Chapter 622: The Girl in Red

The key in Matilda's palm felt heavier than any weapon.

She stared at it under the weak light of their hideout — a small abandoned loft above a crumbling bookstore.

Jayden was asleep on the worn-out couch, his breathing shallow, the weight of the world pressing against his chest even in dreams.

Matilda bit her lip.

Should she wake him?

Should she tell him Bella had returned?

No.

Not yet.

Some secrets needed to wait for the right time… or they could destroy everything.

Outside, thunder rolled across the horizon.

A storm was coming — not just in the skies, but inside their hearts.

---

Morning.

Jayden woke up to the sound of sirens and a city still bleeding under Gloria's rule.

Viktor had sent a message.

An operation was scheduled that night.

They would strike one of Gloria's hidden vaults — a place filled with enough information to break her empire from within.

But there was a catch.

The vault was beneath the Haven District.

A place where Jayden's memories still roamed free.

Where he had loved Bella.

Where he had promised her a forever that never came true.

As they prepared for the mission, Matilda noticed Jayden moving slower.

Hesitating.

Lost in thought.

She wanted to reach out.

To tell him he wasn't alone.

But sometimes... you had to let people bleed in silence.

---

Night fell.

The team — Viktor's wolves, Matilda, and Jayden — slithered through the abandoned tunnels of the Haven District.

The scent of mold, rust, and forgotten dreams thickened the air.

At the final tunnel, just before the vault entrance, Jayden froze.

There, standing under the flickering light, was Bella.

Dressed in the same red coat, eyes shimmering with a sadness deeper than oceans.

Jayden's heart stopped.

> "Bella...?"

"You shouldn't have come," she whispered, stepping closer.

Gunshots echoed distantly.

Screams of fighting filled the air.

But at that moment, Jayden saw only her.

> "Why did you leave?" Jayden asked, his voice raw.

Bella's eyes filled with tears.

> "Because if I stayed... you would have died, Jayden. They forced me to disappear. They told me if I ever loved you, truly loved you, I had to let you go."

She pulled out a small recording device — old, battered, full of static.

> "Your father left this for you. Before he died."

Jayden's hands shook as he took it.

Bella smiled, a smile full of all the dreams they had once shared.

> "You have to finish this, Jayden. You have to be stronger than we ever were."

And then —

Before Jayden could say another word —

Bella was shot.

A single, deafening crack of a sniper's rifle.

Blood bloomed across her red coat like a final, cruel painting.

Jayden caught her as she fell, his scream swallowed by the storm.

---

Time slowed.

Matilda and Viktor's men returned fire, pushing back Gloria's assassins.

But Jayden didn't move.

He held Bella in his arms, her blood soaking his shirt, his soul.

> "I'm sorry, Jayden..." she whispered.

> "I never stopped loving you."

And then her eyes dimmed, like a star extinguished before its time.

Matilda knelt beside him, tears burning her cheeks.

She knew the war had just gotten personal.

Jayden stood up, cradling the recorder in one hand and Bella's locket in the other.

His face was calm.

Too calm.

A man who had lost everything and now had nothing left to lose.

> "We finish this," he said, voice like steel.

> "For her. For everyone they took from us."

---