CHAPTER 137: THE LAST BETRAYAL

CHAPTER 137: THE LAST BETRAYAL
"I assumed you supported me."

Before I could stop myself, the words escaped my lips. In my chest, my heart beat like a drum.

Only the flickering light of a broken streetlamp illuminated the gloomy alley. I was hoping to meet someone I could trust. Someone who claimed to know something about Orion. Now, however, I was encircled.

I was surrounded by shadows. The click of firearms being loaded was audible to me. My throat tightened with each breath.

A sneering voice from the shadows said, "You shouldn't have come alone."

Slowly, I turned to see who had said it. However, the darkness was too dense. Too many.

I needed to leave.

I inhaled deeply before running. Bullets struck the ground and walls as they passed me. I continued. I was unable to.

I ducked into an old building after turning a corner. My legs felt like jello and my lungs burned. However, I continued to move.

After locating a door, I pulled it open and slipped inside. I tried to regain my breath by leaning against the wall.

I heard footsteps then. Go slowly and steadily. Someone was on their way.

I caught a glimpse of someone leaving the alley through a gap in the door. I had been ambushed in the same alley.

The light struck the figure's face as they turned slightly.

My heart stopped beating.

It was someone I knew.

Someone I trusted.

I had been set up by them.

I was furious, and I balled my fists.

It would be the final betrayal.

I would see to that.

But I had to live first.

I turned my back on the door and began to strategize.

This was not the end of it.

By no means.

With my heart pounding like thunder in my ears, I remained concealed behind the shattered door.

That expression, I was aware of. I had trusted it.

Tears boiled behind my eyelids, but I didn’t let them fall. Not right now. Not yet.

Why would they harm me in this way? Why would I be abandoned by someone I cared about?

I took another look.

As if nothing had happened, the person gently left, hands in their coat pockets. As if they hadn't simply duped me. As if I hadn't nearly died.

I tightened my jaw. My hands trembled, but not because I was afraid.

out of anger.

I leaned my back against the chilly wall and inhaled deeply. I said to myself in a whisper, "Stop running." "Stop putting your trust in the wrong people."

I extracted the little silver tracker from my pocket. Though it was hardly larger than a coin, it had the power to alter everything.

Earlier, I had planted it on them.

Just in case.

And I would follow now.

Not to speak.

Not to inquire as to why.

But to discover the truth. Everything.

I pressed the tracker to the screen of my wrist. On the map, a red dot blinked.

In Sector 3, they were heading for the former base.

Naturally.

Orion had set up his new laboratory there.

My chest constricted.

To what extent was this betrayal?

With the wind whispering around me and my boots crunching glass, I ventured out into the alley. Above, the sky was heavy and gloomy. As if it anticipated a horrible event.

"I won't fall again," I muttered as I looked up once.

After that, I ran.

But I stopped when I heard a faint click as I got closer to the alley's edge.

I glanced down.

I stepped on a mine.

A secret one.

I gasped.

One mistake, and boom.

My eyes got big.

"Didn't think we'd let you walk away twice, did you?" a voice remarked icily from the shadows.

I went cold.

Orion wasn't the voice.

Someone worse was involved.

I believed someone to be deceased.

My foot remained stuck to the mine. I held my breath. I was not blinking.

That voice made my bones tingle.

I slowly turned my head. A figure emerged from the darkness.

No. It isn't possible.

I said in a whisper, "Liam?"

He grinned, but it wasn't the warm grin I recalled. It was a chilly smile. Sharp. similar to a knife.

"You didn't anticipate my return," he remarked. "But here I am."

My knees became weak. "You had passed away."

Liam remarked, "I wanted you to think that." "Watching you in the dark was easier."

"Why?" I said, my voice almost audible above a whisper. "What would you do?"

"You had a mission. He walked closer and added, "I had mine." "Now you're standing exactly where I want you to be."

I glanced down once more. I still had the mine under my boot. It would all end with a misstep.

I said, "I trusted you." I had a constricted throat. My eyes were burning. "I told you everything."

“I know how to break you because of that.” "I said," Liam said.

He displayed a tiny remote control. He kept his thumb above the red button.

He cautioned, "Move, and I press it." "Maybe I'll let you live if you remain motionless."

I gazed at him. I was once saved from a burning lab by a boy. When I was afraid, the boy grasped my hand.

Now, he was the person I was most afraid of.

"Are you assisting Orion?" I inquired.

"I'm contributing to the future," he declared. "A future without you."

I balled my fists up. My pulse quickened. On the mine, my foot felt like stone.

He took another stride forward.

Too near.

I squinted.

At that moment, I noticed that he was carrying a second remote control in his other hand behind his back.

Two mines.

Not a single one.

My breath caught.

He said, "Goodbye, Ivanka."

Then, he pushed the trigger.