His Bride, Her Revenge-Chapter 69: The Lies We Live By

Julian’s blood pooled across the floor, stark and vivid under the harsh fluorescent lights. Cambria dropped to her knees beside him, her hands instantly slick with crimson as she pressed against the wound. Her heart thundered in her ears.

"Stay with me," she whispered, desperation cracking through her voice. "Don’t you dare leave me now?"

Julian’s eyelids fluttered. His mouth twitched into the faintest trace of a smile, pained but wry. "Told you... dangerous game."

Maddox knelt on Julian’s other side, his expression grim. He scanned the wound and then met Cambria’s eyes. "The bullet missed his heart. Barely. But it’s deep. We need to move. Now."

Across the room, the teenage boy, the prototype from Project Genesis, stood frozen in place, the weapon still extended, his face pale and stricken.

"I didn’t... I didn’t mean to..." His voice was a broken echo.

Cambria turned toward him, her breath uneven, but her tone steady. "You have a name?"

He hesitated, blinking back the horror. "They called me Genesis. But... I remember something else. Noah."

"Noah," Cambria repeated gently, tasting the name. It was soft on her tongue, painful in her chest. "You have a choice now. Come with us. Let us help you."

He stared at her, eyes wide and fractured, confusion battling fear. "He said you’d try to turn me. That love is just another kind of control."

"It’s not," she whispered. "It’s the only thing that’s real."

Noah’s shoulders sagged, the weapon in his hand slowly lowering until it dropped to the floor with a dull clatter.

The sirens above blared louder now, a countdown to catastrophe. Red emergency lights pulsed overhead, casting long, jerking shadows. In the sedated chamber, the capsules were beginning to open, one by one, the hiss of decompression signals marking the return of consciousness.

Children stirred within the glass pods. Some whimpered. Some thrashed. Some simply blinked, stunned.

Maddox activated the emergency beacon, his voice clipped. "Extraction team, confirm the approach. We are leaving with cargo. Immediate evac."

Cambria’s hand gripped Julian’s tighter. He coughed a wet sound, blood streaking his lips.

"Cam..." he murmured. "Get them out. I’ll hold the line."

She shook her head violently. "You’re not dying for me. Not again. I won’t let you."

Julian’s fingers clenched weakly around her wrist. "Not for you. For him."

He tilted his head toward Noah, who stood just a few feet away, his arms folded around his body like a makeshift shield.

Cambria’s eyes stung. "I’ll come back for you. I swear it."

Julian nodded faintly. "Make it count."

Maddox moved quickly, hoisting Julian’s weight over his shoulder. "We’re all going. No one gets left behind."

Noah led the way through the darkened halls of the lower level, retracing the memorized paths drilled into him by years of conditioning.

"Security system is tied to biometric signals," he said. "They won’t track me if we stay in Level 3 medical tunnels."

Cambria guided the children in groups, her voice calm but firm. "Stay together. Stay quiet. We’re almost free."

Some of the children clung to each other. Others reached for her hands. There were boys and girls, barely older than toddlers to barely younger than Noah. None of them should’ve seen what they had. freewēbnoveℓ.com

As they neared the final corridor, the emergency shutter ahead began to descend.

Noah didn’t hesitate. He sprinted forward, slammed his palm into the override panel, and held it down until the mechanism groaned to a halt.

"Go! Now!" he shouted.

Cambria ushered the last of the children through just as the shutter came down behind her with a thunderous slam.

Outside, the extraction team waited in silence, the only sound the low hum of the military-grade transport’s engines.

The wind tore across the field, kicking up dust and fear. The moment the hatch opened, medics rushed forward to receive the wounded and secure the children.

Maddox helped Julian aboard, who was barely conscious but alive. Cambria and Noah ushered the children up the ramp.

Cambria collapsed into one of the jump seats, her son curled against her chest, still dazed but safe.

Across from her, Noah sat in stunned silence, his hands clenched into fists, his eyes blank.

Maddox sat beside her, his voice low. "We made it."

She nodded slowly, tears falling silently down her cheeks. "We made it... but not all of us will make it back the same."

Julian stirred one final time.

"You made... a mother out of a weapon..." he whispered. "And a weapon out of a mother..."

Cambria leaned close, brushing his hair back. "Rest now. You did enough."

Julian exhaled.\n\nAnd this time, he didn’t inhale again.

The funeral was held two days later in an abandoned cathedral far from the city, where secrets could sleep alongside the dead.

There were no press, no cameras. Just those who had bled for each other, those who knew the truth.

Cambria stood in black beside Julian’s casket, her fingers wrapped around the hand of the boy who had once been called Genesis.

Noah stood beside her, his face unreadable.

Later, after the last words were spoken, Maddox approached quietly with a file in his hand.

"Interpol. MI6. CIA. Everyone wants access to the data Julian pulled from the core servers. Project Genesis wasn’t just an experiment, it was a blueprint for how to build empires."

Cambria didn’t look at the folder. "They can wait. He earned this silence."

Maddox lowered his voice. "He’s gone. But Evelyn... she disappeared again. Vanished off-grid."

"Cowards always do."

She turned toward the early dawn, the first rays of gold warming the frost-kissed grass.

"Where’s Noah?"

"Upstairs," Maddox replied. "Bell tower."

She found him there, standing at the highest window, his figure silhouetted against the pale sky.

"Julian was my father," he said without turning. "Wasn’t he?"

Cambria’s throat tightened. "You heard?"

"I always wondered why I didn’t look like the others. Why my memories... felt older. Like they belonged to someone else."

Cambria stepped beside him. "He didn’t know until the very end. But he loved you. I saw it in his eyes."

Noah was quiet for a moment. Then he turned to her.

"What do I do now?"

She didn’t hesitate. "You live. And if you want... you help us stop this from happening again. You help us make it right."

His eyes burned not with fear, but with clarity. "I want to. But I also want to destroy every single thing Blackwood ever touched."

Cambria placed a hand on his shoulder. "Then we do both. Together."

Elsewhere

In an undisclosed location, Evelyn Stone stepped into a pitch-dark control room lit only by flickering monitors. On one of them, Grayson Blackwood’s face appeared not live but recorded.

"He’s dead," she said aloud to the empty space.

The screen buzzed. Blackwood’s prerecorded voice spoke, calm and calculated. "Julian? A pity. But sacrifices must be made."

Evelyn crossed her arms. "What now?"

Blackwood’s voice grew colder.

"Now we finish what we started."

On the screen, a file appeared.

PROJECT EXODUS ACTIVATED