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بيت / Romance / No Saving the Woman Who Killed My Daughter / Chapter 4

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Chapter 4

مؤلف: Inkbound
Ruby didn't leave.

Before long, four black SUVs rolled into the camp. The number of bodyguards instantly doubled.

Ruby's assistant sat at a table, making phone calls loud enough for the entire camp to hear.

"...Yes, make sure they all get the message. Any guide who refuses this job gets blacklisted immediately. Use every resource to ruin them. Yes, everyone. No exceptions."

Arthur walked over, holding a tin mug, his face dark.

"Is she insane? She's going to ruin everyone in this camp."

I said nothing.

David emerged from his tent and walked up to me, hesitating. Kieran followed closely behind, his face flushed red.

"Zachary…" David spoke, his voice strained.

"I know you have your reasons, but… Kieran and I don't have any other skills. We need this job to put food on the table. His wife is giving birth next month, and our family—"

With a heavy thud, Kieran dropped to his knees. His knees sank into the loose sand, leaving deep ruts.

"Zachary, please. Just agree to it."

David trembled, then kneeled right beside Kieran.

I bent down to pull them up. "Get up."

Before I could, two bodyguards stepped up from behind and grabbed me, pinning my arms to my sides.

I struggled, but I couldn't break their grip.

A third bodyguard lunged from the side and slammed my face straight into the dirt.

The scalding sand pressed against my cheek, burning my skin.

Ruby slowly walked into my line of sight.

She crouched down, took off her sunglasses, and looked down at me. "If you don't say yes, none of these people around you will ever make a single dime. I'll make sure of it."

Her voice was perfectly calm, devoid of any emotion. "I've been in business a long time, and there hasn't been a single thing I couldn't buy."

I turned my head slightly to look at her.

There was no warmth or urgency in her eyes—only a cold, absolute sense of dominance.

Exactly like eight years ago.

She had that exact same look back then. "I don't care. My brother is in trouble too. Just name your price."

The sound of a struggle came from nearby.

Two bodyguards dragged Arthur out into the blazing sun.

Arthur was shouting curses, but they shoved a hand over his mouth, cutting him off into muffled grunts.

Under the direct sunlight, his face turned bright red within a minute.

The desert sun at this hour would cause heatstroke in 30 minutes. In two hours, it would kill him.

"Stop!" I roared. "I'll do it."

The bodyguards finally let go.

I slowly pushed myself up from the sand.

Ruby stood up and brushed the dust off her skirt. "See? That wasn't so hard."

I looked up at her, my eyes completely cold. "Do you want to know why I refused to go?"

She raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

"Because if I go into that desert, your brother won't survive."

Ruby's expression didn't change, but her lips twitched faintly. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"I will bury him out there with my own hands." I spoke calmly, pronouncing every single word clearly. "My daughter took her last breath out there. In the exact same spot your brother is in right now."

The wind died down.

Ruby's face turned instantly pale, her composure finally shattering.

The entire camp went dead silent. Only the distant sand dunes kept up their low hum.

"Now, do you still want me to go?"

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  • No Saving the Woman Who Killed My Daughter   Chapter 10

    I found Ruby at dusk the following day behind a wind-eroded rock near 39°N.The rock resembled a broken wall, blocking part of the wind. Behind it, a half-human-shaped depression was pressed into the sand.Ruby was curled up there.Her knees were drawn up, her hands tucked against her chest as if she were merely asleep.Her skin had dried to a pale ash, and her lips were split into deep, jagged cracks.I folded her fingers inward, curling them closed one by one.Then, I wrapped her in a sleeping bag, secured her to the stretcher, and loaded her onto my camel.We walked for over ten hours through the night until darkness swallowed the landscape.I didn't know what to think during those hours. It felt like something inside me had finally reached its end, leaving behind a profound emptiness.I couldn't sleep much that night. We hit the trail again just as the sky began to gray.By the time we cleared the desert, night was falling once more.Arthur was waiting at the camp entran

  • No Saving the Woman Who Killed My Daughter   Chapter 9

    That night, I sat alone in my tent.Joey's red string lay on the table. The knot was tied tight, and the thread was frayed and rough, broken in several places and holding together by only a few remaining strands.I sat there until the sky began to turn.A faint light gradually bled through the tent walls.The sandstorm had dropped to a category 4. It would die down completely on the next day.Arthur didn't disturb me.The entire camp was dead quiet, save for the occasional, distant groan of a wounded man.I pulled Joey's photo from my pocket.It was taken on her 18th birthday. She was smiling sweetly behind a birthday cake.On the back, she had written a single line. "I'm going to be a scientist and turn the desert into an oasis."Half of her wish came true.At 22, her paper was published in a major academic journal. And then, she died in a place where no one could find her.At daybreak, I filled all my canteens—the same three flasks of water, a knife, and a compass.I did

  • No Saving the Woman Who Killed My Daughter   Chapter 8

    In the end, I never made it into the deep interior.It wasn't because I chose not to go but because time ran out.This sandstorm was far more unusual than the one eight years ago. The wind and sand moved with a terrifying, unnatural speed.The category 12 sandstorm hit at least a day ahead of the weather forecasts.In conditions like this, vehicles were useless, and neither man nor camel could stand against it.When I returned to the camp, I was met with a scene that brought me to a sudden halt. Over 40 SUVs were lined up in a column. Their engines roared, and their roofs were strapped tight with water barrels and supply crates.The crowd was a chaotic mess. I recognized a few faces from the past few days, but most were complete strangers.Arthur was standing in front of the convoy, shouting at the top of his lungs, "Are you all out of your minds? A category 12 sandstorm is about to hit! Going in now is a suicide mission!"Nobody listened to him.Ruby's assistant was sitting

  • No Saving the Woman Who Killed My Daughter   Chapter 7

    The wind picked up with a sudden vengeance, raining fine granules of sand down from the sky.Ruby stood ten feet away, clutching her phone with a death grip.Her assistant shielded her by half a step, and the bodyguards closed ranks around her once more.I looked at the wall of people, then spoke slowly. "Since you all want to know what happened eight years ago, I'll make it perfectly clear."No one interrupted."My daughter Joey was 22 years old, a graduate student in geology. Eight years ago, she went into the deep interior of Taklaven Desert with her professor's team to collect sand samples."On the third day, they were hit by a once-in-a-century sandstorm. Their GPS went dead, their vehicle sank into quicksand, and their supplies were only enough to last 36 hours."Ruby's lips began to tremble."She managed to send out one final distress signal. The coordinates were 39°12' N, 94°47' E. Dispatch received it and activated an emergency response, deploying the only fully equipp

  • No Saving the Woman Who Killed My Daughter   Chapter 6

    But my answer changed the next morning. It wasn't because of the money, and it wasn't because of the threats.At dawn, Arthur pushed open my tent flap, holding a weather report. He spread the map out in front of me and pointed to a line tracking across it."A category 12 sandstorm is expected to hit the deep interior within 48 hours." His voice was heavy."If Howard is still alive, given his current dehydration rate, he has three days max. But once the storm hits, even satellite tracking will be useless."I closed my eyes and thought about it for a moment."This storm looks exactly like the one eight years ago," Arthur added.Those words cut deep into a place I had kept locked away for eight long years.I pushed the map aside and walked out of the tent.Ruby's people had set up a row of canopies outside the camp, filled with folding tables and a mountain of laptops. The outdoor air conditioning units hummed loudly.She was sitting inside, sipping ice water.As I walked over,

  • No Saving the Woman Who Killed My Daughter   Chapter 5

    "Who the hell are you?" Ruby asked.She took a half-step back, and her assistant instantly jumped in front of her."Ms. Shaw's brother is basically royalty. He might be a bit of a wild child, but he would never waste his time messing with low-life scum like you. If you're going to invent a story, at least make it believable. Have you even looked in a mirror lately?"Ruby stayed quiet for a long while before she finally managed to piece her composure back together."I don't care who you are, but I believe any grudge can be settled."She slipped her sunglasses back on."Figure out what your terms are and tell me directly. My brother's life isn't going to wait around for you to throw a tantrum."With that, she turned on her heel and began walking away.Arthur was finally let go from the blazing sun. His lips had already cracked. He downed half a flask of water before he could even catch his breath.He walked over to me and whispered, "Zachary, were you serious about that?"I did

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