Then,
Footsteps.
Fast. Heavy. Urgent.
A door slams.
Voices fracture into noise.
And somewhere in the chaos, a new sound cuts through, two sharp cracks that end a conversation permanently.
My father’s presence disappears from the room like a nightmare snapping apart. His dead body drops with a thud. Final.
Boots rush closer.
Someone drops to their knees beside us.
Hands, trembling, reach for me. Not careful. Not controlled.Desperate.
Aweapon clatters to the floor like it suddenly weighs too much to hold.
And then I feel it, warmth cupping my face, shaking fingers brushing blood and sweat away as if they can undo what’s happening.
My vision swims. I force my eyes open.
Liam.
Alive.
Real.
For a second my brain refuses it, refuses to believe the universe would be cruel enough to give me him backnow, when I’m already falling.
His face crumples as he looks down at me… at Emmy… at the ruin on the floor.
“No,” he breaks, the word shredded from him. “No, Khai, please, please,”
He’s sobbing before he finishes the sentence. Full-body, ugly, devastating grief. The kind that doesn’t care who’s watching. The kind that admits the truth without saying it:
He’s too late.
His hands press to my cheeks like he can hold my life in place. His head dips, shaking, breaths hitching hard. He looks destroyed, like whatever kept him standing has finally given out.
“Khai,” he whispers again, cracking. “I’m here. I’m here, don’t, don’t you dare,”
But my body is already leaving.
The room dims. Sound fades. Liam’s sobs become distant, like they’re coming from the end of a long corridor.
The last thing I see is my brother breaking down over me, alive, undone, helpless, his tears dropping onto my skin like rain.
And then the world goes black.
Jaxon
I don’t remember crossing the room, only my own breathing, jagged and wrong, and the way my boots skid on the polished, slick floor likethe building itself is trying to spit me out. The scene ahead doesn’t fit inside my head. It won’t. It’s too big. Too final.
Khai is on the ground, folded over Emmy like he can keep her here by sheer will alone, like his body can be a barricade against fate. Like if he holds tight enough, the world will take it back.
