Chapter 9 - THE ULTIMATE BETRAYAL"Ethan, put it down!" I screamed, pulling Owen and Milo tighter behind my back, pressing them flat against the tarmac.
Ethan stood at the top of the aircraft stairs, blood dripping into his eye, laughing hysterically. The sound was high, thin, and terrifying.
"You think I kept all my money in bank accounts, Mara? You think I didn't prepare for every single contingency?" Ethan’s hand hovered over the red button on the remote control box. "There are explosives wired to the main fuel tanks of this airfield's storage depot fifty yards away. One click, and this entire grid goes up in smoke. We all go together!"
"Dad, stop! Please!" Owen cried out, his voice cracking with a heart-wrenching terror that pierced straight through the chaos.
Ethan froze for a fraction of a second. His gaze dropped to his son—his real son, the boy he had raised, loved, and now planned to incinerate along with his secrets.
A single tear cut through the grime on Ethan's cheek.
"I'm sorry, Owen," Ethan whispered, his thumb pressing down toward the button.
"LOOK OUT!"
A sudden, violent blur slammed into Ethan from behind on the narrow aircraft stairs.
It was Lena.
She had broken away from the hired thug, who was still groaning on the concrete, and vaulted up the metal steps with the fury of a mother defending her cub. She tackled Ethan around the waist, driving him hard against the steel railing of the boarding hatch.
The detonator flew from Ethan's hand, clattering down the metal stairs and bouncing across the concrete tarmac a few feet away from where I stood.
"Get the kids away!" Lena screamed, wrestling with Ethan as he threw punches, trying to claw her eyes out.
I didn't hesitate. I lunged forward, scooped up the heavy plastic detonator, and hurled it as far as my arms could throw it into the open grass field beyond the runway.
Sirens wailed in the distance—sharp, rising wails echoing across the flat plains. Federal agents, state troopers, and local police cars were swarming through the broken perimeter fence from every direction, their red and blue emergency lights painting the afternoon sky in frantic flashes of color.
On the stairs of the disabled plane, Ethan finally managed to shove Lena off him. She tumbled down the steps, landing hard on the concrete near the bottom, gasping for air.
Ethan turned to run toward the open fields, but he didn't even take two steps.
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Three federal agents in tactical gear converged on him from the sides, tackling him to the ground with brutal, textbook precision. Handcuffs clicked shut with a sharp, metallic finality.
As they dragged him away, Ethan’s eyes met mine one last time. There was no apology left in them. Just cold, empty defeat.
