CHAPTER 5: RESCUED

NORA’S POV

Before I knew it, I was in a grave.

I opened my eyes slowly. The first thing I saw was dirt damp, heavy soil pressing around me. My head throbbed with pain. I looked up... and there they were.

Carson. And Tina.

Standing above the pit.

Tina was laughing.

Carson just stood there... smiling.

Fear gripped me like ice in my veins.

“Carson, please!” I cried out, my voice hoarse and desperate. “Please bring me out of here!”

His reply was cold. Heartless.

“I can’t.” He stared straight into my eyes. “Go to hell.”

My heart stopped.

“What?” I whispered, barely able to breathe. “Carson… no...”

Tina leaned forward, her smirk cruel and victorious.

“Did you really think I’d help you?” she hissed. “I love your husband. And since he won’t divorce you... then die.”

She snapped her fingers.

“Guards! Do your job.”

“No! Please!” I screamed, my throat tearing with pain. “Don’t do this!”

But they didn’t stop.

My body trembled. My head spin. I clutched my stomach as hot tears streamed down my face.

Then the first pile of dirt hit me.

I screamed louder, choking.

But more followed.

Cold. Heavy. Suffocating.

And that was how I was covered with dirt until I couldn’t breathe...

—---

Back to the Present

That’s how I ended up here.

Buried. Betrayed. Broken.

I still couldn’t believe the cruelty. The depth of Carson’s betrayal. Tears slid down my cheeks, mixing with the dirt pressed against my skin. My lips were sealed shut by fear and soil, but inside, my heart screamed.

“I’m sorry, baby…” I sobbed silently. “I couldn’t protect you. I thought your father would love you. I thought… I thought our love was real.”

Grief tightened around my chest. The pain was unbearable. I sniffed slowly and dirt filled my nostrils, thick and suffocating.

“Let’s meet in heaven…” I whispered in my heart, surrendering to the darkness.

My eyes fluttered shut.

But something snapped inside me.

No.

I wouldn’t die like this.

Not buried.

Not forgotten.

Not betrayed.

I had to fight. I had to survive. I had to make them pay.

I summoned the last shred of strength in my body. My limbs were numb, my breath shallow but I pushed. I clawed. I refused to give in.

And then

My fingers broke through the surface.

ELON DEREK'S POV

I had come to visit my mother’s grave, like I did every first week of the month. She was the reason I had become who I am today, and I never missed a visit.

After laying the flowers and whispering a short prayer, I turned to leave.

But something made me stop.

A movement. A shift in the earth.

Then I saw it.

A hand.

A hand, pushing through the soil of a nearby grave.

“Boss…” my assistant muttered, frozen. “Are you… are you seeing what I’m seeing?”

My heart slammed against my ribs.

I couldn’t speak for a second.

“Y-Yes… I am.”

“Guards!” I barked. “Start digging now!”

“Sir, what if it’s a trap?” my assistant whispered beside me.

“A trap? Look at the soil! It’s fresh she was just buried. She’s alive!”

Without hesitation, my guards jumped into action, digging with urgency. My heart pounded with every scoop of dirt they flung aside.

Then there she was.

The moment we pulled her out, I froze.

She looked so fragile. Her skin was pale, lips cracked, her entire body filled in sweat and dirt. She wasn’t breathing properly. Her chest rose in weak, uneven gasps.

“Get the med kit!” I shouted. No!. “Call the ambulance! Now!”

A guard rushed over with a water bottle. I knelt beside her and gently poured a few drops on her broken lips. Her fingers twitched.

“She’s alive…” I breathed. “She’s actually alive.”

Her eyelids opened. Slowly.

She tried to speak, but only a broken whisper escaped her.

“M-my… baby…”

I leaned closer. “Don’t talk. You’re safe now. We’re going to help you.”

But she shook her head weakly, a single tear sliding down her cheek.

“T-they tried to kill me…”

My heart dropped.

They?

Who was they?

But before I could ask anything else, she lost consciousness again.

I stared at her face bruised, dirty, barely recognizable. Yet even beneath all the pain, I saw it. This woman had suffered. Deeply.

And whoever had done this… they didn’t just want her hurt.

They wanted her erased.

We rushed her to the hospital sirens blaring, my heart pounding. I didn’t even know her name, but the way she clung to life, the desperation in her broken whisper… it struck something in me I couldn’t explain.

The doctors wheeled her away, and I wasn’t allowed to follow. I stood outside the emergency room, fists clenched, pacing like a man waiting for news he had no right to care about.

Hours dragged by.

I had already sent my assistant to dig through recent missing persons reports and burial permits. Something about her story didn’t sit right. Someone had tried to bury her alive and make it disappear. But why?

Strangely, there was nothing. No missing person matching her face. No burial permits.

Nothing.

Who was she?

Finally, a nurse approached. “Sir, the woman… she’s stable. Still unconscious. Are you family?”

I hesitated. “No. But I’m the one who found her.”

She nodded. “She’s lucky you did.”

They allowed me in briefly.

I stepped into the quiet room and saw her lying there cleaned up now, IVs in her arms, an oxygen mask over her face. Even in sleep, she looked like she was still fighting for air.

I stepped closer. Her fingers twitched again, and a single tear slid from the corner of her eye.

She was still fighting.

Whoever she was… her story wasn’t over.

And somehow, I knew I was meant to be part of it.

Then, her eyes opened.

NORA’S POV

Beeping. Cold air. The sharp scent of antiseptic.

My eyelids felt heavy, swollen, burning. But slowly, they lifted.

White ceiling. Harsh fluorescent lights. Machines humming softly beside me. My lips were cracked, my throat drier than sandpaper.

Was I… alive?

I tried to move, but even blinking felt like a war.

Then I saw him.

A man sat beside my bed. Salt-and-pepper hair. Handsome. Calm, steady gaze.

“Thank God,” he breathed, exhaling like he’d been holding it for hours. “You’re awake.”

My voice was barely a rasp beneath the oxygen mask. “Who…?”

“My name is Elon Derek,” he said gently. “I found you… in the cemetery. You were buried alive.”

Buried… alive.

The words echoed like explosions in my skull.

My throat burned with the urge to scream, but only silence came. I nodded, barely, tears slipping from the corners of my eyes. It was the only way I could thank him.

And then

The memories hit me like a wave.

The grave.

The dirt.

Carson’s cold voice: “Go to hell.”

Tina’s twisted laughter.

The pressure in my belly

My baby.

I gasped.

And the heart monitor began to race.

Panic surged through me.

As I tried to sit up, Derek gently held me down.

“You’re still recovering,” he said calmly, but the fear in his eyes mirrored my own.

Fear clawed at my throat. I turned to him, my voice barely a whisper.

“My baby… my baby…”

The door burst open. A doctor stepped in, a nurse trailing behind.

“You’re awake,” the doctor said softly, walking toward me.

I grabbed his arm with trembling fingers, desperation spilling from my eyes.

“My baby… please… my baby…”

His expression shifted. The air around us grew thickened.

He glanced briefly at the nurse, then back at me.

“I’m… I’m sorry.”

I shook my head, slowly at first… then violently. “No… no…”

Tears slipped down my cheeks, burning hot.

“Please don’t say it…” I whispered.

The doctor’s voice was careful, quiet.

“You went into premature labor… The baby didn’t survive.”

And just like that…

My world shattered.

I couldn’t breathe. The oxygen mask fogged as I gasped, chest rising and falling too fast.

A sharp, unbearable pain tore through me worse than the grave, worse than Carson’s betrayal.

I clutched at my chest, as though trying to hold my heart together before it completely broke.

“No…!” I screamed, the sound tearing from somewhere deep inside me. “No! Not my baby! Not my child!”

The heart monitor spiked beeping as I thrashed against the sheets. My body convulsed with sobs, panic rising like fire in my chest. A nurse rushed in, trying to calm me, her hands firm on my shoulders.

But I shoved her away.

“I carried him! I felt him! And I couldn't protect him!” My voice cracked, wild and broken. “Carson… you made me lose my baby!”

I screamed at the ceiling, at the walls at the memory of his betrayal. At the world.

Tears flooded my vision until everything blurred. My throat ached. My heart felt like it was being ripped apart from the inside.

Then arms.

Strong. Steady. Wrapping around me without hesitation.

“Let it out,” came a quiet voice. Derek. Low and calm like a distant storm that refused to break. He gently removed the oxygen mask from my face.

“Cry. Scream. Whatever you need to do.”

I collapsed into his chest, sobbing like a child. He didn’t pull away. He didn’t speak over me or try to fix what couldn’t be fixed. He just held me solid and unmoving.

“I couldn’t protect him,” I choked out. “I failed him…”

“No,” he whispered, his voice thick with conviction. “You didn’t. You survived. That matters. You matter.”

And somehow, in the shelter of his arms, my trembling began to ease. His heartbeat, calm and constant, grounded me. Kept me from falling apart completely.

Time blurred. Minutes or hours passed. I didn’t know.

Eventually, my body gave in to the weight of pain and exhaustion.

And I drifted into sleep.

The hospital room fell into silence again. Too quiet.

But sleep never came peacefully anymore.

That night, the nightmare returned.

I was back in the grave sand filling my mouth, pressing against my chest, crushing the breath from my lungs. I couldn’t scream. Couldn’t breathe. Carson’s voice rang out, cold and distant. Tina’s laughter echoed above me like a curse. I clawed desperately, my hands tearing through dirt, bleeding, my baby crying.

“Stop! Please no!”

I jolted awake with a strangled gasp, drenched in sweat. My chest rose and fell. Tears streamed down my face, hot and fast.

“Hey… hey, it’s okay. You’re safe now.”

Derek was beside me in an instant, his hand gently wrapping around mine. His voice was low, calm, grounding pulling me back from the edge.

“You were dreaming,” he said softly. “You’re not there anymore, Nora.”

I blinked away the blur of panic. The sterile hospital walls. The steady beeping of machines. The IV in my hand. I wasn’t in a grave. I wasn’t buried. I was here. Alive.

Slowly, my breathing steadied.

Elon handed me a glass of water. I drank, hands shaking. He didn’t ask. Didn’t press. But I chose to tell him anyway.

Everything.

My voice was raw. My body trembled. My heart broke again with every word. The betrayal. The lies. The grave. The baby.

I bled the truth.

And he listened.

He didn’t interrupt once. Just listened silently, patiently like he knew I needed to bleed out the pain before I could breathe again.

When the silence finally settled between us, Elon Derek leaned forward. His eyes were sharp, yet filled with something I hadn’t seen in a long time “belief”.

“What do you want now, Nora?”

I looked at him really looked at him. The way he waited without pressure, without judgment.

And for the first time, I let the anger rise above the pain. The grief, the betrayal it all narrowed into something colder, sharper.

“I want revenge,” I said, my voice low, steady, unshaken. “I want to take back everything they stole from me. My identity. My peace. My future.”