Chapter 45: The Choice That Breaks Everything

The estate shuddered as heavy boots thundered across the grounds.

The Circle had arrived.

Not stealthy.

Not subtle.

An army.

The walls vibrated with their footsteps — a cold reminder that Lena had seconds left before every exit was sealed, every corridor filled with men trained to kill without hesitation.

Mrs. Ward lay limp in her arms, her breathing shallow and fading.

Elias stood in front of her, hand outstretched, offering escape.

Alexander was somewhere above them in the dark, clawing through shadows to find her.

Her heart cracked.

Lena whispered, “I can’t leave him.”

Elias’s expression didn’t change, but his voice hardened. “If Alexander finds you before the Circle does, he dies. They want him removed. Permanently.”

Lena’s stomach twisted. “Why kill him?”

“Because he inherited everything your mother used against them,” Elias said. “He is the loose end they cannot afford.”

Lena shook her head violently. “You expect me to just abandon him?”

“I expect you to live,” Elias said. “For your mother.”

Her throat stung at the mention of her mother. “And what about you? Why save me?”

Elias looked away.

Just for a second.

Just enough.

“Because,” he said quietly, “your mother asked me to.”

Lena’s chest tightened. “You said that before—”

“And I meant it,” Elias cut in.

His voice cracked.

Barely.

But enough.

“Lena… she trusted me with the one thing she couldn’t trust the Circle with. With you.”

Lena’s eyes filled. “You let her die.”

He closed his eyes for half a heartbeat.

Pain.

Regret.

A wound that never healed.

“Yes,” he said. “And I will not make that mistake again.”

Another explosion shook the estate, rattling the corridor.

Alexander’s voice echoed distantly — furious, panicked:

“LENA! LENAAA!”

Hearing him broke something inside her.

Elias’s jaw tightened. “They’ve reached the west wing. He’s outnumbered.”

“No,” Lena whispered, voice trembling. “Alex—”

“Lena.” Elias stepped closer, voice low and urgent. “If you run to him now, you die beside him.”

“My mother died alone,” Lena snapped. “I won’t let him die alone too.”

Elias’s voice dropped to a whisper.

Not threatening.

Not cold.

Broken.

“I can save you,” he said. “I cannot save him.”

Tears blurred Lena’s vision. She looked down at Mrs. Ward — pale, bleeding, fading.

“I can’t… I can’t keep losing people,” she whispered.

“You won’t lose him,” Elias said. “Not forever. Just now. Just until the Circle is gone.”

Another explosion.

Another roar of voices.

Alexander’s voice — closer this time — shattered through the hall:

“LENA! ANSWER ME!”

Lena sobbed. “He’s going to find us.”

“No,” Elias said. “They will find him first.”

Lena’s heart splintered.

She had seconds.

Run with Elias?

Risk trusting a murderer, a hunter, a man tied to every shadow in her life?

Or stay?

And guarantee death for herself and for Alexander?

Her mother’s last hologram echoed in her mind:

“Trust your instinct. Trust your heart. But do not trust anyone who hides in the shadows.”

Lena lifted her eyes.

Elias stood in the shadows.

And yet—

her instinct screamed something unexpected.

He didn’t want the file.

He wanted her alive.

Her mother trusted him.

Mrs. Ward trusted him.

Victoria feared him.

The Circle hunted him.

And Alexander—

Alexander would die if she stayed.

Lena wiped her tears.

And she made her choice.

She placed the capsule in her pocket.

Stood.

Lifted Mrs. Ward’s head gently.

“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

Mrs. Ward’s lips curved faintly. “Go… child…”

Lena stood on shaking legs.

She turned to Elias.

“I’ll go with you.”

Elias exhaled — a tremor of relief passing through him so faint she almost missed it.

But then—

Alexander’s voice tore through the corridor, closer now, desperate:

“LENA! WHERE ARE YOU?!”

Lena’s heart broke clean in two.

Elias grabbed her wrist. “Move.”

She dug her heels in for one last second, tears spilling. “Let me say goodbye—”

“No.” Elias’s grip tightened. “Goodbyes get people killed.”

He pulled her down the narrow corridor.

“LENA!!!”

Alexander’s voice cracked with panic.

Elias hissed, “Run!”

Lena let out a sob and moved with him — leaving behind the man she loved, the woman who protected her, and the life she once knew.

A hidden door hissed open.

Cold night air rushed in.

They sprinted out into the forest, the darkness swallowing them whole.

Behind her, inside the house she once felt safe in—

Alexander screamed her name again.

This time, it was a broken cry.

A cry of someone who had lost everything.

And Lena’s heart shattered.