Mafia Captured

19. Svetlana

After a while Arsalan dialed Karim's number, his grip tightening around the phone. The line connected after two rings.

"What's going on? Have you found them?" Arsalan demanded, his voice sharp with restrained fury. "How can four kids just vanish from a mall?"

Karim's voice crackled over the line, tense and hurried. "I don't know, Arsalan. We've checked all the security cameras, but the footage shows nothing—no sign of the kids anywhere." His frustration broke through. "I'm starting to wonder... what if someone figured out who they are? What if someone took them?"

The suggestion settled heavily between them. Arsalan's jaw clenched, his instincts flaring. "I don't care about theories, Karim," he snapped. "Find them. Use every resource we have. Deploy all our men at the mall—leave no corner unchecked. And if this gets back to Sahira..."

He trailed off, his words hanging in the air as he turned and caught sight of Sahira standing frozen in the doorway. Her face had gone pale, the color drained from her cheeks. Her wide, unblinking eyes betrayed the horror unraveling in her mind.

She had heard everything.

"My boys," she whispered hoarsely. Her voice cracked, barely holding together. "Arsalan... are they dead?"

Arsalan frowned, confused by her conclusion. "No—"

But Sahira cut him off, her voice rising with hysteria. "Did you kill them? Did you kill my children?"

Her words struck him harder than he expected. Something about the rawness of her accusation gnawed at him, though he couldn't explain why.

"I knew this would happen," she gasped, her voice faltering. "This is why I never wanted to come back. This is why I fought so hard to stay away from you!" Her voice cracked again. "Now they're gone. Dead. Because of you!"

Her breath grew ragged, her chest rising and falling unevenly. The walls of her reality seemed to blur, the air thickening around her. Darkness crept at the edges of her vision as memories surfaced—dark rooms, locked doors, endless confinement that suffocated her spirit. Her mind twisted past and present into a whirlwind of terror.

Her body trembled violently, and she pressed a hand against the doorframe for support, but it wasn't enough. Her knees buckled.

Before she could collapse, Arsalan cursed under his breath and surged forward, catching her around the waist. Her weight sagged against him as tremors wracked her body.

"Sahira," he said sharply, his tone low but commanding. "Breathe."

Her hands gripped his shirt tightly, her knuckles white as she gasped for air. The trembling in her chest grew wild, uncontrollable. Her eyes were unfocused, locked in a nightmare she couldn't escape.

"I killed them," she whispered brokenly, her voice barely audible. "They're gone. My babies are gone."

Arsalan gritted his teeth, frustration simmering beneath his calm exterior. He didn't understand the magnitude of her spiral, but he recognized the need to stop it before it consumed her.

"You're wrong," he said, his voice firm but softened by something unfamiliar—reassurance. "The kids are fine. No one's dead."

Her breathing remained uneven, her body shivering in his arms. He didn't release her, holding her firmly but not harshly. He realized she was reliving her trauma. "You're not in that dark place anymore," he continued quietly. "This isn't the past. It's over. Focus. Look at me."

Slowly, as though drawn by the gravity of his words, her gaze lifted to his face. The raw panic in her eyes dimmed just slightly. The pounding of her heart began to slow, lulled by the steadiness of his grip.