All Chapters of You Chose Her I Chose Revenge : Chapter 11 - Chapter 14

Three Years Later​The sun rose over the Blue Ridge Mountains, painting the sky in brilliant strokes of gold and violet.​I stood on the glass-enclosed observation deck of our subterranean estate, holding a warm cup of coffee. Beyond the heavy, triple-paned reinforced glass, the mountain peak was quiet, untamed, and breathtakingly beautiful. Nature was slowly reclaiming the earth, weaving thick green vines over the rusting ruins of a fallen world.​Down in the courtyard, eight-year-old Lily was laughing, her high, bright voice echoing through the morning air as she ran through the indoor greenhouse, chasing our rescue golden retriever, Amber. Her cheeks were flush with pink health, her hair shiny, her laughter completely unburdened by the scars of the past.​She remembered nothing of the cold gates. She remembered nothing of the terrifying dark or the sounds of the dead. In her mind, life had always been this—warm rooms, fresh strawberries grown in the hydro-farms, bedtime stories, an

​The autumn wind blew cold through the mountain pass, carrying the crisp scent of pine and impending snow.​In the lower tactical room of the compound, a large topographical map of the state was laid out across the central table. Miller and two senior scouts stood around it, marking trade routes and safe zones with wooden blocks.​"We’ve cleared the old highway bypass down to the river," Miller said, looking up as I walked in. "The trade route is secured for the winter. But our scouting party found something unusual near the old county landfill yesterday."​I walked over to the table, resting my hands on the edge. "Unusual how?"​"A small group of scavengers," Miller explained, sliding a written log across to me. "Around five or six of them. Living in dirt dugouts, completely malnourished, clad in rags. They aren't hostile—they’re too weak to fight. But they’ve been following our supply trucks at a distance for three days, begging for scraps."​I glanced over the scout report. Malnou