Chapter 9 - The Scorched Earth
My heart stopped completely as the blaring smoke alarms shrieked through the live camera feed.
The automated voice repeated the terrifying fire warning over and over again into the snowy night.
I watched in horror as thick, toxic black smoke began to billow aggressively out of the basement ventilation shafts.
David had not just run away into the woods to cowardly escape the freezing temperatures.
Before he climbed into the ventilation duct, he had deliberately sabotaged the main boiler system.
He wanted to violently burn my beautiful house to the ground out of pure, spiteful, malicious revenge.
The SWAT officers immediately began to fall back, dragging my arrested family rapidly toward the safety of the main road.
"Call the local fire department immediately!" Michael shouted, covering his mouth against the blinding, toxic smoke.
I sat completely frozen at my desk, watching my only true sanctuary rapidly filling with lethal smoke.
Ethan’s calm, steady voice suddenly crackled loudly through my encrypted military earpiece.
"Commander, do not panic, I still have full remote access to the internal mainframe."
"I am triggering the emergency halon fire suppression system right now."
I watched the video feed intently as heavy metal nozzles descended swiftly from the ceiling in the basement.
A massive cloud of chemical retardant deployed instantly, suffocating the raging flames in a matter of seconds.
The fire was completely and utterly extinguished before it could even reach the wooden floorboards above.
The thick smoke slowly began to clear from the high-definition camera lenses mounted around the property.
The structural integrity of my villa was perfectly safe and completely intact.
I let out a long, shuddering breath of pure relief and leaned heavily back in my desk chair.
David's final act of cowardly vengeance had failed just as miserably as the rest of their pathetic, greedy plan.
Local police eventually found David miles down the road, half-frozen and walking aimlessly in the snow.
He was immediately arrested and formally charged with arson and the attempted destruction of federal property.
My father, sister, and brother-in-law were all sitting in separate, cold interrogation rooms by sunrise.
Michael called me to confirm that they were currently facing decades in federal prison without bail.
They would never, ever be able to bother me or steal from me again for the rest of their miserable lives.
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I closed my laptop, packed my duffel bag once more, and officially requested a weekend leave.
It was finally time to go back to my real home and reclaim my sanctuary.
