The Regret and Growth

Abigail's POV:

Abigail sat alone in her office, the dim glow of the city skyline casting long shadows across the sleek glass walls. Her fingers tapped restlessly against the edge of her desk, her perfectly manicured nails clicking in irritation.

It had been months—months since Samuel vanished without a trace. No sightings, no news, no rumors. Nothing.

Her private investigators? Useless.

The police? Useless.

Even the top-tier hackers she discreetly hired couldn't find a single digital footprint of him.

She clenched her jaw, her frustration boiling inside her. "How the hell can a man disappear like this?" she muttered under her breath, gripping the edges of her chair.

Samuel wasn't just missing. He had erased himself.

It made no sense.

The Samuel she knew—her Samuel—had always been weak, too beaten down to even think of running away properly.

But now?

Now, it was as if he had become a ghost, slipping through reality itself.

Her chest tightened at the thought. She hated this feeling. The uncertainty. The loss of control.

A bitter laugh escaped her lips. "He really thinks he can escape me?"

Her eyes darkened as an old memory surfaced—one from the very night she pushed him over the edge.

—Flashback—

Samuel had been on his knees, blood dripping from his forehead, his breathing ragged as he stared up at her with empty, broken eyes.

She had stood over him, arms crossed, her voice laced with venom.

"Even if you die, Samuel…" she had whispered, tilting her head with a cruel smirk, "I'll make sure to preserve your body, keep you around just so I can torment you even in death. You don't get to escape me—not now, not ever."

His face had twisted in a mixture of despair and exhaustion, but he had said nothing.

Just sat there, drowning in his own misery.

Back then, she had loved seeing him like that.

Weak.

Helpless.

Completely under her control.

—End Flashback—

Now? The tables had turned.

She was the one drowning in silence. She was the one unable to reach him.

And it was driving her insane.

Abigail slammed her hands onto the desk, her breathing sharp. "Damn you, Samuel… What the hell happened to you?"

She had thought he was nothing without her. That no matter how much she tormented him, he would always be within her grasp.

But now…

Now she wasn't even sure if the man she once broke even existed anymore.

Katerina's POV:

Katerina sat in her penthouse, the glass walls of the lavish apartment offering a panoramic view of the city below. The skyline was a perfect representation of her life—shiny on the surface but hollow underneath.

She picked up the divorce papers again, her hands trembling as she stared at them. The words blurred before her eyes. She tried to breathe, but it was hard, too hard. The weight of her actions was finally crashing down on her.

"No...!" She screamed to no one in particular, her voice cracking. The papers crinkled in her hands as she crushed them and threw them into the trash.

Her head fell back, eyes closed, as the memories flooded in. The affair with Oberan. The lies. The betrayal. The guilt.

"I know I made a mistake, Henry..." Her voice trembled as she whispered his name, a trace of genuine sorrow in her tone. "I hid everything from you, even though you gave me everything. Your love, your trust."

She paused, her eyes stinging.

"I... I don't know what came over me. I was lost in temptation... lost in my own power, and I forgot about you... I forgot about what we had," she continued, her voice barely audible.

She stumbled to her knees in front of the trash can, her chest tightening as she looked at the remnants of the divorce papers she had just shredded. "Please, Henry... I didn't mean to ruin everything."

Her hands pressed against her face, and the tears came, silent and heavy.

But in the back of her mind, something darker stirred. Her love for him wasn't just about redemption. It wasn't just about making things right.

"I can't let you go, Henry. Not after everything." Her voice took on a darker edge, her gaze hardening as her mind shifted. "If you won't be with me willingly, I'll make you stay. I'll find you. I'll cage you, if I have to. You'll live with me and die with me."

The words tasted like poison on her tongue, but they were real. She was willing to go to any lengths to keep him by her side.

Her fingers gripped the edge of the trash can as she stood up, her mind racing. She wasn't going to lose him—not after everything she had invested in him, in their life.

"You can try to leave, Henry. But I will always find you. And when I do, you will never escape again."

Her eyes gleamed with determination, a coldness settling over her heart as she looked out at the city—her kingdom. "You will be mine. Forever."

Samuel and Henry's POV:

I turned to Henry, reflecting on the weight of our shared pasts. "Before merging with Samuel, I saw his soul—so broken, fragmented, like it was shattered beyond repair. But as we merged, as we became one, we... we became Samuel." My voice trailed off, and I couldn't help but glance at the road ahead, lost in thought.

Henry, walking beside me, looked at the horizon for a moment before responding with a slight chuckle, as if the gravity of the situation had become a bittersweet joke. "Same goes for me and Henry." He paused, then let out a sigh, the complexity of his own journey clear in his eyes. "Looks like we're the salvation for these two main characters of some shitty novels."

I couldn't help but chuckle darkly. "Yeah. It's like fate threw us into some messed-up stories. Some never-ending cycle, where we are bound to break and rebuild, time after time."

Henry shrugged, his hands in his pockets, and his eyes scanning the empty street as if the quiet world around us was the calm before another storm. "At least we have each other now. I'm glad we merged. It's... it's strange but freeing, in a way. I thought I'd be stuck in that miserable loop forever, and then, you know, this happened. Us, here."

"Yeah, but we're not doing this for anyone else. We're not here for them to fix their mistakes. We're here for us," I said, looking at him with a determined stare. "We've got the power now. The world can burn if it has to, but we're going to live on our own terms."

Henry smirked. "Damn straight. The world's full of people like Abigail and Katerina, selfish, manipulative. Always trying to control others, tearing everything down to make themselves feel powerful. We don't need that. They can all rot."

I gave a slow nod, my mind already plotting our next move. "That's the plan. They all want to play these games with us, but they have no idea what they're dealing with. We are the ones who control this narrative now."

Henry's eyes glinted with fire as he turned to me. "Exactly. If anyone tries to drag us down again, they're going to regret it." He grinned, his usual playful demeanor now tinged with a newfound seriousness. "Let them all think we're broken. Let them think they can control us. We'll show them what true power is."

We continued walking in silence, knowing that the road ahead would be filled with chaos, but also with the opportunity to finally be free of the chains that had once bound us.

"It's time for a new chapter," I muttered. "Time for us to burn this world down, piece by piece, until only we stand tall."

Henry chuckled, his eyes gleaming with excitement. "I like the sound of that."