Chapter 2

I moved quickly and grabbed the assistant's arm. I barked a command.

"Nobody moves an inch without my direct orders!"

Suddenly, someone shoved me from the side. I turned and saw it was the site foreman.

"My brothers are in there! If you won't save them, I will! Anyone with a spine, follow me! These big bosses don't give a damn about our lives!"

His shout resonated with the crowd. Even my assistant ripped his arm away from me to follow them.

I yelled desperately, "The situation is unstable! You aren't professional rescuers. You might cause a secondary collapse and kill the survivors!"

The foreman spat back, "Just say you're scared of dying! Stop making up excuses!"

I tried to block them again. "The structure is compromised. Even a loud noise could bring it down. If you go in, you're dead, and so are the men inside. Who's going to answer for that?"

Before anyone could answer, Vanessa stepped forward with a righteous look.

"I'll take responsibility!" she shouted.

The foreman nodded. "Look at that! A woman has more guts than you!"

Vanessa looked at me, her eyes turning red as if she were heartbroken.

"Leo, please. Just go in with them. Consider it an act of penance for your sins."

"I'm doing this for your own good. Even though I'm your wife, I can't watch you keep going down this criminal path."

The crowd's eyes turned toward her, filled with suspicion.

"Mrs. Vance, what do you mean by that?"

Vanessa sighed deeply, wiping away fake tears.

"I didn't want to say anything. We're married, after all. But people are dying. I can't be an accomplice anymore."

"The truth is, this accident happened because Leo approved the use of cheap, low-grade materials. He's refusing to let you save people because he wants to frame Shawn York for it."

"He figures the more people die, the heavier the sentence for Shawn will be."

The assistant asked, confused, "Why would he frame Shawn?"

Vanessa looked at him with watery eyes. "Because he's convinced Shawn and I are having an affair. We're just childhood friends! He's so blinded by jealousy that he's willing to sacrifice lives to get revenge."

The men in the crowd began to crack their knuckles, looking at me with pure hatred.

"How did a man this petty become a manager? Leo Sterling, you're a monster!"

I backed away, taking a defensive stance. "I didn't do it! Shawn was the one who bought those materials. I rejected them!"

Vanessa cut me off. "Then why is your signature on the approval forms? Leo, stop lying. Saving people is what matters now. If you save them, your sentence might be lighter. Please!"

"If you go in now, I'll even tell them I forged your signature. I'll go to jail for you, Leo. Just save them!"

Her words moved the men to tears.

"Leo, you have such a good wife, and you're trying to ruin her! You're lower than a dog!"

"Since you caused this, you're going in with us!"

Several large men grabbed me and started dragging me toward the ruins.

I struggled wildly, screaming for them to stop.

"Don't believe her! This is a trap! Once we're inside, they just have to nudge a support beam and we'll all be buried!"

"Shut your mouth! Your wife is a saint. She'd never do that!"

They didn't listen. They tore at my clothes, pulling me toward the dark opening.

In a desperate move, I stripped out of my jacket and rolled away on the ground.

The men didn't bother chasing me. They charged into the accident site on their own.

A second later, a deafening boom echoed through the air.