Chapter 196 CHAPTER 196

Chapter 196 CHAPTER 196
Last man standing
The street was silent when the convoy of patrol cars rolled to a stop. Their tires crunched against gravel, headlights cutting through the narrow alleyway like blades. Julian climbed out of the car first, his breathing uneven, his clothes rumpled from hours of panic.
Ares and Tessa stepped out behind him, each weighed down by exhaustion and dread, while Richard stood beside the officers, pointing toward a dimly lit warehouse at the far end of the street.
“This is the location the tracker pinged last,” one of the officers whispered.
Julian didn’t wait for further instruction. He pushed forward, ignoring the officer’s warning hand, ignoring Ares calling after him. His heart slammed violently inside his chest, pounding against his ribs hard enough to ache. The closer he got to the building, the faster everything blurred around him, the ground, the chilly night air, even the flashing red and blue lights.
Ares caught up with him and grabbed his arm, forcing him to stop before he could storm toward the entrance. “Julian, wait. You can’t just run in blind.”
“She’s pregnant with my child, Ares! What do you expect me to do?” Julian’s voice shook with desperation.
“We’re going in together. Calm down.”
It was Richard who suddenly stiffened, his eyes narrowing at the warehouse door. “I hear voices,” he murmured.
The officers raised their weapons. One of them signaled for silence, and everyone held their breath.
A soft, muffled laugh drifted through the cracked window, too familiar. Too calm and too wrong. Julian froze. Tessa felt her stomach twist. Ares’s expression hardened like stone.
Without waiting for permission, Julian darted to the side of the building where shadows wrapped around the wall. He climbed onto an old crate, peered through the glass, and what he saw made his blood drain from his face.
Dorcas was not tied up. She was not gagged. She was not in danger. She was kissing Ethan.
Her body pressed against him, arms around his neck, as if she belonged there. Ethan’s hand cupped the back of her head gently, pulling her deeper into the kiss.
Julian staggered back as if struck by lightning. His knees trembled. His throat closed. Every breath came out ragged, disbelieving. “No… no, no, no…”
Tessa covered her mouth. “Julian…”
Ares didn’t say a word. Rage radiated from him like heat, a sharp, blazing fury that tightened his jaw and curled his fists. For a moment, he had forgotten the injury on his shoulder from earlier; adrenaline drowned out the pain.
Richard looked between all of them, speechless.
The officers exchanged tense glances.
Then Julian snapped.
He walked toward the door, not running this time, not panicked, but slow, stiff, like someone whose soul had been ripped out and replaced with fire.
Ares moved quickly, grabbing him again. “Julian, stop.”
Julian’s voice broke. “He took my life. He took years from her. He took…”
“She was never pregnant,” Ares cut in softly. “She lied.”
Julian’s eyes sharpened. “Then that means…”
“She was working with him all along,” Tessa finished, her voice trembling.
Before anyone could decide what to do next, the warehouse door creaked open from the inside. Ethan stepped out, his arm lazily looped around Dorcas’s waist. Both of them wore mocking smiles, as if they had been expecting an audience.
“Well, well,” Ethan drawled. “Quite the reunion.”
Dorcas tilted her head and waved sweetly. “Hi, Julian.” Her tone was cold, almost bored, as though this weren’t the man who had cared for her, begged for her safety, and almost risked his life for her.
Julian stared at her in disbelief. “Dorcas… why?”
“Why?” She laughed. “Because you were too easy. Too trusting. Ethan offered me something better, power, protection, loyalty.”
“Loyalty?” Julian repeated. “You betrayed everyone around you. You lied about a child.”
She smirked. “It worked, didn’t it? You jumped every time I snapped my fingers.”
Ethan grinned and stepped forward. “You should have seen your face when she pretended to be scared earlier today. Priceless.”
Ares finally stepped in front of Julian, shielding him. “Ethan, where are the kids and Ayisha?”
Ethan shrugged. “Who says they were ever with me?”
Richard bristled. “You kidnapped them. You took…”
“I didn’t touch them,” Ethan said casually. “But I know who did. And trust me, they’re in a worse place than with me.”
Tessa’s heart plummeted. “Where are they?”
Ethan winked. “Wouldn’t you like to know.”
Julian lunged at him in fury, but before he could reach Ethan, Dorcas lifted her hand and a gun glinted under the dim streetlight.
“Don’t even try it,” she warned. Her voice was icy, a thousand times colder than the woman Julian once knew.
Police officers quickly aimed their guns at her. “Drop the weapon!”
But Ethan laughed. “Oh, we’re not dropping anything.”
A sharp whistle pierced the air. Multiple officers moved into position. Tension crackled like electricity, the kind that precedes an explosion.
Ethan raised his own gun. “You thought you would outsmart me? After all these years?”
Julian clenched his fists, shaking, wanting nothing more than to tear him apart.
Ares leaned closer to Tessa without taking his eyes off Ethan. “Stay behind me.”
The night balanced on a knife’s edge.
Dorcas’s finger tightened on the trigger.
Police shouted warnings again.
Ares shifted, ready to shield anyone behind him.
And then Chaos erupted.
Two gunshots exploded back to back. Officers fired. Ethan fired. Dorcas fired. The warehouse wall cracked from a stray bullet. Screams echoed around the alley. Tessa ducked behind a police car, covering her head. Richard tackled an officer to keep him from falling after taking a hit to the shoulder.
Julian ran forward despite everything. “Dorcas!” he shouted, still hoping, still searching her face for any trace of the girl he once loved.
But Dorcas turned her gun on him. Her eyes narrowed, cold. Dead. Before she could shoot, a bullet struck her chest.
Her body jerked violently, the gun slipping from her hand. She collapsed onto the ground with a hollow thud. Julian screamed her name and fell beside her, shaking her, begging her to stay awake.
“Dorcas! Dorcas, look at me! Look at me!”
But her eyes were already dimming, her breath fading.
Across the chaos, Ethan raised his gun again, limping from a shot to his leg. Blood poured down, but he refused to fall. His gaze darted toward Ares. Hatred boiled in his expression.
“You ruined everything!” he shouted.
He raised the gun,?Ares raised his own, another shot rang out.
Ethan staggered backward, a shocked expression crossing his face. He fell to his knees, then to the ground, collapsing beside Dorcas in a spreading pool of blood.
Silence followed. Heavy. Broken.
The officers quickly checked pulses, but the verdict was clear: Dorcas and Ethan were dead.
Ares groaned and stumbled backward, clutching his arm where a bullet had grazed him. Tessa rushed to his side, supporting him before he fell.
“Ares, you’re bleeding!”
“It’s nothing,” he muttered, though his face was pale.
Julian knelt between the two bodies, trembling uncontrollably. His entire world seemed to shatter in slow motion. Whatever anger he had felt moments ago melted into crushing grief, disbelief, and betrayal.
Ares placed a hand on his shoulder. “Julian… come on. Let’s go.”
Julian didn’t answer. He stared blankly at Dorcas’s lifeless face until an officer gently pulled him up, guiding him away from the scene.
Tessa looked around the street, the flashing sirens, the officers talking rapidly into radios, Richard holding pressure on an officer’s wound, Ares injured but standing, and Julian broken beyond measure.
But for now, the night ended with two bodies on the ground, Ares bleeding, Julian shattered, and the truth burning through the air like smoke.
The war was over.