Chapter 5 - THE BURNING RAILYARD
Rain lashed against the city as Lily sprinted toward the abandoned railyard, her warm clothes now soaked and heavy with mud. Her bare bandages were shredded, red blood mixing with the filthy puddle water on the streets.
"Mr. Thomas! Mr. Thomas!" she screamed as she finally reached the rusted iron doors of the old train depot.
She burst inside, but her heart sank into her stomach.
The air inside was filled with thick, black smoke. Flames were licking the wooden beams of the old workshop!
"Lily...?" a weak, raspy voice called out from beneath a pile of collapsed scaffolding near the back.
"Mr. Thomas!" Lily cried, rushing through the heat and embers. She found the frail old man trapped, his leg crushed under a fallen beam. Arthur’s men had already been here—they had torched the place to erase any connection to Lily!
"Lily... why did you come back?" Thomas coughed violently, his face covered in ash. "They... they came looking for you. Men in suits..."
"I'm pulling you out!" Lily yelled, grabbing the heavy wooden beam with both hands.
"No, child! It's too heavy! You'll die here!"
"I don't care!" Lily roared, her eyes blazing with raw, stubborn fury. "I didn't leave Noah, and I'm not leaving you!"
Using her legs, she threw her entire small body under the beam, leveraging it upward with every violent ounce of strength in her muscles.
ARGHL!
With a sickening crunch, the beam lifted just enough. Thomas dragged his shattered leg free!
Together, the old man and the young girl crawled out of the side window just as the roof of the depot collapsed in a towering column of fire and sparks.
They lay on the wet grass outside, gasping for oxygen as sirens echoed in the distance.
Suddenly, a black SUV pulled up onto the grass, blinding them with its high beams. The doors flew open, and three men stepped out into the rain.
It wasn't the police.
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It was Victoria Vance, holding a silenced pistol, flanked by two ruthless mercenaries.
"Well, well, well," Victoria sneered, stepping over the mud in her high-heeled boots, her face twisted in pure malice. "The rat and her trash. You really thought you could run from the Sterling family's wrath?"
