CHAPTER 4 — THE MAN WHO SHOULD HAVE BEEN A HERO
The barrel of the shotgun never wavered.
Deputy Mark Collins smiled the same friendly smile he had worn only hours earlier.
Now it looked monstrous.
Emma and Ella instinctively stepped in front of me.
"Girls," Mark said almost gently. "Come here. You know I don't want to hurt you."
Emma shook her head.
"You killed Mommy."
His smile disappeared.
"You remember too much."
The words echoed through the underground shelter.
For years, I had trusted this man.
He had attended Olivia's funeral.
He had hugged me while I cried.
He had looked me in the eyes and promised to help if I ever needed anything.
Every single moment had been a lie.
"You murdered their mother?" I asked.
Mark sighed as though I were asking an inconvenient question.
"I offered her family a fair price for the mountain."
"You burned their cabin."
"I solved a problem."
My blood boiled.
"You murdered children."
"I thought I had."
He laughed quietly.
"Until your wife ruined everything."
He glanced toward the twins with unmistakable hatred.
"Olivia hid them from me for three years."
My heart pounded.
"So that's why she kept coming here."
"Every week," Mark answered.
"She lied to you every single time."
The realization crushed me.
Every "girls' hiking trip."
Every "weekend retreat."
Every unexplained purchase of children's clothes.
She hadn't been hiding an affair.
She had been saving lives.
Mark continued.
"When she died in that highway accident, I assumed my problem died with her."
He smiled again.
"But then you came back."
His finger tightened on the trigger.
"So now I clean up what's left."
Before he could fire—
Ella hurled Olivia's heavy flashlight directly into his face.
The beam exploded against his forehead.
The shotgun discharged.
The deafening blast shattered lanterns overhead.
Darkness swallowed the bunker.
I grabbed both girls.
"RUN!"
We raced through a narrow tunnel behind the storage room.
Mark screamed behind us.
"You can't hide forever!"
His footsteps thundered through the darkness.
May you like
And somewhere ahead...
another wooden door waited.
