The floor split apart with a deafening crack.
Concrete collapsed into the darkness below.
Smoke and dust swallowed the laboratory.
Lucien’s mind raced.
His mother.
His brother.
Sienna.
The children.
There wasn’t enough time.
Then he remembered the promise he’d made.
“This time… I’m taking everyone.”
He refused to break it.
⸻
“Damien!”
Lucien shouted.
“Take the children through the service tunnel!”
Damien nodded immediately.
“What about you?”
“I’m getting my family out.”
Victor stepped forward.
“I’m staying.”
“So am I.”
Elizabeth said.
Lucien looked at both of them.
“No.”
Elizabeth grabbed his face with both hands.
“You’ve spent twenty years trying to find me.”
“I’m not losing you now.”
For the first time since they had reunited…
She smiled like a mother instead
