The Divorced Military Queen Awakens (by Sadie Baxter) novel Chapter 669

Chapter 669 Flee Before Sunrise

Bowen clamped a hand over her mouth. “Quiet.”

Dawn nodded, her small chin brushing against his palm.

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She had seen the body the night before, but to wake and meet the sight unprepared rattled every fragile nerve.

“Your mother is… gone. Are you very sad?”

If my own mother died, I would shatter. Even while she lies silent in that hospital bed, she’s breathing, and that proves I am not alone.

“I’m not sad,” Bowen said, voice flat as winter water. He stared at the corpse with the blank confusion of someone who no longer understood what tomorrow meant.

At nine years old, he had no idea how he could make a living.

He rummaged through the ravaged apartment, but anything of value had already vanished into the debt men’s pockets. Finally, he stuffed a few shirts and a cracked storybook into a frayed backpack and slung it over his narrow shoulders.

“Come on. We need to get out now.” He seized Dawn’s hand and pulled her toward the door.

They had covered barely half a block when a shout split the morning air. “There! The boy’s over there!”

Out of the shadows burst the same debt collectors. They had never left, circling like wolves scenting blood.

Without pausing to think, Bowen clamped his small fingers around Dawn’s wrist and tore down the alley, feet drumming against broken glass and rain–greased pavement.

老

We can’t let them catch us. If they do, my future will be as wretched as Mother’s, forced to sell my own body. just to survive.

shrank. Two children sprinted through the murky lanes, while several grown men thundered after them. With every pounding heartbeat, the distance between hunter and

prey

Dawn was quick for a child, but no match for grown men. She knew nothing of these alleys, and she felt weak after a night without food.

Bowen tightened his grip around her small, cold hand, muscles burning while his mind tore

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Chapter 669 Flee Before Sunrise

itself in half.

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If I leave her, I can run faster. Maybe, just maybe, I escape. But can I let go of this warm hand, the hand that once covered my eyes and made the world safe? If I hold on, we will be caught together. A child of the red–light district should know the math. The old me would have let go without blinking, but now…

“Listen, Dawn. Stay on this road and sprint straight ahead. If you do, you’ll run out of the district. Keep running. Whatever happens behind you, do not look back.”

“What?” Dawn’s voice wavered, confusion flooding her wide eyes.

Bowen let go, skidding to a halt. He snatched a loose stone from the gutter, spun, and hurled it at the advancing men.

Dawn froze where she was, shock rooting her feet to the cracked asphalt.

“Run, Dawn! Break for the streetlights; you’ll be safe out there!” Better one child caught than both. And she, unlike him, did not belong to this district where girls were sold as casually as cigarettes.

The brief hesitation cost them; the men were suddenly close enough to feel their breath.

“Running, are you? Not that easy. Bowen, your mother’s dead—the only thing you’re good for now is paying off her debt.”

Before the men could capture them, a convoy of midnight–black sedans slid into the lane, engines purring. They stopped in a perfect line, chrome grilles flashing beneath the streetlamps, blocking the path.

The men, Bowen, and Dawn alike froze, struck speechless by the newcomers.

Doors opened, and a cluster of well–dressed strangers emerged. One carried a photograph, striding up to Bowen and studying his face against the image.

“Are you Bowen, Amy’s boy?” he asked.

Bowen’s pulse hammered. The man wore a tailored suit, his shoes probably worth more than Bowen had ever seen.

What does he want? Will he make me pay Mother’s debts as well?

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