Darn Stupid Brother You Are by Mairee

Chapter 117

(Angel's POV)

The room was suffocating. I sucked in air as the reality of the situation sank in. Dr. Nixon-Aurora-stood before us with her face no longer covered by a mask. She still looked unaffected and cold. The mastermind behind all of this horror had been right in front of us the entire time.

I turned to my mom as my voice trembled. What is she even doing here? "Is it true, Mom? All Hendrix told me about you conspiring with Joe?"

She flinched and her gaze darted to the floor. Her hands clenched and unclenched at her sides as if she wanted to grab the words back before they could even escape her lips. "Angel..."

"Tell me!" I shouted; the betrayal stung deeper than any wound.

She didn't answer, but her silence spoke volumes. My knees nearly buckled. The woman I'd looked up to, the one I'd wanted to believe had my best interests at heart, had been a part of this nightmare.

I turned back to Nixon. "You pretended to be our ally. You fed us lies, acted like you were helping us. And now we find out you've been running this hellhole all along? How could you?"

Her lips curled into a bitter smile. "How could I? That's a question I've been asked my entire life, Angel. How could I survive when no one else did? How could I rise above the filth that tried to swallow me whole? You wouldn't understand." Before I could reply, the door burst open, and Dr. Joe stormed in with a gun in hand.

"Aurora!" he barked, his eyes wild. "You're running out of time. We need to leave" His words trailed off when his gaze landed on us. His confusion quickly morphed into anger. "What the hell is this?"

Aurora didn't flinch. "Relax, Joe. I've got it under control."

But Joe's expression twisted further when he truly saw her-wigless, maskless, exposed. "You?" he stammered in equal disbelief. "It was you all along?"

Aurora's smirk didn't waver. "Surprise."

Joe raised the gun, but Aurora moved faster. With a flash of a move, she grabbed his wrist, twisted it, and sent the weapon clattering to the ground. She shoved him aside, and before I could react, she bolted toward the hallway. "Go after her!" Hendrix shouted, already moving.

We chased Aurora through the center, past blinking monitors and walls smeared with the remnants of the rebellion. My legs burned as I pushed myself to keep up, my lungs screaming for air.

We burst through a set of double doors and onto a balcony overlooking the facility grounds. Aurora was cornered, her back to the edge. The chaos below was a fitting backdrop for the monster she truly was.

She held the gun she'd retrieved from the ground and aimed it at us with a steady hand. "Stay back," she warned, sounding eerily calm.

ends well for you?"

"You're all so naïve. Do you know how

slap. "Saved?" I spat. "You've butchered innocent people, destroyed families. For

"I was just like you once, Angel. A scared little girl with no one to

thought they could use me, own me I made them pay. And then I realized...

your greed and your crimes with some twisted idea of justice, but you're no better than the people you claim to hate." Her gaze hardened. "You don't get it, do you? This world

to die for your

I dreamed of running a place like this? No, Angel. I wanted to disappear, to erase every single scar those bastards left on me. But the world doesn't let you heal-not

voice grew colder, sharper, as she gestured toward the chaos below. "Do you know what it's like to be treated like garbage, Angel? To have men look at you like you're nothing but a plaything? Joe... he's no different from them. He looks at me and sees what he thinks he can control. A junior doctor, a puppet on his string. But I control him, Angel. I control this entire place.

own the world. So I started taking from them, one by one. Their money, their power, their

"You're insane. Do you even hear yourself? You're justifying mass murder

there and act like you wouldn't do the same if the tables were turned. You think you're different, that you wouldn't break if the world ripped you apart like it did to me?" She took a step forward as her eyes continued burning

shook my head fiercely as my voice also shook with rage. "No, I wouldn't. Because what you've done isn't justice it's greed. It's selfishness. You stopped fighting for survival a long time ago, and now you're

her back, the gun still steady in her hand, and continued with a cold determination that sent chills down my spine. "You don't understand the scale of what I've built, Angel. Do you think this center is the only one? Oh no. This is just one cog in the machine. The demand

family? A boy with a record? A woman whose only crime was being too broken to fight back? No one. That's who." Aurora's voice dropped into an unnatural tone. "This isn't just my revenge, Angel. This is a system. A perfectly oiled, profitable machine that exploits the cruelty of this world. People like Joe, they're tools. Weak, vile tools who think they're in control, but they're not. They never were. They're just the

and make her stop talking. But her words pinned me

on. It doesn't fund the operation. But harvesting... that's the future. That's the world we live in." Her voice softened, almost wistful. "At first, I thought I was helping. I targeted the worst of the worst-men who deserved to lose everything. But then, the demand grew, and I had to adapt. I had to reach younger, healthier donors. And places like this... they became my solution. A steady supply of 'fresh recruits,' as your dear mother

throat again, and this time I couldn't hold back. "You're disgusting," I spat. "You've turned pain into profit, suffering into a business. And you think that makes you powerful? All it makes you is empty. A hollow shell

of doubt that crossed her face. For the first time, I thought I saw a crack in her confidence. But her voice remained steady and her grip on the gun didn't shake. "Say what you

could open my mouth to reply, Hendrix, who

clattered to the floor as he lunged at her.

back with surprising strength and even drove a syringe into Hendrix's thigh. He

threw it over

her eyes. She charged, but I met her head-on and slammed into her with all the strength I had left. We collided, and her momentum carried us dangerously close to the

at the railing with her fingers gripping the cold metal as she dangled above the chaos below. For a moment,

the

and resignation in them. Would she finally give up? "You think you've won?" she

plummet to her death, but a net caught her mid-fall. The

group ran onto the balcony. Cylan and