Top Assassins Call Me The Lady Boss

Chapter Two Hundred and Twenty- Eight

The walk to Asli’s room felt longer than it ever had. The report remained crumpled in Cole’s hand. His grip had loosened by now, but the creases he’d left across the paper remained.

He stopped outside her door. His hand hovered over the wood.

For the first time in years, he was scared to say things as it was. He didn’t know how to begin. He had delivered death notices. Told families their loved ones weren’t coming home. Looked men in the eye before executing them. None of those moments had made him hesitate.

This did.

His knuckles rapped against the door.

He knocked once.

"Come in!" Her voice came almost immediately.

Cole pushed the door open.

Asli looked up so quickly her chair scraped against the floor.

"Good thing you are here. I want to contact all our spies in every Villa. I need powerful men who are connected to Ahmet or anything involving Ahmet. I don’t care if we turn the world upside down, just get me the list." She ordered and when she noticed him still standing there, she said, "Well?"

Her eyes went straight to the folded report in his hand.

She was already walking toward him.

"Why are you holding that?"

He didn’t answer.

Her steps slowed when she noticed the look on his face. Something was wrong.

Cole was looking at her... but not ’at’ her; his eyes were fixed in her direction, yet they carried a weight she’d never seen before. Usually, they were unreadable... probably steady, controlled, and almost emotionless.

"...Cole?"

He held her gaze.

Still nothing.

A crease formed between her brows.

"What happened?"

The silence threatened her. Her heartbeat seemed to grow louder with every passing second.

She suddenly hated silence. Especially this kind.

He opened his mouth.

Nothing came out.

He closed it again.

Asli stared at him.

A strange feeling settled in her chest. Cole wasn’t a man who struggled for words.

If he had something to say...

He said it. Always. Unless he didn’t have anything to say.

"What happened?" she repeated, slower this time.

He lowered his eyes briefly to the report before looking back at her.

"You asked for the DNA results, why didn’t you look through everything?"

"I know there’s no point checking" Her patience snapped.

"Now, get me the list I am asking for " she ordered again.

Cole remained still.

"I won’t ask again." Anyone would be able to tell she was beyond angry.

He exhaled quietly. "There’s no need for that."

Her breath caught.

Her eyes searched his face.

There was hope.

"So the btch was hiding another result..." she whispered. Her lips trembled into the smallest smile. "I will deal with her later. Tell, me who are they? I don’t know what to say to them."

Cole looked away.

That smile made what he had to say even harder.

"Asli..."

She frowned. Something in his voice made the smile falter. "What?"

He swallowed. "You need to sit."

Immediately, she shook her head.

"No."

"Asli..."

"No."

She took another step back.

"No. The doctor had said they were alive."

"You should sit."

"I said no!"

Her voice cracked.

"What happened to them? Did Marco kill them because he knew I’d search?"

Cole looked at the report again.

His fingers tightened around it.

"I don’t know if..." He stopped and started again. "I don’t know if you would like what I want to say."

Her heartbeat stumbled. "What is it?"

He nodded once. "I..."

She stared at him. Waiting.

Every second stretched, and suddenly, it looked like realization had just hit her.

"Is that Ahmet’s father’s?"

Cole looked into her eyes.

Then, for the first time since he’d known her...

He wished he didn’t have to answer. Cole nodded.

Just once and nothing more.

It was enough for the room to tilt.

Asli’s knees gave way before she realized they had stopped holding her. Her hand shot out blindly, catching the edge of the desk. The wood groaned beneath her grip.

No.

No...

Her eyes remained fixed on Cole, searching for the slightest crack in his expression.

She desperately needed to hear it was a joke or a mistake. Anything but this.

He only stood there. The report hung limply from his hand. Her fingers slowly loosened from the desk. Then tightened again until her knuckles turned white.

"No..." The word barely left her lips. It wasn’t directed at Cole. It wasn’t directed at anyone.

It was directed at the universe itself.

She laughed a hollow sound. Then another escaped. Before it broke into something that sounded painfully close to a sob.

"So..."

She nodded to herself.

"So this is it."

Her voice shook.

"This..."

Another laugh escaped.

"...is how you punish me."

Her chest rose sharply.

She pressed a trembling hand against her mouth, but it couldn’t stop the sound that escaped.

Her mind wouldn’t stay still.

It dragged her backward to who she was. The life she had lived.

The blood.

The pain.

Every single thing.

The endless minutes she had spent curled around her stomach, begging the tiny life inside her not to leave.

She had fought. She had bled. She had even prayed that day. She had nearly died trying to keep that child alive.

Her free hand drifted instinctively to her abdomen. The movement was slow. Protective.

Then it froze there.

Why?

Why had she gone through hell to save a child that should never have existed?

Her eyes squeezed shut. The memory returned with brutal clarity.

The doctor had said she might lose the baby.

She had fcking prayed.

Begged.

These two she had never done before.

Her shoulders began to shake.

Was... Was that a warning? Was the universe trying to stop something that should never have happened?

A strangled sound escaped her throat.

"I fought..."

The words came out broken.

"I fought so hard..."

Tears blurred her vision until Cole became nothing more than a dark silhouette standing across the room.

She couldn’t breathe.

Every morning she had woken just to make sure the baby was still there. She had fought the fear of keeping it. She was finally embracing being a mother.

Her fingers curled protectively over her stomach again.

This time they trembled violently.

"I told..."

She swallowed painfully.

"I told my baby and myself..."

Fresh tears spilled down her face.

"...that I’d never let anyone hurt them."

Her legs finally gave out.

She slid to the floor without feeling the impact.

Her back rested against the side of the bed.

She drew one knee toward her chest while the other remained stretched awkwardly across the floor.

The room was silent except for her uneven breathing.

She stared ahead... blankly.

"If..."

Her lips trembled.

"If he’s my father..."

She couldn’t finish it.

The words lodged somewhere between her heart and her throat.

Because if she said them, they would become real. She shook her head violently.

"No."

Again.

"No."

Again.

"No..."

Each denial came out weaker than the last. She wrapped both arms around herself. She felt as though she was falling apart.

How cruel.

How unbelievably cruel.

She had spent years believing her parents were dead and then finally found out they were alive. She began to hope they didn’t know she was alive too.

Dreaming that, somehow, they had loved her and were grieving her death.

That one day she’d find them. That she’d finally belong somewhere. Somewhere her adoptive father never gave to her.

Instead...

She found them only after falling in love with the wrong man.

Only after carrying his child.

Only after running away from her Villa and starting a future that now looked like a nightmare.

Her breathing hitched so violently it hurt. "What did we do..." She whispered to no one. "What did we do..."

Her hand found her stomach once more.

This time she didn’t stroke it.

She simply held it there.

Terrified.

Not of the child.

Never of the child.

But of the truth that now stood between them.

Her tears fell freely.

She didn’t wipe them away.

She couldn’t.

She no longer knew whether she was grieving the family she had just found...

...or the one she knew she couldn’t keep.

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