Love Me Back (Amelia and Daniel) novel Chapter 405

Samuel strode over to the bed where Amelia sat, and with a sudden, violent motion, yanked away the old plastic sheet covering it. Underneath, something glinted with tiny red lights.

Amelia’s eyes widened in shock. She’d never seen anything like it in real life, but she’d watched enough thrillers to recognize the unmistakable shape: a bomb.

Violet’s reaction was just as panicked. Only now did she seem to notice the blinking red dot behind her, and she let out a shrill, terrified scream. “I—I have a bomb too!”

Daniel’s face was stone-cold as he glanced from one screen to the other, eyes briefly flicking over the deadly devices.

Samuel leaned in so close to his own camera that his scarred face nearly filled the screen. When he grinned, the jagged mark on his cheek twisted like a centipede. “Daniel, let’s make this interesting. You get to choose—just one. You can only defuse one of these bombs. The other will go—” He made an exploding, fireworks gesture with his hand. “Boom. Up in smoke.”

He let out a laugh that was pure malice.

Violet was sobbing uncontrollably now, her tear-filled eyes fixed on the camera, calling Daniel’s name over and over in desperation.

Amelia, after her initial panic, grew eerily calm. It wasn’t that she wasn’t afraid; she simply felt hollow after foreseeing the outcome. She was intimately familiar with Samuel’s games. Odds were, the bombs were fake. Even if they weren’t, he’d never really blow her up—not yet. Samuel was far too twisted to let her die so easily; he preferred to savor her pain.

She also knew, in her heart, that when the moment of truth came, Daniel would pick Violet. Not her.

What did it matter if he’d whispered that he cared? Her few years with Daniel couldn’t compare to the deep ties he had with Violet, the friend he’d grown up with. When it came down to life and death, she would be the one left behind.

On the three screens, one woman sobbed beautifully in terror, another sat pale and silent, while Daniel’s face was a mask of anguish and defeat. It was a look no one had ever seen on Mr. Campbell before.

Samuel watched the drama unfold, clearly relishing every moment. “Come on, Daniel, this shouldn’t be so hard. Don’t waste my time,” he said, tapping the timer displayed on the bomb. “Six minutes, thirty-eight seconds left. You’ll need at least five minutes to defuse it, or else… well, you know how this ends. Not much time for you to think.”

He paused, lips curling into a sneer. “And just like that, after a few words, you’re down to one minute.”

One minute.

Sixty seconds.

Those sixty seconds stretched out, heavy and suffocating, like waiting for a verdict in a courtroom. Amelia lowered her eyes, then looked up again, meeting Daniel’s troubled gaze through the screen.

Just as now, she wanted to live. She couldn’t let Ruby lose her mother.

If she were gone, who would protect Ruby as she grew?

No. She had to survive.

“Daniel! I’m the only living Scott left! Aren’t you going to save me?”

Samuel’s smile grew cruel as he reminded, “Mr. Campbell, five seconds left. If you don’t answer, that means you choose neither.”

“Five—four—three—”

Daniel’s voice cut through, raw and sure. “Save Violet.”