Chapter 4

"Finnegan!"

Benjamin had already reached the ledge, but the moment he saw the sand swallow me whole, he did not hesitate at all.

He jumped straight back down.

With his one remaining arm, he clawed through the sand and dragged me out, forcing me upright so I would not suffocate.

However, I knew it could not last.

I was too weak, and there was no way I could make it back up again.

"Listen to me, Benjamin. I'm not going to make it. When I go under, you stay behind me. Use me as cover. When you get out, go find Rory."

Celeste's older sister, Rory Fallow, was the real head of the Fallow family. If anyone could clear my name, it was her.

However, Benjamin gritted his teeth and clung to me with his remaining arm.

"No, Finnegan! If you die, I die! I don't want to live with that monster!"

Though I was injured, I still easily overpowered him, a scion who was pampered since birth. Moreover, he had just lost and arm. I tied him tight with the rope despite his struggles.

If only one of us could live, it would be him.

Benjamin must have seen the despair in my eyes. He suddenly stopped fighting.

He said softly, "It's okay. I still have one good arm. If she starts throwing knives again, I'll block it. I'll be fine."

I did not have the heart to correct his naive words. I just felt pathetic..

After everything I did for the Fallow family, for Celeste, that was how my wife repaid me.

Just as I braced myself for another barrage of throwing knives, Celeste appeared directly above us.

One of her blades hovered in the air, its tip aimed right at Benjamin's head.

I had no strength left. No plan, no way out.

So, I flipped the phone camera toward him and shouted desperately, "Celeste! Please just trust me this one last time! This is your brother, Benjamin! I swear, I'm not lying! It's really him!"

In the video, Celeste rolled her eyes, impatient and cold. "Finnegan, still clinging to your little story? Even now?"

Then, Vincent's syrupy voice slithered through the speaker.

"Celeste, he's just playing on your sympathy. Your brother's a scion of the Fallow family. How could he look like that? Filthy, bleeding, and dressed in rags?"

Celeste replied, her tone cruelly sweet, "That's right. I picked out my brother's outfit myself last night for his date at the amusement park. This so-called 'brother-in-law' of yours can join you in the afterlife!"

"No!" I shouted.

The sky seemed to shatter as the knives came down. Benjamin threw himself in front of me.

"Finnegan," he gasped, "Live on... For the both of us."

A dozen blades struck him from head to toe. His body convulsed, blood pouring over me like rain.

As he died, his eyes were on me, filled not with pain, but with worry. He was thinking of me until his last breath.

Vincent's laughter cut through the wind.

"Well, isn't that touching? Dying together like that. Your bromance sure is touching. Well, at least he's not alone. My poor brother had to die all by himself."

The guards, who had started to recover, resumed their work, shoveling sand into the pit once more.

I stared up at Celeste, my wife, the woman who once swore she would love me forever.

There, she stood over me like an executioner, a demon who had just murdered her own brother.

She looked down on me with a smirk. "Kneel, and maybe I'll make it quick. I'll even bury you next to him."

Vincent grabbed her hand. "Come on, Celeste. Go help them finish this. Just looking at him reminds me of my poor dead brother."

The sand was rising fast, creeping past my chest, up to my neck. Benjamin's lifeless body lay against me, one arm still wrapped tightly around my torso.

"Celeste!" I screamed, voice breaking.

"Even if I die, I'll come back as a ghost and haunt you! You'll die a horrible death!"

Celeste clapped her hands with a smirk. "What a husband I have. So bold, even at the end. Then, go on... Die like a man."

Just as the sand reached my chin, engines roared in the distance.

Dozens of off-road vehicles surrounded us, lights cutting through the dust.

Celeste froze, her voice trembling as she looked toward the woman stepping out of the lead car.

"R-Rory? What are you doing here?" she stammered.