Chapter 3

Roxanne's POV

"WHAT?! The black box got torched?!"

I grabbed Captain Thompson by the collar, nails digging into his uniform.

I'd been sitting at Beast Authority headquarters since dawn, desperate for answers. Four fucking hours, and this is the bullshit they give me?

"Ms. Roxanne, please stay calm..." Thompson wouldn't meet my eyes. "Around 3 AM, the evidence room caught fire. Electrical short. The black box melted completely—no way to recover the data."

"Electrical fire? What are the fucking odds?" My whole body shook with rage. "Who else has the juice to torch evidence under your noses? Silas!"

"Gets worse..." Thompson sighed, sliding me a document. "Thirty minutes ago, Mr. Vandro claimed the bodies. Said it was for 'proper burial.' Took both corpses."

"Are you KIDDING me?!" I nearly exploded. "How could you let him?!"

"Look, Vandro Corp owns half this city's defense contracts. They've got serious pull..." Thompson spread his hands. "Plus legally, he's your mate. He's got rights..."

"Where'd he take them?!"

"Vandro's smelting plant. Industrial furnaces that can melt anything in seconds. Took the helicopter wreckage too..."

That sick bastard had completely lost it!

Destroying bodies and evidence together—total cover-up! To save that murdering bitch's ass, to bury the truth, he'd cremate his own son without blinking!

I tore out of there, floored my car, and raced to the plant like my life depended on it.

I wouldn't let them just vanish. Even if I died trying, I was staying with my family.

---

Deafening machinery roared through the warehouse.

When I burst into the main foundry, a crane was hoisting the mangled helicopter remains. Those two charred bodies were already strapped to cockpit seats with steel cables, descending slowly toward furnaces glowing like hell itself.

Silas stood on the control platform in his perfect suit, watching with dead eyes.

Ivy hung on his arm, fake-trembling with a silk handkerchief pressed to her mouth, but her eyes were bright with twisted joy.

"STOP! Stop this right fucking NOW!"

I bulldozed past security guards, charging up the platform and throwing myself across the control panel.

"Silas! You don't even know how they died! You torched the black box, now you're destroying the bodies! What are you so scared of?!"

Tears streamed down my face: "You're letting them die without justice! Their ghosts will fucking haunt you!"

Silas's face twisted in disgust. He waved at his guards to drag me off.

"Roxanne, stop making a scene!" He stared down at me like garbage. "I'm honoring your mother and Aiden's wishes!"

"You're LYING!" I fought against the hands pinning me. "Since when did they want to be incinerated?!"

"Because you suffocated them!" Silas sneered, spinning his lies. "They were miserable in that house. Always came to me for support. Aiden told me himself—Vandro tradition is cremation. He wanted to go out clean, not get dissected in some lab!"

"FUCK YOU! He's eighteen! You think I'm buying this horseshit?!" I watched that cockpit dropping toward the flames, heart breaking. "You sick fucks!"

Then Ivy piped up from Silas's arms:

"Roxanne, I didn't want to say this..." Fake tears rolled down her cheeks. "But since you keep blaming us, maybe ask what your precious boy was really doing."

She whipped out a document: "Aiden was hanging with feral gangs at school! Last night he OD'd on Rage Serum—went completely psycho and crashed into restricted airspace! Hit my aircraft! How's that our fault?"

"That's BULLSHIT! My son doesn't do drugs!" I screamed, but Silas coldly slammed a forged report in my face:

"Coroner found lethal levels in his blood! Face facts, Roxanne! Your junkie son nearly killed innocent people!"

Workers around us started jeering:

"Drugged-out little shit!"

"Shoulda died sooner!"

"Almost murdered a pregnant woman!"

Hatred crashed over me like a tsunami.

I stared at those roaring flames and gripped the detonator in my pocket.

I'd strapped C4 to my chest before coming here. If they wanted to destroy everything, we'd all burn together.

"Silas! Last chance!" I screamed. "Stop this or we ALL die!"

"Drop the theatrics, Roxanne." Silas laughed coldly. "You're just using corpses to threaten me."

His voice went savage as he barked at the operator:

"I don't give a shit what this psycho says—DROP THEM! DO IT NOW!"

The operator yanked the lever. The crane released with a thunderous crash!

I squeezed my eyes shut, thumb jamming the detonator—

BOOM!

The warehouse doors exploded inward! Steel doors shattered like glass, filling the air with smoke and debris.

"Mom! There you are!"

A familiar voice cut through the chaos:

"Someone jacked my new chopper! I was gonna call you when I heard people saying I already died in a furnace! What the hell?!"

My eyes snapped open, turning toward that impossible figure in the doorway.

Silas and Ivy went white as sheets, stumbling backward:

"Aiden?! How the fuck are you still ALIVE?!"