Chapter 112 FLAMES

Chapter 112 FLAMES
Kelvin’s POV

Nancy had left me more profoundly confused and in deeper denial than I had ever been in my entire life. I knew my mother was capable of terrible things; I knew she had taken a life that wasn't hers simply because she believed her own happiness had been stolen from her. But never, in my wildest, most horrifying imagination, had I ever considered that she could be the monster behind the "accident" that claimed Jaxon's mother's life.

Everything felt so utterly, completely fucked up.

I felt a sickening wave of nausea wash over me as the realization hit: my entire life had been a carefully constructed lie. I had spent years turning a blind eye to her dark side, protecting her, wrapping myself in denial, all because I just wanted her to be happy. I just wanted us to have a normal chance at a peaceful life.

With violently shaking hands, I grabbed my phone from the counter and immediately dialed her number. It rang out cruelly before shifting straight to voicemail.

“Fuck!” I groaned in pure, suffocating anger, tossing the phone violently onto the couch. I ran both of my hands through my hair, gripping the strands until my scalp burned.

How long am I supposed to continue like this? How much further was I expected to sacrifice my own soul for a woman who would never, ever truly acknowledge me as her son? She only ever showed up when she felt I was a threat to her secrets, or whenever she found a sudden, selfish need for me.

The air in the room felt thick, choking me. I had felt this heavy, suffocating weight for as long as I could remember, and I was so incredibly tired of the hiding. I was tired of always being the silent bystander who lost every single person I ever genuinely cared about. I wasn't going to let that happen again. Not this time.

If she refused to meet me face-to-face and give me answers, then it was time I met the one man I had spent my entire life hating from a distance. It was time to finally stop running.

I was going to Brookleigh. It was time I finally met my father.

Decision made, I marched straight into my bedroom, yanked open my dresser drawer, and retrieved my passport. My heart hammered against my ribs as I threw a few changes of clothes into a backpack before rushing into the bathroom to take a short bath. It was literally nothing more than a desperate splash of cold water against my skin to shock my system awake. Slipped back into my clothes, I quickly called my secretary, my voice tight as I informed her that I would be out of town indefinitely.

The moment my flight was officially booked, I hoisted my bag over my shoulder and headed downstairs. Before I left this place behind, I needed to see Nancy. I needed to look at her one last time.

But the moment I stepped outside onto the gravel, I spotted Nancy standing a short distance away from the front balcony. She was completely still, staring intensely at a piece of paper gripped tightly in her hands.

From the distance, close to the farm area, Renna’s sweet, melodic giggling cut through the morning air, drawing my attention. Right out there, sitting next to the chicken house, was a massive cardboard carton. Even from this distance, I couldn't quite tell what it was, but I could clearly see a picture of a tractor printed on the front of the box. My chest tightened slightly; my guess was that it was yet another extravagant birthday gift left behind for Renna by Jaxon.

As much as I hated Jaxon's lingering shadow over this family, a quiet prayer escaped me: I just hope his intentions are genuine. I couldn't bear to see Nancy or Renna get hurt again.

“Renna!” Annabella’s sharp voice suddenly called out from the house. She stepped out of the back door, gesturing frantically for the little girl to come over. She muttered something to her, and a second later, I watched them both turn around and slip through the back entrance of the house, disappearing inside.

A heavy, ragged sigh escaped my lips. I turned my head back to face Nancy, who still seemed entirely too distracted by the piece of paper in her hands. But suddenly, as if sensing a shift in the air, her head snapped up.

Pure, unadulterated terror instantly washed over her features. Without warning, she let out a choked gasp and sprinted toward the farm, her feet flying over the dirt as she ran directly toward the large cardboard carton.

Before my brain could even register what was happening, the world violently erupted.

A massive, deafening explosion tore through the silence, hitting my ears with a loud, ringing force that completely caught me off guard. A terrifying ball of blinding fire and black smoke erupted into the sky, the sheer blast wave throwing everything around it away like ragdolls.

The package had been a bomb.

My hands flew to my ears, clamping down as the ringing noise threatened to split my skull. The heat hit my face in a violent wave. By the time the smoke cleared enough for me to see, my heart leaped into my throat. Nancy had been violently thrown backward onto the dirt by the force of the blast. But instead of staying down, she was already scrambling to her feet, moving with a manic, terrifying adrenaline as she dashed straight back toward the roaring flames that were floating through the air.

I dropped my backpack, dropping everything I had on me, and sprinted toward her with everything my legs had to give. The chicken farm had already caught fire, the dry wood feeding the flames as it spread rapidly inside the structure.

I managed to reach Nancy just a fraction of a second before her boots could step into the roaring perimeter of the fire. I threw my arms around her waist, using my entire body weight to violently drag her back away from the blistering heat.

“Are you trying to get yourself killed?!” I screamed at the top of my lungs, a mix of sheer terror and fury ripping through my throat because of how recklessly she was trying to walk directly into a furnace.

But the moment my eyes met hers, the anger vanished, replaced by a profound, agonizing heartbreak.

Tears were streaming down her ash-smudged face, her eyes completely wide, dazed, and entirely detached from reality. She didn't even seem to hear my shouting.

“Kelvin… where is Renna? I need to find Renna,” she whispered, her voice cracking before her fingers clawed into the fabric of my shirt, tightening with a desperate, crushing grip. Then, a primal, shattering cry tore from her chest. “I need to find Renna!”

Her tears broke something fundamental inside my soul. She began to wildly thrash against me, trying to force her way around my body to plunge back into the spreading flames. There was absolutely no way in hell I was letting her go in there.

“Nancy, I need you to calm down! Look at me!”

“No! Let me go! I need to find Anna! I need to find Renna!” she shrieked, fighting me with a strength born of a mother’s worst nightmare.

I held onto her with everything I had, physically dragging her further back from the heat. She kicked, she struggled, her desperate screams filling my ears with a kind of horrifying, agonizing pain I had never heard a human being make before. When her fist slammed violently down onto my shoulder, trying to break my hold, I didn't even flinch. I barely felt it. I just kept my eyes on the smoke and kept dragging her back.

“Mom!”

The little voice pierced through the chaos from behind us. Nancy froze instantly in my arms, her muscles going completely rigid.

I whipped my head around. Running across the grass toward us were Renna and Anna. A wave of profound relief washed over me, so strong it made my head spin. Only then did I let my tight grip loosen around Nancy's waist. The moment she was free, she dashed toward her daughter like a woman possessed.