Page 111 of Beautiful Ruins
Dad clenched his jaw, and turned to me, eyes wide and pleading. “I tried to save him, Sades,” he murmured. “Please believe me, I had no idea she had involved him. I’m going to make this right.” His eyes held mine, a silent apology and a goodbye wrapped in one last desperate glance.
I didn’t want to forgive him. But in that moment, I already had.
With a slight nod, Dad drove his shoulder into Snake, just enough to slip a hand inside his jacket. His gun came free in ablur of reckless courage. I flinched, pulling my legs up to my chest, and wrapping my arms around them.
Dad spun, aiming it at Snake’s head. But his bravery meant nothing when, in the next moment, Snake and Nicky had both drawn weapons of their own.
It was like time itself had splintered, every second dragging out with endless, brutal clarity. There was no way Dad and I were getting out of there alive, and at some point, I had to come to terms with the fact I’d failed everyone I’d ever loved. Logan. Rowan. Even my father.
Snake laughed, his finger tightening on the trigger. “You stupid bastard.” The threat in his voice cut through the space between them. “You think you can play both sides and come out clean?”
I wanted to scream, to throw myself between them, but my body refused to move. All I could do was sit there, numb, as the scene unfolded in front of me. The air reeked of rust and stale sweat, thick with the promise of blood.
“I’m done playing your game. This ends now.” Dad’s hand trembled slightly around the gun, but his voice was steady, a finality in it that sent a chill down my spine.
The first gunshot shattered the tense silence. My body locked up as I covered my ears, the ringing an incessant buzz in my head. Dad’s bullet tore into Snake’s stomach just as another shot rang out.
Dad’s body jerked, his eyes widening as the bullet from Nicky’s gun ripped through his back. Snake stumbled backwards, shock and something close to fear etched onto his face as he clutched at the bleeding wound.
In seconds, Nicky bolted for the exit, leaving behind the chaos of blood and betrayal in his wake.
“Dad!” I screamed, the word tearing at my throat as Iscrambled towards him, my heart pounding with each frantic movement.
He crumpled to the floor, the strength draining from him, the man I had loved and hated lying broken in front of me. Blood pooled beneath him, staining the dusty concrete a dark red. My breath rushed from my lungs, and I pressed my hands to Dad’s chest where the bullet had pierced straight through like he wasn’t made of flesh and bone.
Snake staggered towards the door, clutching at his stomach. Dad raised his gun with a shaking hand, the movement desperate, and fired off two more shots. One clipped Snake’s leg, sending him sprawling with a pained cry. It didn’t stop him. He clawed his way toward the exit, leaving a slick trail of blood and curses behind him.
“Stay with me, Dad. Please!” I pressed harder against his wound, panic consuming me as warmth seeped through my fingers, the pressure doing nothing to stem the relentless flow.
His eyes found mine. “Sadie,” he choked out, his breath hitching as he clung to consciousness. His hand weakly grasped mine, the grip slipping as his strength faded. “I’m so sorry, baby girl. For everything.”
Tears blurred my vision as I cradled his head in my lap, my fingers trembling with each stroke through his greying hair. I was desperate to keep him there. He couldn’t leave me, not like that.
My cries almost drowned out the sound of his voice as he struggled to speak, his words coming out in halted gasps.
“It’s okay,” he whispered, his eyes locking onto mine with a desperate intensity pierced right through me.
“Dad, please. Don’t leave me. Not now.” My sobs echoed around the emptiness.
We still had so much left unsaid, and I wasn’t ready to lose the last piece of my family.
Every breath rattled out of him, each one more fragile than the last. “I tried . . . to protect you,” he said, his voice barely passing through his lips. Pain etched deep shadows across his face. “And Logan. From her. Even when I did . . . everything wrong.”
A sob tore from somewhere deep, raw and unrestrained, echoing off the icy walls that surrounded us. He had been everything and nothing all at once. And now he was slipping away, leaving me all alone in a world I had no right to tread through.
The smell of iron and gunpowder thickened in my nose, a cruel reminder that this wasn’t just some nightmare I could wake up from.
“I know, Dad,” I said through my tears. “I know.”
His eyes, so much like my own, flickered with regret and something I imagined was peace. His life was slowly draining from him with each passing second.
I pressed my forehead to his and let my tears fall onto his cheek, each drop a farewell, a forgiveness, an “I love you” that I couldn’t say out loud. “I forgive you,” I whispered, the words breaking as they left my lips.
A faint smile tugged at the corners of his mouth, a flicker of warmth. “My brave girl,” he murmured. “Always . . . so strong.” His eyes, once so sharp and full of life, began to cloud over. “Read the diary.” He gasped, sucking in a strangled breath. “Truth . . . in there. I’m sorry . . . I couldn’t protect you. Couldn’t fix it . . .” He fought to finish the sentence, to say something that tied up all the loose threads he was leaving behind.
But his words trailed off, unfinished, his gaze fixed on something beyond me, eyes growing distant—lifeless. His limbs jerked once, then sagged against me, sudden andfinal.
The warehouse around us was silent again. No footsteps. No gunshots. Just the cold hum of death settling into the walls.
