Chapter 16 - The Matriarch's Resolve
Two hours earlier, Leah had walked into the kitchen and found the burner phone sitting next to a handwritten letter.
She read Gabriel's final goodbye through a veil of heavy, heartbroken tears.
He had apologized for failing to protect their perfect peace and promised to love her for all of eternity.
But Leah was no longer the terrified, helpless waitress who had hidden in a dumpster five years ago.
She wiped her tears fiercely, her sorrow instantly transforming into a terrifying, maternal fury.
She marched down to the underground security bunker, slamming the heavy door shut behind her.
Ethan looked up in surprise, caught off guard by the intense, commanding presence radiating from the pregnant woman.
"Gabriel went to the shipyards to surrender himself, didn't he?" Leah demanded, not bothering to ask it as a question.
Ethan hesitated, bound by his fierce loyalty to Gabriel's final orders.
"Ethan, if you let him die alone in the dark, I swear I will never forgive you," Leah stated, her voice shaking with raw emotion.
"He is the father of my children, and we do not leave our family behind to bleed."
Ethan stared at her for a long moment, finally seeing the exact same unbreakable iron spirit that made Gabriel so formidable.
He nodded slowly, pulling his heavy tactical vest over his shoulders and grabbing a customized assault rifle.
"We only have thirty minutes to breach that compound before she executes him," Ethan warned her.
Leah walked over to the computer monitors, pulling up the old architectural blueprints of the shipping yard.
"Anya doesn't know that my charity used this exact port to import medical supplies three years ago," Leah pointed out sharply.
"There is an old, forgotten subterranean smuggling tunnel that leads directly beneath the central clearing."
Ethan smiled a dangerous, lethal smile, profoundly impressed by her brilliant tactical realization.
"You truly are a Mercer, Mrs. Leah," Ethan said proudly.
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Leah placed her hand protectively over her pregnant belly, her eyes burning with an unstoppable fire.
"Go get my husband back, Ethan."
