𝐂𝐚𝐠𝐞𝐝 𝐁𝐲 𝐕𝐨𝐰𝐬

Chapter 56

•••
“They thought they took her from me… but they only woke the monster she loved.”

•••

“Only one gets to live.”

Click.

The call ended.

The room went dead quiet.

Osman’s hand still gripped the phone, his knuckles flexing over the bloodied skin. The tension in the air was suffocating; even the men around him dared not move.

His mind replayed the words over and over, like poison seeping into his veins.

Only one gets to live.

It meant Aamirah… or the baby or maybe osman himself.

A cruel choice. A game.

Osman slowly set the phone down on the table, his movements controlled, precise, yet terrifying in their calmness. He lifted his gaze, and for the first time in hours, he looked directly at Bahram.

“Get me everything on Marwan,” he said, his voice quiet but lethal. “Every ally. Every safehouse. Every man he’s ever breathed near. I want his world burned to ash before sunrise.”

Bahram nodded sharply and left the room without a word, already pulling out his phone.

Ashkan entered, catching the tail end of the call’s aftermath. He saw the look in Osman’s eyes—cold, unyielding, yet beneath it, something deeper. Something dangerous.

Osman straightened, his back rigid like a blade, and muttered low, almost to himself but loud enough for those present to hear:

“He touched what’s mine…”

Then, louder, his voice a command that cut through the heavy silence:

“No one sleeps. Not until she’s found. Not until my child is safe. Not until he’s dead.”

Outside, the night felt colder.

The tension in the room was suffocating. Osman stood by the wide window, his silhouette framed against the cold night outside. His jaw was locked, his hands still bloodied from the chair he had shattered earlier. Behind him, Bahram and Ashkan were working tirelessly, their voices low but edged with urgency.

Bahram adjusted the earpiece connected to his laptop, screens filled with endless lines of codes and triangulated maps. He exhaled sharply. “Ashkan, I’ve looped into the telecom network, but this bastard… he’s clever. The number he used is unregistered, bouncing through multiple encrypted servers.”

Ashkan slammed his palm on the table. “Damn it! He knew exactly what he was doing. He’s playing us, moving like a ghost.”

Osman didn’t turn around, but his voice was ice. “You have five minutes to stop talking about what he’s doing and start telling me where he is.”

Bahram swallowed. He’d seen his brother angry, but this—this was different. This was a storm contained within a man. “I’m already running a backtrace. I hacked into the satellite ping that connected during the call. He made a mistake… there was a brief static interference when he laughed. That gave us a signal bounce.”

Ashkan leaned over Bahram’s shoulder, eyes sharp. “Can you narrow it down?”

Bahram typed furiously, the sound of the keys echoing like distant gunfire in the quiet room. “Wait… wait… I’m cross-referencing with nearby relay towers. I need thirty more seconds.”