13 Days Earlier - Rowan's POV
The motorcycle roared beneath him as he tore down the empty road.
Fast.
Too fast.
Normally he'd have cared.
Today he didn't.
Because for the first time in years, Rowan couldn't breathe.
Not literally.
But it felt close enough.
The room they'd been in had suddenly become unbearable.
The walls too close.
The air too heavy.
The silence too loud.
Twelve days.
Twelve days.
The number kept repeating itself in his mind.
So he'd left.
No destination.
No plan.
No objective.
Just movement.
Because standing still felt impossible.
The motorcycle carved through winding roads as the countryside blurred around him.
His thoughts remained fixed on one person.
Ulyana.
It frustrated him how deeply she'd embedded herself into his heart.
The timing.
The intensity.
The vulnerability of it.
None of it felt practical.
And yet there she was.
Occupying every spare thought.
Every quiet moment.
Every plan he'd made for the future.
Rowan exhaled sharply.
The wind rushing past his helmet.
There was something about her softness that he found completely irresistible.
Not weakness.
Never weakness.
Ulyana was one of the strongest people he'd ever met.
But she possessed a gentleness that seemed entirely genuine.
The way she cared.
The way she listened.
The way she loved people without expecting anything in return.
The way she'd somehow managed to remain kind despite everything life had thrown at her.
And the frustrating part?
She wasn't even trying.
She had no idea what she did to people.
No idea what she did to him.
The motorcycle accelerated again.
His grip tightened.
Because somewhere out there, she was missing. And he couldn't do a damn thing about it.
- -
Several kilometers away, Hak and Graham sat inside a temporary operations center.
A giant digital map covered one wall.
Personnel locations.
Investigation leads.
Flight paths.
Communications.
Resources.
Every available asset was already in motion.
One screen tracked Rowan's GPS location.
The small icon representing his motorcycle continued moving.
Fast.
Very fast.
Graham stared at it.
"He going to keep doing laps around the country?"
Hak looked exhausted.
"He'll stop eventually."
"You sound confident."
"I'm not."
The icon continued moving.
Neither man was particularly eager to be the one who chased him down.
Not today.
Not in this mood.
Around them, phones rang constantly.
Investigators reported in.
Security teams checked leads.
Private contractors searched surveillance footage.
Contacts were called.
Favors were collected.
Money was spent.
Entire operations shifted direction.
Every available resource was focused on one objective.
Finding Ulyana.
Hak watched Rowan's GPS marker for a moment longer, then quietly looked away because despite everything else…
Despite the complicated feelings, despite the guilt, despite the jealousy, Hak understood exactly why Rowan had left.
Because he felt the same helplessness.
The same fear.
The same inability to sit still.
The difference was that Rowan had gone riding.
Hak had stayed.
Neither was coping particularly well.
And somewhere on an unknown road, Rowan continued chasing the horizon.
Not because he expected to find her there.
But because movement felt easier than standing still and imagining all the ways this story could end.
- - -
Rowan's POV
Rowan rode until he couldn't anymore.
The motorcycle had carried him across highways, coastal roads, and winding country routes.
Hours had passed.
Perhaps more, he honestly wasn't paying attention.
His fuel gauge eventually forced him to.
The tank was running low.
The motorcycle needed fuel. And for the first time since he'd left, Rowan finally slowed.
A coastal lookout appeared ahead and without really thinking about it, he pulled in.
The motorcycle rolled to a stop overlooking the ocean.
For several moments he remained seated.
Helmet still on.
Engine ticking softly as it cooled.
The waves crashed violently against the cliff face below.
The endless horizon stretched before him.
And he wasn't looking at this coastline anymore, he was remembering another one.
The Volkov Estate.
The cliffside bench.
The sunset.
Ulyana sitting beside him.
The pendant he'd given her.
The promises he'd made.
"I'm not abandoning you."
"I'll come back in one piece."
"I have every intention of making you my wife one day."
The memories hit harder than any punch ever had, because now she was gone.
Missing.
And he had absolutely no way of knowing if she was safe, the thought finally broke through the walls he'd been holding up.
Rowan removed his helmet.
Set it down.
Then walked toward the cliff edge.
The ocean wind hit his face.
Cold.
Sharp.
Relentless.
Much like the panic he'd been suppressing.
His chest tightened painfully.
For the first time in a few months, there was nobody around.
No staff.
No Graham.
No Hak.
Nobody expecting him to be composed.
Nobody relying on him.
Just him, his thoughts and the ocean.
Rowan dropped to his knees.
Head lowered.
His chest felt tight enough to crack from helplessness.
Because for all his resources.
For all his influence.
For all the men searching across multiple countries.
He still couldn't find the one person he wanted most.
His hand pressed against his chest as though he could somehow ease the ache sitting there.
The need to find her felt overwhelming.
Primal.
Every instinct he possessed was screaming at him to move, search, find, protect.
Yet he had nothing.
No location, no trail, no answers.
Only absence.
The waves continued crashing below.
Hour after hour passed.
The sun slowly shifted across the sky. And eventually the storm inside him began settling.
Not disappearing.
Never disappearing.
But sharpening.
Transforming.
The panic became focus.
The helplessness became resolve.
The grief became determination.
By the time Rowan finally stood again, he looked different.
Calmer.
More dangerous.
The man who had arrived at the lookout was panicking.
The man leaving it had made a decision.
He would find her.
No matter how long it took, no matter how much money it cost, no matter how many favors he had to call in, no matter who was responsible.
At all costs.
Rowan picked up his helmet, started the motorcycle.
And rode back toward the operation.
Ready to move mountains if necessary because somewhere out there, Ulyana was waiting. And he wasn't going to stop until he found her.
-
Hak's POV
Hak was immediately thrown into chaos the moment the news broke.
Missing.
The word just didn't make sense.
It felt wrong.
Impossible. What do you mean missing?
His mind rejected it outright. Ulyana wasn't the sort of person who simply disappeared.
She had security, a drivers, staff and an entire family capable of moving governments if necessary.
How does someone like that vanish?
Yet the evidence kept piling up. And none of it was good.
Hak immediately contacted Ivan and Vadim.
Neither brother sounded any better than he felt.
All three of them spent hours piecing together every detail they had.
Every clue, every lead, every possibility.
What they knew wasn't much.
Ulyana had attended a gala representing Nivasa Technology in her capacity as Executive Director of Public Relations.
She'd arrived, networked, spoken to guests, appeared on camera, conducted herself exactly as expected then she disappeared.
The same night.
Every staff member had been interviewed, every contractor vetted, every guest investigated.
Background checks had been conducted.
Financial records examined.
Phone records pulled apart.
Nothing.
The security footage revealed Ulyana entering a bathroom corridor during the evening.
Then things became complicated since three hours of footage were missing.
Completely missing.
Officially, the explanation was a power outage.
An unfortunate technical failure.
Unofficially? Nobody believed it.
Not for a second.
Three hours was too convenient.
Too precise.
Too perfect.
Somebody had planned something.
The question was who and why.
The lack of answers drove Hak insane.
Because every new lead somehow created ten more questions.
Meanwhile the operation continued growing: investigators, private contractors, security specialists...
Everyone was searching.
Nobody was finding her.
Then Rowan returned from his ride.
The difference was immediate.
Hak noticed it the moment he walked back into the operations center.
The panic was gone, not because Rowan cared less but quite the opposite. The fear had simply hardened into something colder, more focused, more dangerous.
His uncle's expression had become unreadable.
Voice quieter.
His movements more deliberate.
And somehow that worried Hak more than the hole Rowan had punched through a wall, because Hak understood exactly what it meant.
Rowan would remain like this indefinitely until they found her.
Alive.
Nothing else would matter.
Not business.
Not sleep.
Not comfort.
Nothing.
The search had become his entire world.
Even Nikolai noticed.
Several conversations took place over secured lines.
At one point, Hak overheard Nikolai openly expressing his respect for Rowan's efforts.
The resources, the manpower, the urgency and the overall commitment.
For a brief moment something ugly stirred inside Hak.
Jealousy.
He was here too, working, losing sleep and burning himself out.
Why was Rowan getting praised?
The thought lasted all of three seconds. Hak felt disgusted with himself.
Because none of that mattered.
Not right now.
Not when Ulyana was missing.
He shoved the feeling aside immediately, refocusing on what was important.
Finding her.
That was all that mattered.
Everything else could wait.
Later that evening Hak approached Rowan directly.
"I'll head back to Hassano."
Rowan looked up from the reports spread across the table.
Hak continued. "I know the territory." His voice remained steady.
"I know the people, I can investigate personally."
For a moment Rowan simply stared at him then shook his head.
"No."
Hak frowned "Ro—"
"I need you here." The answer came instantly without hesitation.
Hak blinked.
Rowan rarely asked for help.
Rarer still was admitting he needed it. Yet here he was.
"I need Graham."
Rowan pointed toward another report.
"I need the investigators."
Then his eyes settled on Hak. "And I need you."
The words surprised him more than they should have.
For a moment neither man spoke because beneath all the tension, the jealousy, the complicated feelings surrounding Ulyana.
One fact remained.
They were family.
And right now they were fighting for the same person.
So Hak nodded and stayed.
Because until Ulyana was found none of them were going anywhere.
- - - -
Three days had passed.
Rowan and Hak were running on fumes. Neither man was sleeping properly.
Coffee had become a food group.
Every lead that surfaced seemed to end in another dead end, and with every passing hour the frustration only grew.
Then finally they had a breakthrough.
One of the gala staff members had been flagged during a financial review. A substantial sum of money had appeared in his bank account the day after the event.
The transaction immediately caught investigators' attention.
The man was quickly brought in for questioning.
Under mounting pressure and confronted with the evidence, he eventually broke.
The confession sent a chill through everyone involved.
Financially, the employee had been struggling for months.
Debt.
Bills.
Desperation.
Two weeks before the gala, he'd been approached by several suspicious individuals.
They offered him a simple job.
Simple enough that he'd convinced himself it wasn't dangerous.
All he had to do was slip something into Ulyana's drink.
Nothing more.
According to him, they provided a small packet of powder.
He was instructed to dissolve it into her drink and personally ensure it reached her.
That was it.
No further instructions.
No explanations.
No details about what would happen afterward.
Just a promise of payment.
And after the gala, $20,000 appeared in his account.
As the employee spoke, Rowan's expression became impossibly cold.
Hak looked ready to put his fist through a wall.
Neither interrupted.
Both listened.
Every detail mattered.
Every name.
Every date.
Every conversation.
By the end of the interview, the employee had surrendered everything he knew.
Phone numbers.
Messages.
Meeting locations.
Descriptions.
Contact details.
Banking information.
Every scrap of information he possessed.
Unfortunately, it wasn't much.
Whoever had recruited him had been careful.
Professional.
Experienced.
The employee had merely been a pawn but they finally had a thread to pull. And Rowan intended to unravel the entire thing.
No matter where it led.
-
Ulyana's POV
As more pieces of the puzzle came together, Ulyana began to understand why there was such a large gap in her memory.
When she had first woken up in Julio's mechanic workshop, the men had explained that she had already been there for ten days.
Ten days.
Ten entire days.
At first she hadn't understood.
How could she have lost ten days?
But as Julio and Selena slowly explained what had happened, the picture became clearer.
She hadn't simply woken up and recovered.
For most of those ten days she had been incredibly sick.
Drifting in and out of consciousness.
Sleeping for hours at a time.
Sometimes entire days seemed to pass in a haze.
The children told her she slept a lot.
Julio said she barely ate during the first few days.
Selena had worried she might need a hospital.
Even after waking up properly, Ulyana hadn't immediately become herself again.
The headaches lingered.
The nausea remained.
Her thoughts felt slow and disorganized.
Memories came and went.
Sometimes she'd remember something clearly.
Then forget what she'd been thinking moments later.
It had taken another four days after waking before she was lucid enough to properly assess her situation.
Four days before she thought to ask for a phone.
Four days before she could piece together the timeline.
Four days before she was capable of contacting the people she loved.
When she finally calculated the dates, her stomach dropped.
Ten days unconscious and recovering in the workshop.
Four days trying to regain her strength and memory.
Combined with everything that had happened before Julio found her…
It added up to nearly three weeks since the gala.
Three weeks since she'd last spoken to Rowan.
Three weeks since she'd seen her family.
Three weeks of everyone believing she had vanished.
The realization made her chest ache.
Because while she had been sleeping through most of that time, everyone else had been living it.
Rowan.
Deda.
Ivan.
Vadim.
Hak.
All of them had spent weeks searching for answers while she lay unconscious in a mechanic's workshop on the other side of the world.
For the first time, Ulyana truly understood why Nikolai had sounded so exhausted.
Why Rowan had gone silent when she first called him.
Why everyone had reacted as though they were hearing a ghost.
To them, she hadn't simply been gone.
She had disappeared.
And somehow, despite everything, that realization hurt almost as much as the missing memories themselves.