He loved her from afar-desired her, craved her, but let her go, only to wait for the perfect moment to pull her into his dark world. Like a predator, he watched until the day he could finally take her... no, claim her. Now, with her by his side, he...
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The plane descended slowly, the vast landscape of Delhi sprawling beneath Ryan’s gaze. It had been ten years ten long years since he’d left this place behind. The city had changed, expanding into a more chaotic maze of modern skyscrapers and forgotten alleyways, but it still held the familiarity of home. The plane hit the tarmac with a slight jolt, breaking Ryan's thoughts. His heart thudded in his chest, not with fear, but with the weight of the life he had abandoned a decade ago.
Ryan had become a name to be reckoned with Italy’s business prodigy, the mastermind behind CyberTech, a global giant in cyber security. To the world, he was the cold, calculating genius who had taken over the corporate world with ruthless precision. Behind closed doors, however, he harbored a darker secret. His hands were stained with blood, tainted by dealings in the shadows things no one could ever know. He had walked a path that blurred the line between power and destruction.
But beneath the hard surface, there was always her Edha. His obsession had grown with each passing year, consuming him like a drug. He had carefully monitored her life from a distance, always keeping tabs on her, collecting every picture and moment he could. To everyone else, he had moved on, but in the quietest corners of his mind, she remained his only constant. His love for her had twisted into something more an obsession so deep it frightened even him at times.
But today was not about Edha. Today, he was coming home. To his family. To the mother who had been his only connection to this world in the past year.
As Ryan stepped into the arrival hall, the noise of the bustling airport drowned out his thoughts. He scanned the crowd, searching for the one person he knew would be waiting his mother, Ayla. She had always been his anchor, her warmth and unconditional love a balm for the wounds he never admitted to having.
There she was, standing quietly at the edge of the crowd. Her frame was smaller, her hair now fully silver, and yet she held herself with the same grace and strength he remembered. Her eyes, though, were what struck him the most. They were the same kind, gentle eyes that had always seen through him, through his coldness, his indifference, and into the heart of the boy she had raised.
"Ryan," she whispered as their eyes met.
The sound of his name on her lips sent a rush of emotions through him guilt, regret, love. She moved forward, closing the distance between them, and for a moment, Ryan froze. He had spent so long building walls around himself, preparing to face the world without emotion. But here, with his mother, it was different. The walls cracked.
He stepped forward and embraced her.
Ayla held him tightly, her arms wrapped around her son like she never wanted to let go. She hadn’t seen him in years, and though their phone calls had been brief and infrequent, she had always known he was out there, living a life that was far from simple.
"You’ve grown even colder, haven’t you?" she whispered softly, pulling back just enough to look at him.
Ryan didn’t answer. He couldn’t. What could he say? He had become cold. He had turned into someone else, someone who lived in shadows and secrets, far removed from the boy she had once known.
