Percy POV
The hum of the Gulfstream G650's engines was the only thing filling the silence of the cabin. To anyone else, the Marianos looked like a picture of reclaimed power—Jasfher and Reycee sat across from Jay, their eyes tracing her every move with a mix of awe and desperation.
But I saw the truth. I sat beside her, watching the way her knuckles remained white as she gripped the armrest. Jay hadn't spoken since that phone call she took right as we stepped onto the boarding stairs.
One minute she was the nervous, brave girl I'd been protecting; the next, her eyes had turned into chips of blue ice.
The warmth was gone. The "Jay-jay" who teased me was buried under a mask so cold it made the air-conditioned cabin feel like a freezer.
"Jay?" I whispered, leaning in. "You haven't touched your water."
She didn't even blink. She just stared at the horizon through the small oval window. "I'm fine, Percy. Just thinking about home."
The way she said home didn't sound nostalgic. It sounded like a threat.
"baby sistah?" I murmured, trying again , reaching out to touch her hand.
She pulled back before I could make contact. Her eyes snapped to mine, and for the first time in my life, I felt a genuine shiver of fear. There was no soul behind those pupils. Just a flat, matte blackness.
"Don't," she said. Her voice wasn't loud. It was a razor blade drawn across silk. "Don't 'baby sister' me right now, Percy. I am not in the mood to be handled."
I retreated. The rest of the flight was a funeral procession at thirty thousand feet.
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Keifer's POV
The Fernandes mansion was louder than a construction site, and for once, I didn't mind. Today was the day. Jay was coming back.
I'd spent the morning checking the mirror more times than I'd ever admit to Aries. We had the banners, the food, the noise.
Every time a car pulled into the driveway, my heart did a frantic kick against my ribs.
"Control yourself, lover boy," Yuri teased, tossing a bag of chips at me.
The whole crew was here. Angelo's friends were lounging in the living room, Yuri was hovering near the kitchen, girls and section e and Mia—Jay's sister—was practically vibrating with excitement by the door. She'd just started her school holidays and hadn't stopped talking about "Jay" for three hours.
"They're here!" Mia screamed, pointing toward the gates.
Keiren and Keigan were arguing over a Nintendo Switch.
We all stood up. The tension in the room shifted from excitement to a strange, heavy anticipation. The heavy doors swung open, and Percy walked in first. Looking like he'd aged five years in forty-eight hours. He looked exhausted but grinned when he saw us.
"Aries, baby! I missed you!" Percy shouted, lunging at Aries and throwing his arms around his neck, planting a loud, obnoxious kiss on his cheek.
"Eww! Percy, get off me, you freak!" Aries growled, though he didn't actually push him away.
Percy turned to me next, arms wide. "Keifer! Baby!"
"Get lost, Percy," I laughed, dodging his hug
Then, Jasfher and Reycee Mariano stepped inside. The air left the room. They were the legends we'd only heard about, the powerhouses of New York. We all stood a little straighter, offering our respect.But the air in the room suddenly thinned. It felt like the oxygen was being sucked out through the vents
Then she walked in.
I'd spent two days imagining this moment. I thought I'd run to her, spin her around, maybe finally get that 'deal' she promised. But when Jay stepped through those mahogany doors, my feet felt like they'd been nailed to the floor.
The breath died in my throat. This wasn't the Jay who left. She was wearing a sharp, power suit, her hair sleek, her heels clicking against the marble with the precision of a soldier. She looked every bit the CEO, breathtakingly beautiful—but then I looked at her eyes.(Check comment)
My smile faded. The warmth I'd felt through our texts was gone. Her expression was a void.
"Sis!" Mia shrieked, sprinting forward and throwing herself at Jay's . "I missed you so much!"
The ice thawed for a fraction of a second. Jay's expression didn't break, but she caught Mia pulling her into a tight hug. She kissed the her forehead. "I missed you too, sweetpea."
Keiren, my youngest brother, ran up next. "Ate!"
Jay stood up and hoisted him into her arms effortlessly. "Missed you too, baby."
Baby? I felt a pang of irrational jealousy. Why does the brat get called baby and I get called 'gago'?Jay wasn't even looking at me.
Mia and Keiren looked up at the Marianos, confused.
"Who are they?" Mia asked, pointing.
Jay's voice was level, devoid of emotion. "That is Jasfher Mariano. My father. And that is Reycee Mariano. My mother."
Reycee let out a choked sob of joy, her hand flying to her mouth at the word mother. But the moment was shattered when Jeana—Aries and Jay's real mother—stepped forward. Her face was pale, her eyes darting between Jasfher and Jay.
And me, Jay?" Jeana asked, her voice trembling with a fake fragility that made my skin crawl. "Who am I?"
Jay turned her head. The look she gave Jeana could have withered a forest. It was a slow, predatory movement. "The woman who gave birth to me."
"You can't talk to me like that!" Jeana snapped, trying to reclaim some shred of authority.
"I can," Jay said softly, and the softness was scarier than a scream. "And I think we need to have a very good talk. Right now."Jeana flinched as if she'd been slapped.
Jay turned to the kids. Her voice softened, but the command was absolute. "Mia, Keiren, Keigan. Go to my room. Put your headphones on, play your games, and do not come down until I call you. Do you understand?"
But Ate—"
"Now," Jay whispered.
They nodded, sensing the shift in the atmosphere, and scrambled upstairs. They scrambled. I stood there, shocked. This wasn't a girl returning home; this was a queen returning for an execution.
Jay walked to the center of the living room. She didn't sit; she took command of the space. She looked at Jeana with a terrifying, clinical detachment "Sit down, Ms. Jeana. Let's talk."
"Jay, what is this—"
"Let's begin with what happened on the 10th of April, eleven years ago," Jay interrupted.
"You remember that night, don't you?"
Jeana's face went from pale to ghostly white. Her knees buckled. She sank into the couch, her hands shaking"You... you remember?"
"You thought if you slipped medicines into my milk every night, I'd never wake up? You thought you could sedate the truth out of me?" Jay stood up and walked toward the kitchen.
She came back a moment later, dragging one of the older maids by the arm. The woman was shaking.
"Tell her," Jay commanded.
"I... I saw her," the maid sobbed. "Mrs. Jeana told me it was medicine for Jay's nerves. She made me mix it in the milk every night for a month before the men came. She told me if I said anything, she'd have my family arrested for theft."
Jay let the maid go and stepped closer to Jeana, leaning down until they were inches apart. Jay's shadow seemed to grow, swallowing the older woman whole.
"You don't remember?" Jay whispered.
"Huh..? That day you sold me? You handed me over to those men like I was some piece of furniture. Because of you, I lost Mira. Because of you, I lost my best friend, my family. My best friend bled out in a basement because you. Because of you, Mia lost a sister for ten years! Because of you, I spent ten years screaming in my sleep. You call yourself a fucking mother?"
The room was deathly silent. Aries looked like he was about to burst. Percy looked ready to kill.
Jay's hand moved so fast I didn't see it. She grabbed the front of Jeana's expensive silk blouse and hauled her half-off the couch.
"And you call yourself a fucking mother?" Jay's voice finally broke, a jagged edge of rage tearing through. "You did it all for what? To keep your 'perfect' life? To keep the love of a husband who never cared about you? You sold your own blood to protect your status."
Jay shoved her back into the cushions. The sound of Jeana's head hitting the back of the sofa echoed in the silent room. She leaned down, her face inches from Jeana's.
"You have forty-eight hours. Run. Hide. Bury yourself in the deepest hole you can find. Because if I see your face after those forty-eight hours, not even the King of Hell could protect you from me. I won't kill you. That would be too kind. I will make sure you live long enough to watch me dismantle everything youu have."
Without waiting for a response, Jay turned and sprinted out of the house into the garden, her heels clicking like a countdown.
The air outside was hot, but I was freezing.
My lungs felt like they were filled with crushed glass. Every step I took away from that house felt like I was dragging a corpse behind me.
(Flashback)
The phone had buzzed in my pocket just as I was about to step onto the jet. It was Alex.
"Jay," his voice was heavy. "I got the decrypted files from the old estate archives. You weren't dreaming. The transaction happened. A bank transfer from a shell company linked to the men who took you... it was authorized by your mother's personal account the day before you disappeared."
My heart stopped. Every memory I'd fought to regain slammed into me like a freight train. The smell of the milk. The way my head felt heavy. The way she had kissed my forehead and told me everything would be okay before handing me over to shadows.
She sold me.
The truth was a poison. It had seeped into my veins the moment I stepped onto that plane. I had looked at my hands and wondered how much of Mira's blood was on them because of the woman who shared my DNA.
She was the reason Mira was dead. She was the reason for every nightmare, every scar, every year of my life that had been stolen.
As I walked into that house today, seeing her face... it wasn't sadness I felt. It was a cold, purifying fire. I saw the boys, I saw Keifer—God, I wanted to run to him—but I couldn't. Not until the rot was cut out of this family.
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Keifer's POV
I watched Jay disappear into the dark of the garden. My heart was thudding so hard it hurt. The revelation had left everyone in the room paralyzed.
Jeana was sobbing on the floor, but nobody moved to help her. Not even Tita Gemma.
I didn't care about the drama.I didn't wait for permission. I followed her. I didn't care about the Marianos or the legalities. I just cared about the girl who was currently breaking apart somewhere in the dark.
I walked past the stunned crowd, past Percy who looked like he was vibrating with rage, and followed her out.
"Jay!" I called out.
I found her leaning against a tree, her breath coming in ragged gasps, her hands shaking so violently she had to grip her own arms to stay upright. The CEO mask was gone. The ice had melted into a flood of raw, agonizing pain.
She wasn't crying. She was just standing there, her shoulders shaking, her hands clenched so tight her nails were drawing blood from her palms.
I didn't say a word. I just walked up behind her and wrapped my arms around her, pulling her back against my chest.
She stiffened for a second, then her knees gave out. I caught her, lowering us both to the grass. She turned in my arms, burying her face in my shirt, and finally, the scream she'd been holding in for eleven years tore out of her.
"I'm broken, Keifer. I'm filled with so much hate I can't breathe."
"I've got you," I whispered, resting my chin on her head as the moon hung over the chaos we'd just left behind. "The 48 hours started for her, Jay. But for you? The clock stops here. You're home. And I'm never letting them touch you again."
The war has officially begun. Jeana has 48 hours to disappear,
A/n
So yes, the answer was Jeana...
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But you didn't complete the target.. Some of you are saying target is big but I think according to views it was not big.I don't why also the target wasn't completed...
I'm sorry if I am being rude. But I was sad seeing umcompleted target.
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