Chapter 6 - The Choice Before Sunrise
Mara stepped between the brothers.
Kellen grabbed her arm.
"What are you doing?"
"Stopping this."
"Mara."
"Neither of you gets to decide what I choose."
Jonah stared at her.
His breathing came in ragged bursts.
Evelyn whispered, "Don't get close."
Mara ignored her.
"Jonah."
His head tilted.
"When was the last time somebody asked what you wanted?"
The question confused him.
Kellen saw it.
Jonah's violent expression flickered.
"Want?"
"Yes."
Killian's voice thundered through the intercom.
"Don't listen to her."
Jonah looked toward the glass.
Mara did too.
"There."
"What?"
"That's the voice that's been telling you what you are."
Jonah trembled.
Mara took one step closer.
Kellen's body screamed at him to pull her away.
He forced himself to remain still.
Jonah whispered, "He saved me."
"Did he?"
"I was sick."
"He kept you alive."
"Yes."
"That's not the same as saving you."
Killian slammed his hand against the glass.
"Jonah!"
Jonah flinched.
Mara saw it.
So did Kellen.
Fear.
Jonah was afraid of Killian.
Not instinctively.
Conditioned.
Like Kellen.
Mara looked between the brothers.
Two sons.
One raised in luxury and control.
One raised beneath a mountain and called treatment.
Different cages.
Same man holding the key.
"Jonah," she said softly. "Do you want to hurt me?"
He stared at her.
"No."
Kellen's eyes widened.
Killian shouted, "She's manipulating you!"
Jonah grabbed his head.
"Stop."
Killian continued.
"Remember what happens if she chooses Kellen."
Jonah screamed.
Kellen stepped forward.
"Jonah."
His brother looked at him.
"He's lying to you."
"You don't know."
"Neither do you."
Jonah's face twisted.
Kellen lowered his hands.
No weapon.
No fighting stance.
"You called me your little brother."
Jonah breathed heavily.
"Because you are."
"Then act like my brother."
Silence.
"Help me get everyone out."
Jonah looked toward Killian.
Killian's face hardened.
"Do not betray me."
Jonah whispered, "You said he hated me."
Kellen looked at Killian.
Then Jonah.
"I didn't know you existed."
"You would hate me."
"I've had four minutes to form an opinion."
Despite everything, Mara almost laughed.
Kellen continued.
"You throw people into walls. That's irritating."
Jonah stared.
"But?"
"But you're not the man who put us here."
Something inside Jonah broke.
Not violently.
Emotionally.
His shoulders lowered.
For the first time, he looked exhausted.
"I'm tired."
Kellen knew that sentence.
He had heard Mara say something similar hours earlier.
Not afraid.
Tired.
"Then let's leave," Kellen said.
Killian struck a control.
Gas began entering the room.
Evelyn shouted.
Jonah looked up.
His face changed.
"He'll kill all of you."
Mara coughed.
Kellen grabbed a metal stool and smashed the ventilation grille.
No use.
Rowan struggled upright.
"Emergency exhaust!"
"Where?"
"Control booth."
Behind Killian.
Kellen stared at the glass.
Jonah walked toward it.
"Move," Kellen said.
Jonah struck the reinforced window.
Crack.
Killian stepped backward.
Jonah struck again.
The glass shattered.
Killian reached for a gun.
Kellen was faster.
He climbed through the opening and tackled the man who had raised him.
The weapon skidded away.
Killian punched him.
Kellen barely reacted.
"You ungrateful bastard."
"Technically," Kellen said, "you're not my father."
He struck Killian once.
Hard.
Killian collapsed.
Mara climbed into the control room.
"Which switch?"
Rowan pointed through the broken window.
"Red lever."
She pulled it.
Fans roared.
Gas evacuated.
Kellen stood over Killian.
Every memory told him to finish it.
Every punishment.
Every lie.
His mother.
Jonah.
The seven women.
Mara.
Killian looked up.
"Do it."
Kellen's fist tightened.
"Prove me right."
Kellen stopped.
That was the final trap.
Killian wanted violence because violence would make his worldview true.
The stronger male survived.
The Alpha ruled.
Blood decided everything.
Kellen stepped back.
"No."
Killian stared.
Kellen took his phone from his pocket.
"No private execution. No family cover-up."
"What are you doing?"
"Calling federal authorities."
Killian laughed.
"You think ordinary law can touch this?"
"Money laundering. Kidnapping. unlawful detention. medical experimentation. falsified deaths. Fraud."
Kellen looked around.
"You committed plenty of ordinary crimes."
Killian's confidence wavered.
Mara smiled faintly.
"Turns out mythology still has paperwork."
By five fifteen, they had accessed the facility's central server.
Evidence existed everywhere.
Financial records.
Medical logs.
Surveillance.
Payments.
Fake identities.
Evelyn discovered records documenting eighteen years of experiments.
Rowan found Jonah's medical history.
The seven women found signed orders proving Killian had arranged threats against their families.
Kellen copied everything into multiple encrypted drives.
Then Mara found a folder carrying her name.
MARA VALE — PROJECT VIII.
She opened it.
Kellen stood beside her.
Inside were childhood photographs.
School records.
Medical appointments.
Addresses.
Killian had tracked her entire life.
Mara's stomach turned.
"He's been watching me since I was nine."
Evelyn covered her mouth.
"I thought I hid you."
"You didn't."
"I'm sorry."
Mara looked at her mother.
There were eighteen years between them.
Eighteen birthdays.
Eighteen Christmases.
Every scraped knee and graduation.
Every lonely night Mara believed she had no mother.
Forgiveness would not happen inside one dramatic conversation.
Mara knew that.
"I'm not ready to forgive you."
Evelyn nodded through tears.
"I understand."
"But I don't want you to disappear again."
Evelyn broke.
"I won't."
Mara hugged her.
Not fully.
Not easily.
But enough.
Kellen turned away to give them privacy.
Rowan stood near Jonah.
His elder son had been given medication and lay on a medical bed.
Stable.
For now.
Kellen approached.
"Will he recover?"
Rowan looked uncertain.
"Evelyn believes she can stabilize him."
"Without Mara?"
"Yes."
Kellen's gaze sharpened.
"You told us she was necessary."
"I was told she was."
"By Killian?"
Rowan nodded.
Kellen laughed bitterly.
"So you were manipulated too."
"For decades."
"That doesn't erase what you did."
"I know."
Kellen looked at him.
"Did you kill my mother?"
Rowan's face collapsed.
"No."
"Killian said you did."
"I tried to take her away. We argued. She returned to the Croft estate because she believed she could take you legally."
"And?"
"Two days later, she died."
"How?"
Rowan looked toward Killian, now handcuffed in a secured room.
"Poison."
Kellen's face went still.
"Proof?"
"Evelyn has tissue samples."
Kellen turned to her.
Evelyn nodded.
"I kept them."
"Why didn't you expose him?"
"I tried. Killian threatened Mara."
Mara closed her eyes.
Everything came back to her.
Kellen reached for her hand.
Then stopped.
He had no right to assume.
Mara noticed.
She placed her hand in his.
His fingers closed carefully around hers.
Not ownership.
Choice.
Sunrise was twenty-three minutes away.
They prepared to leave.
The seven women would travel together.
Jonah would be moved separately with Evelyn.
Rowan would accompany them.
Killian remained restrained while Kellen waited for law enforcement.
Then one of the server monitors flashed.
Mara glanced over.
"Kellen."
He approached.
A final encrypted file had opened automatically.
Video.
Timestamp: three years ago.
The day Killian supposedly died.
Kellen pressed play.
His father appeared on screen.
Killian looked directly into the camera.
"If you're watching this, you chose the girl instead of power."
Kellen's expression hardened.
The recording continued.
"Predictable."
Mara squeezed his hand.
Killian smiled from the old video.
"You think this ends with me."
Kellen looked toward the secured room.
Empty.
He froze.
"What?"
Mara followed his gaze.
The restraints lay on the floor.
The door stood open.
Kellen ran.
The corridor beyond was empty.
Then the live security feed changed.
A camera outside showed Killian climbing into a vehicle.
Someone waited in the driver's seat.
Kellen enlarged the image.
Evelyn gasped.
Rowan whispered, "No."
The driver turned toward the camera.
Kellen recognized her instantly.
His mother.
Helena Croft.
The woman he had mourned since childhood.
May you like
She looked directly at the lens.
And smiled.
