Chapter 6 - The Price of Survival
Alistair’s finger tightened on the trigger. The world narrowed down to the barrel of the gun and the cold, unyielding face of the man who had stolen their childhood.
Suddenly, a loud crack echoed across the roof—not from a gun, but from the lightning rod tower. Julian had rigged an overload in the mansion’s power grid earlier that night. As the system surged to compensate for the sudden disconnect of the neural link, the entire building’s electrical system blew.
The lights on the roof, the security cameras, the electronic locks—everything went dark.
In the sudden chaos, Alistair lost his footing, his shot going wide and tearing into the stone beside Julian’s head. Julian lunged, tackling him. They grappled on the edge of the roof, the wind whipping around them.
“She is mine!” Alistair shrieked, clawing at Julian’s face.
“She is not an object!” Julian roared, driving his fist into Alistair’s jaw.
The two men struggled, a desperate fight for control. Julian, fueled by years of pent-up rage and the desperate need to save the only person who had ever loved him, fought with a ferocity that surprised even him. He wasn’t fighting for himself; he was fighting for every child the orphanage had broken, for every moment of happiness the Vance family had stolen.
He shoved Alistair away, sending him reeling back. Alistair stumbled, his foot catching on a piece of loose gravel. For a heartbeat, he balanced on the edge, his eyes wide with a sudden, dawning terror.
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Then, he fell.
The sound of his descent was swallowed by the howling wind. Julian stood at the edge, breathing hard, his shoulder throbbing with pain. He turned around and saw Elena standing there, the silver locket clutched in her hand, the moonlight catching the engraving of the rose.
