“What?” Jackson’s expression changed sharply, as though he had been thrown into the Pacific Ocean.
“What do you mean she escaped?”
“I…”
Lena wanted to explain the situation but Jackson had no patience to wait and listen to the details.
He straightaway dashed upstairs, taking the steps two at a time.
When he reached Mariam’s room, the window stood wide open, cold wind spilling into the space.
He approached it quickly and peered outside.
In the snow below, there was a clear imprint of a body where someone had landed.
“Damn it!” He muttered under his breath and quickly jumped the window down himself.
She had jumped.
She must have noticed the thick snowfall and used it to cushion her fall, taking the risk without hesitation.
“Damn it,” he muttered under his breath.
Without wasting another second, he climbed out of the window and dropped to the ground himself.
Lena watched in shock.
Her master was definitely a psycho!
Jackson immediately followed the faint footprints left in the snow.
Some had already begun to fade as fresh snowfall covered them, but he managed to trace the path.
Jackson called Mikhail and Sheikh to lock all the estate gates.
While moving, he called Mikhail and Sheikh, ordering them to seal all the estate gates.
***
Mariam knew she had to hurry, but her soaked shoes dragged against the ground. This chapter was taken from g.com without permission.
Each step felt heavier than the last.
The snow was falling so thickly now that it blurred her vision, clinging to her lashes and numbing her skin with every passing second.
Cold seeped through her clothes, biting at her hands until her fingers felt stiff and unresponsive, as though frostbite was slowly setting in.
Still, she forced herself forward.
Her lungs burned as she ran, breath coming out in sharp, uneven bursts that disappeared into the freezing air.
She faintly heard the hurried footsteps crunching through the snow behind her.
Her stomach dropped.
Panic surged through her, and she pushed her body harder, ignoring the pain in her legs and the growing numbness in her hands.
Ahead, through the curtain of falling snow, a tall boundary wall came into view.
There was no other way out.
Mariam reached the wall and began to climb, her trembling fingers gripping the cold stone as she pulled herself upward, desperate to escape.
Jackson struggled to keep his anger in check as he looked up at Mariam perched precariously near the top of the wall.
“Jump down, Marie. Now!”
Mariam’s face blanched as she realized she had been caught.
There were no guards around this area, and that was why she had thought she could escape.
She should have been a bit faster.
She shook her head, gripping the edge tighter despite the tremor in her hands.
“No.”
Her voice came out weaker than she intended, but she refused to yield.
“Don’t be foolish,” Jackson snapped.
“You’ll fall and die.”
“I will never marry you!”
Mariam’s breathing had become uneven.
Pain radiated through her body.
She hadn’t broken her bones, but she had injured her ribs earlier when she jumped from the fourth floor and the injury had only worsened.
On top of that, hours of starvation had drained whatever strength she had left.
Her vision blurred at the edges, the world beginning to tilt and fade.
She felt dizzy.
“Stop this,” Jackson said again, his voice lower now.
He tried to sound gentle with the hope that she would listen.
“Don’t be so stubborn.”
“No…”
“Get down, Marie.”
Mariam tried to respond, but the words never formed properly.
Her grip weakened.
The darkness creeping into her vision overtook everything at once.
Her body went limp.
She fell.
Jackson moved instinctively, stepping forward just in time to catch her as she collapsed from the wall.
She landed completely in his arms.