The private jet touched down with a violent jolt on the icy runway of a secluded airfield high in the Swiss Alps.
The moment the engines fell silent, Ella Lin stepped out into the biting cold, her breath misting in the air like fragile promises waiting to shatter.
She wore no coat. No guards. No entourage.
Just a simple, long black dress that whipped around her ankles in the howling wind, and heels clicking sharply against the frozen ground as she walked alone toward the looming silhouette of a secluded chalet perched at the edge of the mountains.
This was a journey she had to make alone.
Because at the end of this path… stood the man who had once owned her heart.
And now?
He held her life, her legacy—her child—in his dangerous, trembling hands.
The heavy oak doors creaked open before she even reached them, as if the house itself had been waiting for her.
And there he was.
Leon Xu.
Standing in the center of the grand hall, dressed in all black, his shirt undone at the collar, his hair disheveled, and his eyes…
Dark. Wild. Desperate.
But worst of all—dangerously calm.
In his arms, her child slept soundly, blissfully unaware of the storm raging just above his tiny head.
Ella's breath hitched, her fists clenched painfully at her sides.
"Leon..." Her voice cracked, a mix of ice and agony. "Give me my son."
Leon's eyes flickered with something unreadable.
"You came alone." He took a slow step closer. "Good girl."
Ella's spine stiffened.
"Don't treat me like one of your trained pets, Leon. I'm not here for you. I'm here for my child."
He laughed softly, the sound low and dangerous.
"Your child? Ella, don't lie to yourself. He's ours. Created in the only moment you were ever honest with me. In the only moment you belonged entirely to me."
His words stabbed into her chest like a thousand knives.
"That night was a mistake, Leon. And I've been paying for it every second since!"
Leon's jaw clenched. His eyes darkened as he pressed a soft kiss to the child's forehead before slowly—agonizingly slowly—handing the baby over to a waiting nanny standing in the shadows.
"Take him to the nursery. And lock the door."
The door clicked shut behind the nanny, and then it was just them.
The air between them turned suffocating.
"What do you want, Leon?" Ella demanded through gritted teeth. "You've humiliated me, ruined my life, taken my child—what else could you possibly want?"
He took a step closer.
"I want you back."
Ella swallowed hard, stepping back instinctively, but he closed the distance in a blink, his hand slamming against the wall behind her, caging her in.
"I want you to admit it, Ella. You still feel something. Even now, you're trembling not from fear—but because you still remember how it felt to be mine."
"You're insane!" she hissed. "This isn't love, Leon. This is your sickness speaking!"
His forehead pressed against hers, his breath hot against her trembling lips.
"Then I'm sick with you, Ella. You made me this way."
His lips hovered inches from hers.
"Tell me to stop. Right now. Tell me you hate me… and I'll let you go."
Ella's heart thundered painfully against her ribs.
Her lips parted, the words right there on her tongue—
But no sound came out.
Because deep down, in the darkest corner of her heart… she wasn't sure if she could ever truly hate him.
And Leon knew it.
He smiled—a broken, victorious smile.
"That's what I thought."