Max drove like a madman, his eyes narrowed to slits and stuck on the white ambassador zooming down the highway.

It seemed like a scene out of his worst nightmare.

About half an hour ago he had pulled over at the driveway of Hayden household and discovered Sofi's aunt, uncle, Skyler, and surprisingly even Neil too stood at the doorway. Seeing their identical grim faces, a horrid chill had run down his spine.

It was Pasta who'd made a ruckus across the house, barking everyone awake, exposing Neil in the middle of his midnight tryst in Skyler's room, and finally putting everyone's attention to the fact that both Sofia and her car were missing. After finding that even Sofia's phone was left behind—dead on her bed, they were calling Max, but he had arrived right then. His phone rang incessantly on the dashboard of his car.

Not wasting a single moment Max had then flown out into the road with Neil in the passenger seat and Skyler sliding into the back. She was adamant to tag along despite Neil's protest which was cut short, for every moment passing was a moment Max knew, and grew the distance between Sofia and him. And that he could not allow happening any more than it already had.

More than once in the past, Max had experienced the fear of losing Sofia. But this time, the fear he felt was incredible at its worst. It was not just the dread of physical distance from her, it was the terror of losing her forever.

"Sofia will be pissed!" Skyler screeched, shoving her head in the gap between the front seats. "Why would you put a tracker on her car?"

"Fearing times like this maybe!" Max snapped back and then sighed. "Skyler—"

"It's okay, Max," Neil cut in, understanding and sympathy in his voice.

"I can take her anger every day if that means I'll know how to find her in dire times like this," Max's voice croaked at the end, his fingers curled tighter around the steering.

He knew it was creepy, and wrong on so many levels to put a tracker on his own wife's car—hooking it to a security app on his phone. Sofia might invent some more colorful names for him when she would know of this. But since the scare he had experienced less than a month ago when she had bounded into Mevil's property and rescued Genevieve's brother with the help of those pathetic hired goons, Max had been hysterical on the inside with the worry about his wife's wellbeing.

Because while she was not the least bit worried about her own safety, he was, madly and deeply. The idea of the tracker device had been a light bulb moment then and had come in handy now.

Max was steadily increasing the speed as he chased the white ambassador. By the way, the car dashed through the highway—insensitive to the ruts and flying up the speed-breakers, he was more than sure that Sofi was not behind the wheels. She loved her car way too much to drive it like this.

Is she hurt at the moment?

Has Mevil put those filthy hands of his on her?

Max's blood boiled in rage, in distress.

He should have never allowed her to stay away from him. He should have appointed a bodyguard for her—should have made sure that Mevil stayed put behind the bars. Oh hell, he could have rather hired someone inside the jail and fed the scoundrel rat poison. Regretful thoughts swarmed his mind making it hard for him to breathe.

He had been putting a decent space between the two cars, waiting for the moment Mevil would stop. And when he would stop would be the moment, he would breathe his last. Max promised himself.

He was careful in not letting his presence chasing them be known, for that might make the rotten bas*ard not stop anytime soon or make a move he feared he would regret for the rest of his life.

Neil had already called the police and his father. They were on their way out the highway, not very far —he guessed. Neil and Skyler were on and off on the phone, giving them constant direction.

At one point, Max frowned seeing the ambassador before him almost drift across the road quite dangerously. However, it never slowed down, forget stopping.

Max knew the route they were on. Their mansion was not very far. He dutifully followed and was thankful for the next to no sound his Mercedes made, even the slick purr of his mighty engine was overpowered by the noises Sofia's car was making. And that white trap was making more noises than ever tonight, Max observed, giving the impression that it was truly a tin-can filled with scratching pins and other shit.

"Come on! Bloody stop now!" He muttered under his breath as the sight of the familiar mansion blurred past. He wondered if Mevil was aiming to get away to another city—which he perhaps really was.

Hold on, Sofi. He kept repeating in his mind. Please be okay.

The familiar point was not far from where the highway was divided into two roads. Max's mind drifted back to the evening he'd proposed Sofi. The light in her eyes then had surpassed the beauty of the parting rays of the sun. He could trade everything that he owned and everything that he was to keep her looking that way, glowing so magnificently in the center of his world.

With no qualm, he had thought that Mevil was going to go down the left road. But proving him wrong, the car suddenly jerked left and right until it roughly pivoted into the road at the right.

"What the hell!" Max hit the steering with a mad growl. "Is he drunk or what? And why the f*ck would he go down that road!"

"What's with that road?" Neil asked, equally stressed.

"It's got a cliff as a dead-end," his voice was agitated.

"I don't know why, Max, but—" Neil said uncomfortably. "It doesn't sound good."

Max agreed. It truly didn't sound good. An unholy feeling began to creep up inside him, eclipsing the courage and patience that he had been holding onto so desperately.

He watched the ambassador disappearing beyond the portal made naturally by the bushes from both sides of the road. He hard-braked and scrambled out of the car.

Not waiting for Neil and Skyler to follow him, he sprinted ahead.

Max's heart leaped out of his chest the moment he burst forth into the clearing in time as Sofi's white ambassador flung out the cliff's end in maddening speed.

With his jaw muscles slack, mouth parted in shock, his shoes slipped across the gravel and his body propelled forward as he stumbled on a stone. When he came to a stop his lungs had stopped breathing. For a second, he just stayed like that, speechless in shock and witnessing in horror as the white car plunged downwards, taking his Sofi with it.

A lurid flash of fire flew up, overpowering the silvery moonlight.

"NO!!" he roared over the almighty explosion that rang throughout miles.

"Sofi!" The lump in his throat felt so sharp it was surprising that it didn't rip his skin and flesh apart. "Sofi!" he yelled again, his voice croaked—wet with tears of anguish.

His shaking legs barely inched two steps forward before finally giving up. He collapsed to the ground, knees hitting the gravel hard.

There were footsteps behind him but he did not hear. His ears were ringing, his mind only repeated the horrific truth that he had lost her. He had lost his Sofi.

"Sofi!" he tried to shout again but nothing came out of his throat except a whimper.

Oh God, no!

He silently and desperately prayed for it to be a dream, but mercy never came.

He sat there, slumped on his knees, blurry vision staring lifelessly at the place where he last saw the car she so much loved.

Never had he felt so vulnerable before, never had he felt so completely forfeited.

His shaking shoulders jerked away when he felt a hand on him.

"Max," Neil uttered beside him.

"Sofia," Max could only rasp her name and no more, bending over, heaving out anguished sobs.

Skyler's weeping grated in his ears, making this hell even more real.

His trembling hands dropped onto the ground, fingers curling around fistfuls of dust mixed with pebbles. Grief overpowered his senses, to an extreme he was completely unfamiliar with.

He squeezed closed his eyes, recalling it was the very same place where he had sat with her in his arms. She had been here, right here, surrounding and filling him with all the light she possessed. All that light, it was all gone now.

She'd left him to never return again.

He'd lost her forever.

How has it come to this? How would he ever live without her?

Blood surged into his brain and blinding pain scorched throughout his heart.

But maybe he wouldn't have to live without her.

The thought came with an overwhelming swell of darkness, a darkness that ultimately swallowed him whole. And he let it.

When he opened his eyes next, they were bloodshot and had a delirious quality to them.

There should be no Max without his Sofi.

--

Neil cried silently watching his cousin break in front of him. Never had he ever watched Max crying and screaming like this. Never had he seen him so defeated, so lost.

It was absolutely heartbreaking seeing him like this.

He went to hold Max by the shoulders but he jerked away, sinking his shaking fingers into dust, grabbing fistfuls of them while squeezing close his eyes. Tears dripped down Max's chin and fell onto the dust making it increasingly wet, all the while calling Sofi's name like it was a prayer, his voice sounding as though he was physically in pain.

How could fate be this cruel? How could Sofi die like this?

Nothing made sense.

Why the hell would Mevil kill himself along with Sofi! Why drive that car freaking all the way to here, to do just what? Jump off a cliff and die!

But do these questions matter anymore?

The horrific truth was, they'd lost Sofi in the end, no matter whatever had been the devil's design.

His own tears blurring his vision, Neil didn't know what to do—collapse beside Max and Skyler, or try the impossible task of consoling them.

Neil knew this would devastate both of their families but what he feared the most was what it would make out of Max.

His fear only intensified when Max's eyes snapped open.

There was a bone-chilling kind of emptiness in Max's gaze, his bloodshot eyes focused eerily at the blank space... far beyond the cliff end.

Neil grabbed Max by the shoulders and shook him. "Max! Max...," he uttered fearfully.

His heart shuddered when Max shook him off and stood up on unsteady feet.

"Max?" Neil shouted, standing up as well. From the peripheral, he could see a hiccupping Skyler inching forward as well suddenly looking alert.

He grabbed Max's forearm again, stopping him as he was about to sprint forward.

"Let me go, Neil," Max choked out, his delirious eyes still stuck into the blankness. "Let me go I said!" he screamed.

Suddenly Neil was aware of what his cousin was about to do. "No! Max, don't," he bellowed, with both hands now grabbing onto Max's arm tighter.

"Just let me go," Max shouted. "I need to go to my Sofi. Let me die with her, let me be with her!"

"Bloody hell, Max! Please snap out of it." Neil curled his hands around Max's torso now, clinging to the huge man with great difficulty.

By then, Max was dragging both himself and Neil down the few remaining feet after which the cliff ended abruptly.

It was getting impossible for Neil to hold him back anymore. Max was taller than him and broader and obviously had more strength—now even more that madness had swept over his brain. It felt like he was trying in vain to barricade a frenzied rhino.

Skyler was shrieking and scampering around the brothers—one who was adamant to throw himself off the cliff and another who was attempting in vain to stop it.

"Skyler!" Neil yelled while Max began shoving him away with inhuman strength. "Skyler! Max's gone mental! Do something. DO SOMETHING!"

Skyler was clutching at her hair, frenziedly looking at the madness before her. "What do I do?" she screamed back, her glossy eyes wide in panic.

"Please do something!" Neil's panic-stricken voice pierced through the night.

Skyler looked around to search for someone—or something that could help her prevent the attempted suicide. And suddenly her eyes fell on the ground and hardened with conviction. Immediately, she bent down and picked up a stone of decent size before hurling it hard across Max's head with a maddening cry.

All movements ceased. Max's head lolled to the side. "Sofi—" was his last choked-up whisper before his eyes rolling back—he crashed into the ground.

Neil was gaping, first at Max's slumped form knocked out cold near his feet, and then back up at Skyler who was still clutching the stone in her hands.

"Why would you do that?" he whispered.

Choking out an angry sob Skyler threw away the stone forcefully and then pushed hard at Neil's chest. "You were the one screaming at me saying—'do something, do something!' Well, I did."

There was a little gash where a splatter of blood was beginning to appear on Max's head where Skyler had hit him. Cringing, Neil stared at his cousin horrified.

"But I didn't tell you to kill him!" he snapped, dropping to the ground to check his pulse, which he thankfully found.

Before Max could wake up and try to jump off the cliff again, they decided to remove him from here— fearing that this time they wouldn't be able to stop him anymore.

Neil's arms were wounded around Max's upper body while a sobbing Skyler held his feet, and morosely together, they carried the broken and wounded man down the distance towards the car.

But all of the sudden, making them halt dead on their steps, noises of pained groans and shuffling came from the bushes at the side. Their faces snapped to the direction of the noise and what they saw chilled them to the bones.

--

There were many voices that felt like were coming through an eerily hollow, long passageway. But one of them stood out. Clad with an incredible amount of grief, the voice submerged into her in tidal waves.

It drew her out from the mass of darkness that surrounded her, ripping the blurred, black edges.

Sofia flickered opened her eyes at the same time as memories flashed in her mind.

Mevil's gone.

Finally, in the absence of that devil, there was no lethal fear in their lives.

She groaned as pain burst through different parts of her body. It took a hell lot of effort for her to prop herself up for she found she could not move her one hand from the elbow.

Still partly buried in the young bushes and dry leaves, her swimming vision turned towards the rustle of footsteps and sobbing.

What's that?

With the help of one good hand, she picked herself up to her feet and scuffled out of the bushes.

Her brows furrowed as her vision steadied slowly, and what she realized she was seeing filled her with confusion.

It was Skyler and Neil, sobbing and carrying away an unconscious Max. And he had a slight bit of blood smeared on his forehead.

Sofia gasped in utter shock and trepidation. "What happened to him?"

With matching pale faces of disbelief and wide eyes gleaming, Neil and Skyler released their grasp on Max's body. Sofia watched horrified as Max's tall form dropped down unceremoniously to the ground with his limbs sprawled around awkwardly while Neil and Skyler scrambled towards her in a frenzy.

Belated as ever, an uproar of sirens and squealing tires fast advanced the clearing.

--

In a flurry, Sofia and Max were both basically hauled into the ambulance that had come following what looked like the entire army of the country.

Alongside the sprightly herd of Police, S.W.A.T—uniformed and ready to rock it, the F.B.I. all crowded the entire cliff and the disastrous road that lead to it. Even a fire truck and a bomb squad could be seen. Robert had clearly overdone it. One would say it was a terrorist attack or something.

Every single person looked ready to fight a war. Only there was no enemy. Not anymore.

Sofia had dealt with the battle herself and had come out victorious. A sacrifice had to be made, however, of one of her dearest possessions—her darling ambassador. Her accomplice of so many years, her mother's memory—it was gone now.

Sofia sighed, exhaustion filled her as she sat beside Max's strapped-up body inside the ambulance, holding his hand tightly. Her eyes never left his face which was marred with an expression of distress even when he was unconscious.

One nightmare had surely been expelled, permanently. But another horrible new reality took its place. Mevil was gone. She'd made it happen; she was the one who killed him. Surely, he was the devil reincarnation but that never changed the fact that she'd killed a person tonight. She'd killed a living human being! Sofia shook her head urgently, storing away the horror of tonight where it belonged—in the past.

But would the past return to haunt her? Turning into a set of brand-new nightmares? It might.

But that was going to be a battle for another time, and she decided she would deal with it if and when it would occur.

Throughout the ride to the hospital, and even after arriving there, she refused to leave Max's side for a moment more than necessary. Robert and Neil had to pretty much wrestle her into the x-ray room to check if her elbow was broken. Turned out it had just twisted, just what she'd guessed earlier, and the muscle above the elbow was a bit sprained. Nothing serious.

They had her hand hung over her chest with the help of a brace strap from her neck, her elbow was wrapped up with an elastic bandage. She was allowed to go back to her husband after a couple of tests.

And results of those tests, revealing a future, escalated the night's importance to a whole new level.

--

"There's a slight concussion in the head where he received the blow," the doctor said after examining the scan report. The whole time Sofia's eyes stayed fixed on the white bandage wrapped around Max's head. "He'll suffer from a headache when he wakes up, that's a definite symptom of a concussion. He may also feel nauseous and appear to be a little... disoriented."

Neil grumbled. "More of him disoriented! Bloody damnation," he said under his breath.

It was uncertain if the doctor heard him because he continued nonchalantly, "If his pupils seem dilated waking up the first time, then throughout the next twelve hours we're going to wake him up every three hours or so, just to be sure that he's able to be awakened and there are no permanent or long-term complications in any way. Don't worry though, he'll heal in time. I'll prescribe some painkillers and sleeping pills. He should be good to go home by tomorrow."

When the doctor left, Sofia finally let the tears fall, slumping on a stool beside Max's bed.

Sighing, Neil put a comforting hand on Sofia's shoulder. "It's better than him jumping off the cliff, Sofi. He'll live, please don't cry like this."