CHAPTER 21 #4
"Officer Jenkins," Helisa stood up, her posture immediately taking command of the room.
"I’ve already made direct contact with the Police Commissioner.
My legal and security teams are opening a direct pipeline with your precinct.
We are providing full data tracking and financial rewards for any information leading to the arrest of Malik and his crew. "
"We appreciate that, Ms. Helisa," Officer Jenkins nodded seriously. "The city has already put out an all-points bulletin for the black sedan. We have traffic cams tracking the plates toward the outer boroughs. We’re going to find him, Miley. I promise you that."
Kelly stood up, wiping her face with the back of her hand as she stepped closer to my chair.
"Miley... Jenkins is right. Going back to your apartment right now isn't safe anyway. Malik is unhinged, and if he’s on the run, you don't need to be alone in that space. Come kick it at my place downtown until things cool down. I’ve got a spare room, and I’ve got plenty of clothes that can fit you.
Just let me look out for you right now."
I looked at Kelly, then at Gabriel, then back at Helisa’s steady, reassuring nod. The thought of going back to the apartment—seeing the empty coffee table, the E-Tech contract sitting there like a ghost of a life that never happened—was too much to bear.
"Okay," I whispered softly, my voice barely audible as I stood up from the chair, the weight of the new reality settling into my chest. "Okay, Kelly. I’ll come with you."
I stepped out of the hospital corridor, flanked by my friends and the immense, protective shadow of Helisa’s security, leaving the penthouse victory behind me as I stepped into the darkest, most uncertain winter of my life.
***
The ride to Kelly’s downtown apartment was a blur of flashing city lights and heavy, unbroken silence.
Marcus drove with a quiet, careful precision, navigating the gridlock as the afternoon sun began to dip below the horizon, casting long, bruised purple shadows across the asphalt.
I kept my head pressed against the cool glass of the window, staring out at the thousands of strangers walking the sidewalks of Manhattan, entirely oblivious to the fact that my entire universe had been violently extinguished.
When we finally arrived at Kelly's building, the apartment felt small, enclosed, but safe. The air smelled faintly of vanilla candles and laundry detergent—a normal, domestic scent that felt entirely alien to the cold steel of the hospital morgue.
Gabriel had quietly slipped away to wash his hands in the bathroom, the harsh sound of water running against the porcelain a brutal reminder of the stains he had carried from the sidewalk.
Kelly led me into her spare bedroom, a small, cozy space with a neatly made bed and a stack of clean, oversized sweaters resting on the dresser.
"Here," Kelly said softly, her voice still cracked as she picked up a thick, grey fleece hoodie and handed it to me. "Change out of that blazer, Miley. Get comfortable. You don't have to carry the weight of that corporate suit right now."
I looked down at myself. The E-Tech blazer—the armor I had put on this morning to claim my victory—was rumpled, stained at the cuffs with a dark smear of dried blood from the group hug.
A fresh tear slid down my nose as I unbuttoned it, letting the expensive fabric slip off my shoulders and pool onto the floor like a useless snake skin.
I pulled Kelly’s oversized hoodie over my head, the soft fleece swallowing my frame, offering a faint, artificial warmth against the deep, structural chill freezing my bones.
"Thanks, Kel," I whispered, my voice completely devoid of energy as I collapsed onto the edge of the mattress, my hands trembling in my lap.
Gabriel walked out of the bathroom, his hands finally clean, though his knuckles were raw and red from scrubbing. He came over and sat on the floor directly in front of my knees, leaning his head back against the wood of the bed frame.
"We’re gonna get him, Miley," Gabriel said fiercely, his eyes reflecting the dim light of the bedside lamp.
"Helisa is pulling strings that the precinct didn't even know existed. Officer Jenkins said they already found the getaway car abandoned near the bridge. It’s only a matter of time before they corner him. "
"It won't change the concrete, Gabriel," I murmured, my eyes fixed on the blank wall across the room.
"It won't rewrite the bullets. Malik can rot in a cage for the rest of his pathetic life, but he still gets to breathe.
He still gets to exist in the world. Terra is under a white sheet in a room that's freezing cold. How is that justice?"
Neither of them answered. There was no answer to give. The raw, unrefined brutality of street violence didn't follow a logical script; it didn't care about corporate contracts, or new love, or the beautiful, fragile plans we had whispered to each other on the balcony of our apartment.
I lay back on the mattress, pulling my knees tight against my chest as the suffocating darkness of the evening fully swallowed the city outside.
I closed my eyes, begging for a moment of peace, but the silence inside the room only weaponized the horror playing on a loop in my mind.
The audio of the nightmare grew deafening—the raw, agonizing fracture of Kelly’s scream tearing through the phone speaker, and the rhythmic, mechanical wail of the ambulance sirens slicing through the Manhattan gridlock.
I was physically safe beneath Kelly’s roof, wrapped in the fierce, protective loyalty of my friends and shielded by the immense, untouchable fortress of Helisa’s billionaire empire.
Yet, none of their power could stitch my soul back together.
As my mind finally fractured under the weight of the grief, drifting into a heavy, trauma-induced sleep, the devastating truth settled deep into my bones.
Our small apartment across town would never be alive again.
My heart would never beat the same way. I had finally gathered the courage to step out of the shadows of my past, only to be violently dragged into a deeper, more permanent damnation.
The fresh, elegant ink on my new E-Tech contract—the golden ticket I had gotten because of sheer intelligence and effort—now felt like nothing more than a cold, mocking monument to a brilliant future I was condemned to walk through completely alone.