followed. I sat there like an idiot, staring out the window at the glittering Shanghai skyline while my brain spiraled into useless places.
Instead of calling Lincoln like a sane person, I’d wasted precious minutes doom-scrolling in my own head, asking AI the stupidest questions, trying to look for logic where there was none.
Was it all a misunderstanding?
Could Kai really be taken?
Maybe he’d just lost his phone. Maybe someone stole it. And no one could reach him, that’s all.
But how could one person be this unlucky? What was I even hoping for—miracles?
“Miss?” The driver pressed.
Finally, my lips moved on their own, betraying me before my brain could protest.
Kai’s address.
It was pathetic, how quickly the answer came. The only place in this city I truly knew—because it wasn’t just an address. It was the place where my life had changed… for better or worse.
The scar burned. Sharp, sudden, electric.
Pressing a hand to my lower stomach, covering the spot where I’d been stabbed.
I thought the wound had healed, but the phantom pain seared through me again—right where his mother’s nail file had pierced me.
The memory hit me like a punch, violent and immediate, so vivid I could smell the tang of metal in the air.
I blinked rapidly, trying to shake it off, but the tremors wouldn’t stop. One—in, out. Two… I couldn’t reach the third. My lungs locked tight, immovable.
Memories.
Thoughts.
The bad ones always found a way back in.
By the time the car pulled up to his building, I was a wreck—hands shaking, throat dry, heart galloping like it wanted out. I climbed out before the driver could open the door and headed toward the entrance.
The doormen recognized me instantly. One of them quietly escorted me to the private elevator, no questions asked.
My fingers wouldn’t stay still the whole ride up, curled into tight fists and then opened again.
Every floor number that blinked past made my chest tighter, heavier, like something was compressing me from the inside.
When the elevator finally stopped, the door slid open automatically. As if it had been waiting for me.
For a heartbeat, for one reckless, fragile second, I hoped foolishly that he’d be standing there.
Kai. Standing there. Alive. Annoyed. Ready to lecture me. Ready to kiss me. Ready to fight me and hold me all at once.
But it wasn’t him.
And then I saw who it was.
My brother.
Lincoln didn’t speak. He didn’t need words. His expression collapsed the moment he saw me—relief, fear, anger, heartbreak all tangled together.
He stepped closer.
His arms wrapped around me so tightly it stole what little steadiness I had left, but I didn’t need to.
I folded into him like a child, my forehead pressed into his chest as he held me so tightly it felt like letting go would break him.
I felt the rapid thud of his heartbeat, wild and uneven.
His hands trembled where they gripped the back of my head.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, and his voice cracked.
My throat tightened until speaking was painful. “No, I’m sorry,” I mumbled into his shirt, swallowing the sob that clawed at me.
We stayed like that for a long time—silent, unmoving, clinging to each other as if time had stopped.
When I finally pulled back, his eyes were wet. Just like mine.
“You shouldn’t have come,” Lincoln murmured, voice raw.
“I had to,” I breathed.
His jaw tightened. “Not after what he did to you.”
A painful twist seized my stomach. “I want to be here for you.”
A half-truth. A cowardly one.
Because I wasn’t here just for him.
I couldn’t stay away from Kai.
A gentle voice cut in, giving me an escape route I desperately needed.
“It’s nice to see you again,” Andy said, stepping forward with that soft, warm smile of hers. She extended her hand.
I took it, grateful—so grateful—for the tiny thread of normalcy she offered.
Her timing couldn’t have been better. Any longer and Lincoln would’ve switched fully into big-brother mode—scolding me for disappearing, for worrying him half to death, for every reckless decision I’d made since stepping foot in Shanghai.
I could practically hear the lecture building behind his expression.
Then I noticed who was standing quietly behind Andy.
Dave.
I actually sucked in a breath. His usually stern face looked… softer. Gentler. Maybe even relieved to see me. A look I never thought I’d ever get from him.
“Dave!” My hand flew up to half-cover my face, because embarrassment and surprise hit me at the same time. “Oh my god—Dave.”
“Hi, Miss.” His smile was small but real. “So happy to see you.”
“Yes—so happy to see you,” I echoed, breathless.
Before he could brace himself, I threw my arms around him.
It was probably the most inappropriate thing I could’ve done—hug a man who was technically Kai’s employee, Kai’s protector—but at the moment, none of that mattered. This man had nearly died because of me.
And he hugged me back. Awkward at first, then steadier. Solid.
“I’m so glad you’re okay,” I whispered. “I was worried sick.”
“Thank you, miss. I’m okay.”
“No.” I shook my head, pulling back enough to look at him. “It was my fault.”
He stiffened, just slightly. “No, miss. It was part of my job.”
But it wasn’t.
His job was to protect Kai.
Kai was the priority.
Always.
But Kai had made him protect me instead.
And because of that, Dave was the one who got hurt—dragged into something that had never been his job. He’d taken the beating, the bruises, the scars—all because he tried to protect me.
My throat tightened. “I’m so sorry for everything you’ve been through.”
His eyes softened. “I’d do it again.”
Before I could fall apart in his arms, Andy stepped in—a blessing from heaven that she was.
“Shall we show Dr. Bennet our plan?” she said lightly, rescuing everyone from my growing emotional meltdown.
“Yes,” I latched onto the change of subject. “And please—call me June.”
I followed her into the dining area… and stopped dead.
The elegant, pristine dining room I remembered had been transformed into a war room.
The table drowned under a chaotic spread of documents—scattered papers, printed photos, open laptops, wrinkled timelines, maps with pins in them, scribbled notes stacked on top of each other.
A whiteboard stood near the wall covered in frantic handwriting, arrows looping between names and locations.
Empty coffee cups and snack wrappers crowded the edges, the debris of sleepless nights.
I had never seen Kai’s apartment look like this.
Not even close.
Lincoln pulled out a chair and sat down heavily, the exhaustion in his body finally visible now that I wasn’t hugging him.
There were dark shadows under his eyes—weeks of worry carved into his face.
Dave and Andy wore the same tired look, proof that whatever they were doing, they hadn’t rested much.
They’d been working themselves to the bone.
To find him.
A painful squeeze tightened my chest.
How long had Lincoln stayed here?
Sinking into the seat beside him, I forced a breath into my lungs as Andy launched into the explanation. Her voice was steady, but underneath it was a tremor—a quiet fatigue that told me everything I needed to know. They traced every movement, every call, every rumor.
And the truth was worse than anything I’d imagined.
Kai was being kept at the Li residence.
The home he hated.
The home he’d run from.
The home he despised so much he bought this penthouse just to avoid ever being there.
And the one holding him there?
His own mother.
A cold jolt dropped through my stomach.
Andy kept talking, walking us through their deductions, but the words blurred together until one phrase sliced through the haze.
“—after the accident—”
The words jolted me upright. “What… What?”
The words came out sharper than I intended, slicing through the room. The entire team froze.
Because they knew exactly which accident I meant.
“Accident?” The word detonated in my chest like a gunshot—sharp, disorienting, leaving a ringing behind that drowned out everything else.
Did Liam ever mention an accident?
What kind of accident?
Did he know? And if he did—why didn’t he tell me?
Or… did he tell me and I just didn’t hear him? Didn’t want to hear him?
Questions fired through me like bullets, ricocheting too fast to catch.
I’d been so consumed with worrying about Dannie, so buried in the chaos that kept hitting me from every side, that I hadn’t asked a single real question about Kai.
I’d just assumed he was safe. That whatever had happened was minor.
Temporary.
God. How na?ve could I be?
At one point, I’d even convinced myself that maybe Kai was just trying to get my attention. That this was some dramatic, messed-up, Li-family way of pulling me out of hiding.
Andy hesitated before answering, her expression softening with something dangerously close to pity.
“It happened about three weeks ago,” she said gently.
“He was in the ICU for a week. It was bad. Really bad. Once he stabilized, they moved him back to his family’s home.
A private medical team was brought in to monitor him around the clock. ”
The air left my lungs in a slow, painful collapse. “His family home…”
Andy nodded. “Yes. And as far as we knew, Mrs. Li was under house arrest before the accident—confined, supervised. After what she did…” Her voice drifted, eyes flicking toward me, checking if I could handle more.
“Go on,” I forced out, even though my throat felt like it was closing.
She drew a shaky breath. “Those were Mr. Li’s orders. But something went wrong. Her people managed to turn the tables.”