Chapter 11
Retribution came swifter th
than anyone expected.
Edward’s cousin called me, her voice shaking with excitement. Edward had collapsed–stroke, the healers said. Even if he recovered, he would never walk again. Hall a wolf, half a man.
So Edward was finished. Now it was Vivian’s turn.
Through a broker I learned she had rented a crumbling den in one of the oldest districts. I sent the address straight to the Shadow–Brokers.
By the time I arrived, the hunt had already begun.
Three enforcers dragged Vivian and her crippled sons down the stairs. The leader struck her hard across the face, blood blooming at the corner of her mouth.
“Debt unpaid. You thought you could hide?”
Vivian collapsed to her knees, clutching his leg. “Please–I can pay! Just give me more time!”
The leader’s grin was all teeth. “Time? Fine. Give us a date. If you fail, you’ll pay in flesh.”
Vivian’s lips trembled, but before she could answer, Nathan’s cold voice cut through the air.”
“She has no money. She spent it all carving her face–so she could crawl into the black–market streams, whoring herself to humans abroad.”
His words were daggers. The enforcers‘ eyes gleamed.
One lifted Vivian’s chin. “A pretty face indeed. Worth every coin? Perhaps we will send you across the borders. You’ll earn for us one
way or another.‘
Vivian screamed, thrashing, terror flooding her eyes. “No! I’ll stay–I’ll repay you! Please, I have two sons, I can’t-
Her plea only drew jeers from the onlookers. Wolves from the block crowded close, none lifting a hand to help.
“Isn’t she the one who beat her pups bloody?”
“Now she begs for them? Shameless hag.”
“Out of our territory! Get her out!”
The mob’s voices rose in one unified snarl.
Vivian was dragged away, spitting venom. “Nathan! You ungrateful curl You traitor mmph!” Her voice was muffled as the enforcers. shoved her into the van.
I turned, heading back to my car, my work finished.
Weeks later, fate granted me another glimpse of Edward.
I was crossing the underpass with a colleague when I saw him: a filthy beggat crouched on the stones. His left
trembling uncontrollably. He bowed his head to every passerby,
“Spare a coin. Spate a coin
My colleague softened. “Poor man.. here, I’ll give him something”
I caught her wrist “Don’t. Most are liars.”
We walked on, but I looked back once more.
His left hand curled like a claw,
Edward Stone. The proud wolf who once mocked me, whose sons became beggars, now reduced to one himself, Retribution complete.
Chapter 11
N
WebNovel
I cant hel
FACE
His cousin had told me weeks earlier: the Stones had cast him out. A burden they refused to carry–half–paralyzed, incontinent, ruined by Mira’s failed pregnancy. Left to rot alone.
Then, one night as I scrolled the feeds, an ad appeared.
“Exotic beauties, Watch now.”
I almost scrolled past–until the face caught my eye.
Vivian
Her surgically carved face smiled in a cheap bikini, lips painted too red, body twisting for a faceless crowd on some foreign black–market stream.
She had become what the Shadow–Brokers promised: a toy for strangers across the sea.
As for Nathan and Ethan? No one saw them again.
That winter, I went to the station to meet my sons.
From afar, I saw two tall, radiant young men running toward me, their strength and light filling the cold air.
“Mom!”
“Mom!”
Their voices rang clear, steady, sure.
I smiled, my chest full, my heart at peace.
This–this was what happiness tasted like.
