Blurb：
When Fire Captain Ryan, the best in the state, is trapped in a chemical plant explosion, his brother Leo turns to the one person who could save him: Dr. Ava Chen, a top structural engineer. But Ava chooses her mentor Marcus's million-dollar project over Ryan's life, leaving Leo to watch the building collapse. As Leo kneels beside his brother's body, clutching Ryan's badge, he vows to uncover the truth behind Ava's betrayal. A story of heroism, sacrifice, and the chilling choice between a life and a career.Content：
My brother was the best Fire Captain in the state. During a chemical plant explosion, he was trapped deep inside the inferno, covering the retreat of a rookie.The entire structure groaned, threatening a secondary blast at any second. The Battalion Chief gave the final order: no one else goes in.
I knelt on the ground, sobbing, as I dialed my girlfriend’s number. My Ava.
She’s one of the top structural engineers in the country. Only her modeling, her analysis, could find the safest rescue path in the sliver of time we had left.
Ava’s voice on the phone was calm, resolute.
“Wait for me, Leo. I’m bringing my team and the equipment now. Keep the scene stable. Don’t let them give up.”
But as I stood guard at the police tape, locked in a standoff with the Chief, a text from her lit up my screen:
[An important academic conference just came up. You’ll have to find someone else for the rescue.]
I clutched my phone, kneeling in the muddy earth, listening to the muffled booms from within the blaze. I called her back, again and again.
On the 99th try, she finally picked up. The background was filled with the clinking of glasses and cheerful chatter.
My voice was a raw whisper. “Ava, my brother is dying. You’re the only one who can save him. Please, come back.”
A brief silence, then the line went dead.
The next second, a new post popped up in my feed, from her old college mentor.
It was a photo. Ava, beaming, laughing with several men in sharp suits.
The caption read: [A huge thank you to Dr. Ava Chen for her critical technical support, clearing the final hurdle for us to land the project.]
So, the mandatory conference… was helping her mentor secure a multi-million-dollar contract.
While my brother’s life hung by a thread, she chose another man’s future.
1
By the time I rushed the police tape again, the entire building had collapsed.
When they carried my brother’s body out, he was so blackened by smoke he was unrecognizable.
The rescue captain took off his helmet and just shook his head at me.
“No chance, son. Asphyxiation, then crushed by the debris. When we got to him, he was still shielding a rookie with his own body.”
My world imploded. My legs gave out, and I crumpled to the ground.
The firefighters from my brother’s unit came to help me up.
“Your brother is a hero, Leo! He saved all of us!”
Their eyes were filled with grief, with regret, but mostly, with a quiet, burning anger.
They knew, just as I did, that the one person who might have given my brother a fighting chance, Ava, was at a champagne toast, celebrating her victory.
The Chief took off his own jacket and draped it over my brother’s remains.
My heart felt like it was being carved out of my chest, but I tried calling Ava one last time. The number had been disconnected.
I couldn’t hold on any longer. I collapsed next to my brother’s body, sobbing, my trembling hands trying and failing to close his wide, staring eyes.
My tears fell onto the badge pinned to his chest.
My brother, Ryan, never took that badge off.
He said it was to remind himself that lives were on his shoulders.
Running on nothing but fumes, I escorted my brother to the morgue and personally saw to his cremation.
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The End