A black tinted SUV swerved to the right, narrowly escaping a minivan whose driver was hollering curses it's way. the whole highway was turning in to massive chaos and the blaring of the police sirens echoed in the dead of the night.

Inside the SUV, a woman frantically grappled with the belt but the darned thing refused to budge. of all the times, she couldn't believe the timing of such rotten luck. the car took another jarring turn and the wind was knocked out of her lungs as the belt dug like thorns into her stomach and shoulder. bullets rain down on the car and despite it being a custom made bullet proof vehicle, a dreadful hint of crack was beginning to appear on the windshield and there was no doubt if her attackers didn't stop their onslaught in the next minute, she would be dead meat.

Her driver pressed the gas and zoomed through the highway as fast as he can while her bodyguard was trying to aim a shoot at the fuckers gunning for her life but who were they even trying to fool? it was one against dozens maybe two dozens probably armed to the fucking teeth men.

"GET DOWN MISS!!" her body guard yelled but it was too late. the window shattered behind her and a bullet grazed passed her cheek straight into the drivers skull. the car lost control a scream ripped out of her chest when she realized she was covered in the warm blood of the now dead man. his brain matter was splashed on the window like a dirty canva and her breath shortened. her stomach recoiled at the metallic taste of the blood on her tongue and she began to hyperventilate.

Big Mistake.

her bodyguard eyes momentarily cut her way in concern and the that one second of distraction cost him his life too. a bullet lodged into his forehead and his body jerked from the sheer force of it.

tears were freely falling from her eyes now as she stared blankly into the dead eyes of her body guard of four years. something snapped inside her at that movement and somewhere deep within her, she knew she would never be the same girl again if she made it out alive.

nothing would be the same again.

despite her will to live, her body crippled with shock and trauma was shutting down and she could do nothing but watch as the car rammed into an oil truck ahead. the collision was so strong that the car rolled over and off the highway. her head hit something sharp and her shoulder and wrist screamed in agony.

the pain was so blinding that she didn't even realize that she blacked out until she found herself struggling to peel her weighed eyes open. they were sticky. her body was hanging upside down in an uncomfortable position and bloody fleshy drool trickled from her bruised lips.

She didn't want to die.

that was her last thought before she scummed to the pain and tiredness.

TWO month passed since that night and yeah much to her enemies dismay, Francessa Ducate was very much alive and seething with the desire to skin who ever orchestrated the murder, Alive.

She laid on the hospital bed as she skimmed through the channels. her expression was bored as she sighed heavily. even that small movement made her wince and she palmed her ribcage. the news of her attempted murder was the highlight of the country's gossip even after a month had passed when she was rescued by the authorities. barely breathing yet the only survivor of the crash as she was rushed to the hospital with a severe concussion, slight whiplash, a broken wrist, a dislocated shoulder and a body cut and bruised with a punctured lung. it was nothing less than a miracle that she managed to survive. it wasn't the first time Francessa had to see her life flashing before her eyes but none of the attempts on her life had ever left her so deeply traumatised and broken. whenever the cursed memory of that night pierced her head, she shuddered. she could smell the acrid smell of blood and her body couldn't forget the intensity of that pain. it was an experience she didn't want to relive again.

the sudden wave of vulnerability has her closing her eyes. helplessness was a foreign word to her. she never had to want for a thing in her life as she was fed with a golden spoon since her birth. yet the last few months had managed to teach the meaning of all those things she though she was untouchable from.

what was the use of all this wealth and power when she was living a life in constant danger of being robbed of her goddamn life?

hell, at this point even the resident's security couldn't light a candle to hers yet she was still as unsafe as a homeless kidon the streets.

Two more weeks passed away as she wallowed in her ill fate. the media was a constant meddle and a pain in her ass from the last few months afterall it was a huge case . the Assassination of the Ducate Hieress. it was more of a drama now than a tradegy as more and more speculations were comig forward for the motive of the all this ordeal. not to mention they even blamed her for the death of her bodyguard and driver. the fact that the died protecting her weighed heavily in her shoulders and for that she didn't know how to face their kids and widow not because she was a damned coward but her guilt was too much and she thought she was the their culprit.

the door to her VIP room opened, slaming her thoughts to a halt. a short man dressed in an immaculate butler's attire approached her silently. his hair were a lot more grey at the temples and not to mention that permanent crease between his eyes. Alfonso was the butler of her late father who now worked for her. when her father...passed away, Francessa have him a choice to walk away from the Ducates who were notorious for attracting bad luck and trouble but the man refused to budge and said that his loyalties forever lied with Jared Ducate and his bloodline.

and now who was Francessa to dismiss such an honest and loyal man when she had no one trusty worthy even to watch her back and not stab her the first chance they got.

"Young Miss..." Alfonso grumbled as she stood two steps away from her bed with his hands clasped in front of him and Francessa groaned.

"Dont you start again. I am feeling much better now and I want to leave this hell hole ASAP." Francessa wasn't sure if her cause of death wouldn't be hospital sickness if she remained her any more than she already had.

"Dont worry, Miss. I have submitted the paper work for you discharge and you should be able to leave in an hour at most." Alonso replied and then the room went silent but Francessa could tell that the old man wanted to say much more and his continued stare boring a hole through her skull was making her uncomfortable.

"what?" she asked.

"I-I was beside myself with worry when I Heard about the accident. I-I thought..." his sincere admission of concern for her safety warmed something inside her but those last words hardened it back and she shifted.

"you thought I was going to die like my dad did?" she quipped. she couldn't help herself. she couldn't stop the mixed emotions whenever her dad was mentioned and let them get the best of her.

"you know that not what I meant." Alonso pointed.

"I know what you meant old man. I was purposefully targeted but my dad's death was pure accident." at that Alfonso shook his head solemnly and his lips thinned.

"it's time you open your eyes and see for what the truth is. your father was assassinated in cold blood-"

"-stop,"

"the same way your life was threatened-"

"-I said stop,"

"let me talk miss!" the ever comosed and calculated old man was more than agitated as he fumed. she could practically see the fuel leaking from his nose and it shut her mouth immediately.

"your dad's killers are still roaming outside unpunished for their sins yet you refuse to acknowledge it for what it is. and now you were going to die as miserably as him too. his blood was still unavenged and you were going to be killed unjustly too and then they would have been the victorious ones as they danced and celebrated upon you graves..." he heaved vehemently.

"The Ducate were nothing a century ago. your great grand father, Benjamin Ducate was a mere blacksmith. homeless and starved, he rose from the ashes so that he could support his family. the Ducate Bloodline would have been finished that night. all of your ancestors blood, sweat and struggles would have been for nothing just because a daughter is still in denial for what actually happened to her parents." his unfiltered words struck a cord in her heart and her eyes widened in shame and guilt. it was the first time someone threw it in her face for the wreck she was and the feeling wasn't nice. she wanted to deny her previous claim because yes, she was a coward indeed. A sorry excuse of a daughter who failed her father...her mother just because the thought that someone snatched them from her was too much to bear so she continued to wallow in her grief just because she always thought they were the untouchable. how could the Mighty Jared Ducate be taken out just like that? that was what she thought. instead of an eye for an eye, she knowingly pulled a curtain on her eyes just because she didn't want to be another touchable, destructible.

her ignorance would have cost her more than her life. maybe her parents would have never forgiven her for that...

her awakening was a little too late and she could do nothing for the most time but it was damn time she acknowledged she was reduced to nothing more than a chess piece in someone horrendous game all because of her mistakes not to mention she was still breathing despite the timer set for her was already over.

If she learnt anything after narrowly escaping her death was that they would come for her again. and again.

but this time she would be prepared and it would be her who will aim the first shot.