Chapter 113 Day Seven
Day 7 brought the second attempt.
Not a gunman this time, it was Something subtler.
The bakery’s gas line developed a leak, which was Small and almost undetectable. The kind that would have filled the building overnight and ignited with morning ovens.
One of the security guards… a former Marine, trained in demolitions, noticed the smell.
“Everyone out,” he said calmly. “Now.”
They evacuated, and still live with seventy million people watching them flee their safe space in real-time.
The bomb squad arrived, confirmed the leak, and confirmed that it had been tampered with.
“Someone accessed your basement last night,” the fire marshal said. “Between 2 and 4 AM. Disabled the gas safety valve. Would’ve blown the whole building.”
“We have security…” Aiden started.
“You have six guards. They can’t watch every entrance every moment.” The marshal looked at the building and the cameras still streaming. “Whoever’s after you? They’re patient and Professional. They’ll keep trying until they succeed.”
“Then we will keep stopping them,” Ariella said but her voice shook.
That night, she found Lily sitting on the bakery roof, not visible to the cameras. Just…existing in darkness.
“You okay?” Ariella asked.
“I almost died today. We all almost died. And seventy million people were watching.” Lily’s voice was flat. “This is insane.”
“Yeah.”
“Are we actually going to survive this?”
“I don’t know.”
Lily looked at her. “You’re supposed to say yes. That’s what adults do. They lie to kids about whether everything will be okay.”
“You’re not a kid. And I’m too tired to lie.” Ariella sat beside her. “The truth is that I’m terrified, I wake up every morning wondering if today’s the day they succeed, if today’s the day I don’t see Elena and Ethan again, if today’s the day you or Aiden or my mom…” She stopped. Breathed. “But I’m also stubborn, and I refuse to let them win without a fight. So we will keep going, keep streaming, and surviving until we can’t anymore.”
“That’s a terrible pep talk.”
“I know.”
They sat in silence. Below them, the city hummed. Above them, stars are invisible through light pollution.
“My mom used to take me up our rooftop,” Lily said quietly. “When I was little, before she died. She’d point at the sky and tell me the stars were still there even if we couldn’t see them. That light pollution didn’t erase them. Just made them harder to find.”
“She was right.”
“I miss her. Every day. But especially now. Because she’d know what to do. She always knew what to do.” Lily’s voice cracked. “And I’m just…I’m just seventeen and I’m trying to be brave but I’m so scared and I don’t know how to…”
Ariella pulled her close and let her cry. This girl who’d been too perceptive, too young, who’d survived her mother’s murder and father’s manipulation and three years of network aftermath and was still somehow here, still fighting, still trying.
“You’re already brave,” Ariella said. “You went to Red Hook alone, documented evidence for months. You trusted us with your mother’s secrets. You went on camera and told seventy million people the truth even though it terrified you. That’s not just brave. That’s…” She smiled slightly. “That’s very Frost of you. In the best way.”
“The Frost way is usually the traumatic way.”
“Yeah. But it’s also the survivor way. The fighter way. The ‘refuse to quit even when quitting makes more sense’ way.” Ariella squeezed her shoulder. “Your mom would be proud, I’m proud.”
Lily was quiet for a long moment.
“I’m glad Aiden married you,” she said finally. “Like…really glad. Not just because you’re helping us survive but because you make him happy, you make this family feel like…like a family. Not just people forced together by trauma and contracts.”
“You make it feel like a family too,” Ariella said. “You and your terrible sketching habit and your tendency to investigate dangerous men without backup and your ability to make me laugh even when everything is falling apart.”
“My sketching isn’t terrible.”
“It’s amazing, you know what I meant.”
Lily almost smiled. “Yeah. I know.”
They sat on the roof for another hour, not talking. Just existing.
Below them, cameras streamed to seventy million people.
Above them, stars existed even if they couldn’t see them.
And tomorrow, the network would try again.
But tonight, they had this.
This roof. This moment. This family that had never been supposed to exist but did anyway.
It was enough.
For now.