CHAPTER 9 — THE LAST CHOICE
The countdown echoed through the abandoned orphanage.
04:59...
04:58...
Rain pounded against the broken roof as police officers shouted for everyone to stay back.
Victor Kane simply smiled.
"This building taught children that no one was coming to save them."
He slowly lowered the detonator.
"So let's see who still believes in heroes."
Samuel didn't hesitate.
He sprinted toward the front entrance.
Elena followed.
"So did Dominic.
"Stop!" the bomb squad commander yelled. "The structure isn't safe!"
None of them listened.
Inside, the orphanage was exactly as Elena remembered.
Peeling paint.
Rusted beds.
Dark hallways that still smelled of mildew and fear.
For one terrible moment, she wasn't thirty-two years old anymore.
She was twelve.
Small.
Alone.
Terrified.
Then she heard it.
A child crying.
Not a recording.
A real child.
"Upstairs!" Elena shouted.
The three of them raced toward the second floor.
In the old dormitory, they found six frightened children huddled together with an elderly nun whose hands were tied behind her back.
"They locked us in," the nun cried.
Samuel immediately began freeing them.
Dominic smashed open the boarded windows, lowering the children one by one into firefighters' rescue nets below.
The timer kept counting.
02:14...
Only one child remained.
A little girl, no older than five, refused to move.
"My teddy..." she sobbed.
"It's under the bed."
Smoke had already begun filling the room.
Elena crawled beneath the broken frame.
Her fingers found the worn stuffed bear.
At that exact moment...
A steel beam crashed behind her.
The doorway collapsed.
She was trapped.
"Elena!" Samuel screamed.
Dominic threw himself against the burning debris again and again until his injured leg buckled beneath him.
Nothing moved.
The timer flashed.
00:41...
Victor watched from the rooftop through binoculars.
For the first time...
His smile faded.
He had expected hatred.
Greed.
Self-preservation.
Instead...
The three people whose lives he had destroyed were risking everything to save strangers.
Something he had never understood.
Family.
Down below, Dominic looked at Samuel.
"We pull together."
Without another word, both men wedged a broken steel pipe beneath the collapsed beam.
"Now!"
They pushed with everything they had.
Concrete cracked.
Metal groaned.
The opening widened just enough.
Elena crawled through, carrying the little girl in her arms.
The second she cleared the doorway...
The orphanage exploded.
A wall of fire burst through the windows.
The shockwave threw everyone across the muddy ground.
When the smoke cleared...
All six children were alive.
The elderly nun was alive.
Samuel was alive.
Dominic was alive.
And Elena...
Still held the little girl safely against her chest.
Watching from the rooftop, Victor quietly lowered the detonator.
For the first time in decades...
He looked defeated.
Not because he had lost.
Because he finally understood that love was stronger than fear.
But before police could reach him...
He stepped backward...
...and disappeared into the darkness beyond the roof.
May you like
Only a single Ace of Spades remained behind.
END OF CHAPTER 9
