Ultimate Choice

LAUREN

Ginny’s last words hit me like a punch to the gut. My breath caught in my throat, and I blinked hard, trying to process what I was seeing— ~who~ I was seeing.

~My mother.~

The woman who raised me—if you could call it that—who disappeared from my life when I was just a kid. The one who left without a word, without an explanation, and now here she was, standing in front of me, dressed in black like some nightmare incarnate.

I felt sick. My mouth was dry, my skin burning with shock, but I couldn’t let her see that.

Not Ginny.

She’d feed on it.

“You look surprised,” she said casually, like this was some kind of family reunion. Her eyes, though—those eyes that used to read bedtime stories—now flickered with something far colder. “Didn’t expect your old mom to be running the show, did you?”

The bile in my throat rose, but I forced myself to swallow it back.

“What the hell are you doing?” I managed to choke out, my voice shaking, more from fury than fear now. “Why are you—what is this?”

Ginny grinned.

“Oh, sweetheart, you really don’t get it, do you? This isn’t personal. This is business. It’s always been business.”

I stared at her, searching for some hint of the woman I used to know, but there was nothing. It made me feel hollow, like she’d taken whatever was left of my childhood and crushed it under her boot.

“Mason is the target,” she continued smoothly, like we were discussing the weather. “I need him, or rather, I need what he knows.”

She circled me again, her heels clicking softly against the concrete.

I swallowed hard, the ropes digging into my skin as I clenched my fists.

“I won’t tell you anything about him.”

Ginny’s smile widened, as though she found my defiance amusing.

“Oh, I think you will. I think you’ll tell me everything.” She stopped, her eyes locking onto mine with chilling precision. “Because I’m offering you a deal, one you’d be a fool to refuse.”

I glared at her, but she just laughed softly and crouched down in front of me, so close that I could see the faint lines around her eyes.

“Here’s how it works,” she said, her voice low, conspiratorial. “You give me what I want—information on Mason, his operations, his weaknesses. You tell me everything, and I’ll give you something in return.”

I raised an eyebrow, incredulous. “And what could you possibly offer me?”

Her smile didn’t falter. “Money. Enough to start over, wherever you want. More money than you’ve ever dreamed of, more than you’d know what to do with. You could walk away from all of this, all of the danger, all of the chaos.”

I wasn’t in this for the money, and she knew it.

“You think I’d betray him for a payday?”

Ginny’s eyes darkened, her tone sharpening.

“I think you’d betray him to save yourself. To finally take control of your life. You’ve always been playing second fiddle, Lauren. To him, to your father, to everyone around you. This is your chance to stop being someone’s shadow.”

I stared at her, my heart pounding in my chest. The offer hung in the air between us, poisonous and seductive. For a split second, the idea of leaving it all behind, of walking away and of starting fresh, flickered in my mind.

But the thought passed faster than it had appeared. I would never turn on Mason, no matter how much money Ginny offered me.

“No,” I said, my voice steady despite the turmoil inside. “I’m not giving him up.”

Ginny’s smile vanished, replaced by a cold, hard stare. She straightened, her lips pressed into a thin line.

“You think you know him, don’t you?” she said, her voice dripping with contempt. “You don’t know him, Lauren. You have ~no~ idea who Mason really is.”

My stomach churned at her words, but I held her gaze, refusing to let her see the fear rising inside me.

“I know him better than you ever could.”

Ginny laughed, a sharp sound that echoed through the warehouse, bouncing off the metal walls.

“Is that what you think? How sweet. But you’ll know soon enough. You’ll see the truth when the Omens arrive.”

At the mention of the name, my blood ran cold.

~The Omens.~

My mind flashed back to Paris. Those two men, boys really, who paled when they saw him. As if they recognized him, as if they were afraid of him.

I pushed aside the feelings of uneasiness at the time, but I felt them. I knew that Mason was covering something up, but I didn’t question him about it.

And now, here was Ginny, using the name like it was common knowledge, like she knew exactly what it meant. The realization hit me hard. I didn’t know ~nearly~ enough.

Ginny saw the flicker of recognition in my eyes, and her smile widened.

“Ah, there it is. ~Now~ you remember.”

She crossed her arms and cocked her head, mocking me with her gaze.

“Mason never told you, did he? You thought he was just a man with secrets, a little danger mixed with charm. But the Omens? They’re not just dangerous, Lauren. They’re powerful. Untouchable. They’re the storm, and when they come… Well, Mason won’t be able to protect you from what’s coming.”

I forced myself to breathe, trying to regain control.

“I don’t care who they are,” I said, though my voice sounded weaker than I wanted. “Mason’s not afraid of anyone.”

Ginny smirked, her eyes narrowing.

“You’re so naive. You think you’re in love with him, but you’re just a pawn in his game. A game far bigger than you could ever understand. The Omens… they don’t just come for people. They ~erase~ them.”

She leaned in closer, her voice dropping to a whisper.

“But you wouldn’t know that, would you? No, because you’re just another girl he’s keeping in the dark. Just like everyone else.”

Her words stung, but I wouldn’t let her see it. I held onto Mason’s image in my mind—the way he looked at me, the way he always protected me. He wouldn’t hide something like this from me. ~Would he?~

Ginny stood up straight, brushing invisible dust from her sleeve, looking at me like I was some pathetic child.

“You're way over your head, Lauren. You don’t even know what’s coming. But when the Omens arrive, you’ll wish you had taken my deal.” She stepped closer, her voice icy and sharp. “You can’t stop them. And neither can Mason.”

Ginny’s smirk lingered as she turned away from me, her heels clicking on the concrete.

“You know, Lauren, I had a feeling you wouldn’t take the money. You’re too much like me in that way—always stubborn, always holding out for some higher purpose.” She paused, glancing over her shoulder with a cold gleam in her eye. “But I knew you’d need a little extra… motivation.”

My chest tightened. The way she said it made my skin crawl. There was something else—something worse. My mind raced, scrambling to figure out what she could mean.

Before I could ask, Ginny raised her hand and called out, “Bring him forward.”

From the shadows, a tall man emerged, leading another figure behind him. The figure was smaller, slumped, and covered in a black hood. My heart pounded as fear coursed through my veins.

I strained against the ropes, my throat tightening.

~Who was this? What was she doing?~

The hooded figure stumbled forward, his hands bound in front of him. My pulse roared in my ears as the man dragged him closer, the echo of his heavy steps filling the space between us.

My mind spun, trying to guess who it could be, what twisted game Ginny was playing now. But when the man finally stopped in front of me, Ginny turned back with a grin that sent a chill straight to my bones.

“You see,” she said, slowly circling the hooded figure, “you’re not the only one with ties to Mason. There are others involved, people you care about, whether you realize it or not. And this…” She gripped the edge of the hood, her eyes flashing with satisfaction. “This will change everything.”

With one sharp tug, Ginny ripped the hood off.

I gasped.

It couldn’t be.

“Dad?” I called out in shock.

I couldn’t believe he was in front of me. My heart leapt and clenched all at once.

He looked up at me, his face pale, his eyes filled with a mixture of guilt and fear. His lips trembled, as if he wanted to speak but couldn’t find the words.

The world tilted beneath me, a dark wave of confusion and disbelief washing over everything. I thought he was dead. The hospital told me he was dead. There was no way they could have been wrong.

But there he was. My father… alive.

A rush of emotions slammed into me all at once, shock, confusion, and, beneath it all, relief. I wasn’t sure how to process it. I’d been living in a world where he was gone, accepting a reality that never should have existed. Now, in this dim, suffocating room, with danger still circling like a vulture, my heart staggered between the fear of the situation and the sheer, impossible joy that he was breathing. That he was here.

My breath caught in my throat, as if I couldn’t quite believe my eyes. My head was swimming, struggling to keep up with the impossibility of it.

“Dad,” I whispered, the word barely escaping my lips. My throat felt tight, like I might choke on the relief that was fighting its way out.

His eyes found mine, weary and filled with a sadness I hadn’t seen before. But he was alive. Not a ghost, not a distant memory.

For a split second, the chaos around us faded, as if the universe had granted me this one fragile moment of reprieve.

Tears stung my eyes as my hands trembled. The dire reality of everything else wasn’t lost on me, but for that one fleeting breath, I let myself feel the relief. The desperate hope that, maybe, things weren’t as lost as they seemed.

But then his expression changed, he shook his head just slightly, as if to warn me not to let that hope grow too big, not yet. And just like that, the weight of the situation crashed back down.

My father was alive, but we weren’t safe. Not yet.

Ginny stepped between us, folding her arms with a satisfied smile.

“You don’t have a choice now, Lauren.” Ginny’s voice was ice.

Then, with a swift, practiced motion, Ginny pulled a gun from her waistband. The cold, metallic gleam of the barrel caught the dim light, and my stomach lurched violently.

I froze, my breath catching in my throat. All of the air seemed to vanish from the room, replaced by the sudden, crushing weight of fear. My eyes locked onto the gun, its muzzle pointed so casually toward my father. My brain screamed for me to do something, but my body refused to move, paralyzed by the sight of the weapon.

“You either give me what I want, or I make sure Vincent never leaves this warehouse alive.”

The words barely registered. All I could see was the gun. I imagined the deafening crack, the explosion of violence, the blood…

~No.~

My heart pounded wildly, adrenaline surging through my veins. This wasn’t real. It couldn’t be real. But the cold, hard metal of that weapon in Ginny’s hand was all too real, and its presence shattered any illusions I might have clung to. The stakes weren’t just high, they were life and death.

“Please,” I whispered, barely able to find my voice. “Don’t…”

Ginny’s smile twisted, dark and satisfied. She saw the fear in my eyes, saw how the gun had shifted everything in an instant. Her grip tightened on the weapon as she took a step closer, her finger resting just a little too comfortably on the trigger.

“Make your choice, Lauren,” she hissed. “I’m done waiting.”

I glanced at my father, his face pale and drawn, but his eyes met mine with a steady resolve. He didn’t flinch, even with the barrel of a gun trained on him. His strength, his calm, only made the panic bubbling inside me worse. I couldn’t lose him again. Not like this.

But Ginny wasn’t bluffing. That gun in her hand was a promise, a promise of pain. And if I didn’t act, if I didn’t give her what she wanted, my father’s life would be the price.

The horror of it gripped me, squeezing the air from my lungs. I had to do something. But what?