Chapter 189: The End of Damian
"To the left! Take the service stairs in the freight corridor!"
Evelyn panted, her mind racing. Using her designer’s intuition for spatial structures, she quickly mapped out the best route. "The main stairs are definitely blocked. The service stairs lead directly to the rooftop helipad!"
"Go!" Ryan roared. He squeezed the trigger of his assault rifle, pinning two advancing mercenaries behind a stack of crates.
Damian looked terrible. The dizziness from blood loss made every step feel like walking on clouds, but he ground his teeth and pushed forward. He didn't slow them down; instead, he used his one good hand to grip Elias’s arm, terrified the boy would get lost in the chaos.
"Don't be afraid... kid..." Damian’s voice was a rasp. Every word brought the metallic taste of blood to his mouth.
Three more enemies dropped from the side scaffolding, trying to cut them off. Ryan’s eyes narrowed. Without looking back, he drew a tactical knife from his belt. Using his momentum, he lunged upward and buried the blade into one man’s carotid artery. Before the body hit the floor, he delivered a brutal spinning kick that sent a second attacker flying into a metal railing.
"Get them up there!" Ryan shouted to Damian, standing alone to guard the staircase entrance.
Damian didn't waste a second. He shoved Evelyn and Elias into the maintenance stairwell. Just then, two gunmen appeared on the platform above, aiming their rifles at Elias.
"Watch out!"
Damian threw aside his empty submachine gun, snatched a lead pipe from the floor, and lunged.
Bang! Bang!
Bullets tore into Damian's thigh, but he didn't stop. He swung the pipe with a sickening crack against the gunman's wrist and used his entire body weight to tackle both men off the platform.
"Damian!" Evelyn screamed.
"Keep moving! Don't stop!" Damian crashed onto the steps but scrambled back up, leaving a trail of red.
They finally burst onto the rooftop. Before they could catch their breath, eight heavily armed men in black tactical gear surrounded them. The leader was Marcus’s head of security, a man named Raymond. He leveled a heavy automatic rifle at them.
"End of the road, Ryan," Raymond sneered. "Let’s make this quick."
Ryan stepped in front of Evelyn and the child, dropping his empty weapon. His gaze was icy.
"Raymond, you’ve followed Marcus for twenty years, and you’re still just a loyal dog," Evelyn said, stepping out from behind Ryan.
"What’s that supposed to mean?" Raymond frowned.
"It means you’ve been played," Evelyn said coldly. "Marcus never intended for anyone in this factory to leave alive. He planted enough explosives in the foundation to level the entire block. He’s holding the detonator right now."
"You’re lying!" Raymond’s grip on his rifle tightened.
"I am Madeline’s daughter. I have her diary," Evelyn spoke rapidly. "Twenty years ago, you were the one who tampered with my mother’s car, weren't you? Marcus promised you enough money to disappear. Yet here you are, still risking your life for him. Do you really think he’ll let a witness like you live?"
Raymond’s expression wavered. The mercenaries around him began to exchange looks, their muzzles dipping slightly.
"Don't listen to her! She’s stalling!" Raymond barked, but the sweat on his forehead gave him away.
"If she’s stalling, ask Marcus yourself why the evacuation helicopter hasn't arrived," Ryan added with a mocking tilt of his head. "It’s because he never planned on picking you up."
The fragile trust shattered instantly.
"Dammit!" Raymond cursed, reaching for his comms to demand answers.
At that moment, the roof beneath them buckled. A massive explosion thundered from deep within the building. Marcus had detonated the first floor.
"He’s really going to kill us!" The mercenaries panicked. Some began firing at Raymond, while others ran for the stairs in a blind frenzy.
"Run! To the eastern jump ramp! Albert is waiting!" Ryan yelled, grabbing Evelyn’s hand.
The chain reaction of explosions made the entire structure tilt.
"Mommy!" Elias wailed, his small legs pumping to keep up until he tripped over a piece of warped rebar.
Simultaneously, a multi-ton concrete slab was launched into the air by a blast wave. It whistled through the smoke, falling directly toward the spot where Elias lay prone. The shadow swallowed the child.
"NO!" Evelyn’s scream was a piercing wail. She tried to lung back, but Ryan held her tight. The distance was too great; they would never make it.
A blood-soaked figure was faster.
Damian sprinted across the crumbling roof. At the final second, he threw his entire body forward and shoved Elias out of the way.
"Gah!"
A thunderous crash shook the roof. Dust billowed. Elias rolled several yards away, bruised but unharmed. But where Damian had been, there was only a massive slab of concrete. Blood immediately began to seep out from under the stone, staining the grey floor crimson.
"Damian!" Evelyn’s heart seemed to stop. She ran toward the slab like a madwoman.
Ryan’s eyes were bloodshot. He joined her, and together they strained against the concrete. Albert’s reinforcements finally arrived, and several bodyguards used crowbars to wedge the slab up just enough to pull Damian out.
But it was over. His lower body was crushed, his chest was caved in, and blood was pouring from his mouth.
"A medic! Get a medic!" Evelyn knelt in the dirt, her hands shaking as she tried to plug the wounds, but the blood wouldn't stop.
"Don't... don't waste your time..." Damian lay in her arms. His eyes, once clouded by ambition and madness, were now strangely clear. He reached up a trembling hand to touch her face, but stopped mid-air, not daring to leave a mark. Finally, his hand fell weakly onto the back of her hand.
"Evelyn... I’m so sorry..." Tears mixed with blood at the corners of his eyes. "Just now... I saw us back in college. You were drawing on the lawn... the sun was on you... you were so beautiful. I swore I’d protect you forever. How did I... how did it come to this?"
He remembered the last eight years—how he had been blinded by fame, how he had brought misery to the woman who loved him for the sake of a fake like Sienna.
"I was such a... bastard..." Damian managed a tragic smile. Every breath was a wet rattle in his chest.
Evelyn gripped his cold hand, her face drenched in tears. "Don't talk, Damian. Just don't talk..."
Did she hate him? She had wanted to kill him. But looking at this man who had traded his life for her child, the hatred felt like it had been burned away by the fire. All that remained was a profound, hollow sadness.