After I Refused to Save My Ex-Wife’s Brother, She Went Crazy Chapter 07

After I Refused to Save My Ex-Wife’s Brother, She Went Crazy Chapter 07

The wind surged. Sand sifted down from the sky like fine dust.

Claire stood three yards away, phone clutched in her hand.

Pierce stood half a step in front. The guards closed in.

I faced them all and spoke slowly.

“You want to know what happened eight years ago? I’ll tell you.”

No one interrupted.

“My daughter, Stella Cole, was twenty-two, a geology graduate researcher. She entered the Crimson Dunes with her academic advisor’s team to collect core samples. On the third day, a once-in-a-century sandstorm hit. The GPS went dead, their vehicle sank into quicksand, and their supplies would only last thirty-six hours.”

Claire’s lips were shaking.

“She sent out her final distress signal. Coordinates 39°12’N, 94°47’E. Dispatch initiated emergency response and deployed the only full SAR team.”

I paused.

“And then?”

Vince asked for everyone.

“And then the entire rescue route was diverted. Twenty-three people and three vehicles turned around and headed to a resort hotel at the edge of the desert.”

I lifted my head and looked at It was Claire.

“To save some guy who got lost outside a hotel lobby, a grown man who couldn’t find his way back through the front doors while still holding half a bottle of water.”

Claire was trembling. She looked like she was falling into an ice pit.

She opened her mouth, but I didn’t let her speak.

“How much did you pay to reroute that rescue? Did you even think about our daughter when you did it?”

“I—”

“I collapsed outside that dispatch gate and slammed my hands against it until my skin split and blood ran into my eyes. I begged them for a rescue team, one vehicle, one person, anything. They watched me through the glass, and no one moved.”

The wind slammed the trailer siding again.

Sully turned his head. Matt crouched, wiping his eyes with his sleeve.

Claire’s legs gave out. She fell to her knees in the sand.

“I was wrong.”

Her voice was different now.

Not the smug tone from before.

“Please save him… Ethan, please… The dead are gone. The living still need a chance.”

I looked down at her.

The dead are gone. The living still need a chance.

Stella was twenty-two. She loved her work. Her faculty mentor said she was the most gifted student in a decade.

She can’t come back.

But Leo—Leo still has a chance. Because he’s alive.

Stella was only ashes now, buried in the land she had loved.

“Do you think you have the right to say that to my daughter?”

I turned, took the reins of my camel, and walked into the deep desert.

Behind me, I heard her voice. The wind was too strong. I couldn’t make out the words.

Her voice faded behind me until the wind swallowed everything.