Broken Bond: Claimed by My Ex-Husband's Alpha Billionaire Uncle-Chapter 94: Hard Choice

"Let him go," Damon ordered Diana.

Diana growled in frustration. "Are you cra—"

"Diana, let him go." Damon repeated, his voice sounded more firm than before.

Diana clenched her jaw but eventually loosened her grip, shoving Julian back with disgust. Damon’s cold gaze locked onto Julian as he stepped closer.

"Talk," Damon said, his tone dangerously low. "Or I’ll kill you right now."

Julian’s lips curled into a smile as he glanced at each person standing before him. "Like I said, Uncle," he drawled. "You need information from me, so you have to wait patiently."

Damon’s fingers twitched at his side, resisting the urge to snap Julian’s neck.

"Let’s make a deal," Julian continued, his smile widening. "You let me go, and I’ll let your dear sister go."

The more Charlotte listened to him speak, the more disgusted she felt. At this point, it was painfully clear that Julian didn’t see Priscilla as his mother.

How could someone be this heartless?

Damon’s expression didn’t waver. "Tell me her location."

Julian let out a soft chuckle. "Uncle, are you still not getting it? You are not in the position to negotiate. Your only choices are to accept my deal or not. It’s that simple."

Diana scoffed. "Damon, let’s not entertain this bullshit," she sneered. "He’s bluffing."

As rotten as Julian was, none of them truly believed he would actually kill his own mother.

"Really?" Julian hummed. He pulled out his phone and, with a few swipes, turned the screen toward them.

The image made Charlotte hold her breath.

Priscilla was tied to a chair, her eyes and mouth covered with duct tape. Her arms and cheek were bruised, clear evidence that she had been beaten.

Charlotte’s stomach twisted.

"How ... how could you ...?" Her voice was barely a whisper, but the horror in her eyes spoke volumes.

She couldn’t even continue her sentence because she was too speechless about what Julian had done.

"She’s pissing me off," Julian said. "She asked me to hand myself to the Nocturnal Order. She said it would be better than me having to surrender myself to the human police and pay a huge loss for my ruined business."

"But, I don’t want any of that," Julian continued. "I just want to live freely, and instead of helping me, she’s calling the Nocturnal Order to catch me in my hiding place."

Julian clicked his tongue, looking disgusted by his mother’s behavior. "She’s a bad mother."

Julian ran a hand through his hair, frustration evident in his eyes. "I’ve always done things my own way, made my own choices, but now ... she’s trying to control me, like I’m some puppet."

Diana lost control of herself, shoving him against the wall as hard as she could. "She is your mother, you moron! How could you throw her away just like that after everything she’s done to protect you all these years?"

She spat in his face. "If I had known you’d grow up to be this kind of trash, I would have strangled you to death the moment you were born."

Julian didn’t look offended. Instead, he casually waved his phone in front of her eyes. "Push me again, and I’ll shoot her head with a silver bullet."

"Fuck!" Diana shouted, stepping back a few paces.

Julian turned his head toward Damon. "So, what do you think, Uncle? Do you want to make a deal with me?"

"No matter how far you run, the Nocturnal Order will hunt you down," Damon said. "Just give up, Julian. At the end of the day, you’ll never be able to escape."

Julian let out a heavy sigh. "I guess my mother isn’t that valuable in your eyes. Then how about this? If you promise to let me go, I’ll tell you where you can find the antidote for your bitch."

Damon’s eyes widened, immediately shifting his gaze to Charlotte. That’s when he finally noticed that her wounds weren’t healing. If anything, her skin looked like it was beginning to melt.

Not just him, Charlotte, too, had only now realized that her wounds were rotting at an alarming rate.

"If her wounds keep festering like this, do you really think the baby inside her will survive?" Julian asked.

Damon crouched beside Charlotte, his hands hovering uncertainty over her. He was too afraid that if he touched her, he’d only make her injuries worse.

"Where is the antidote?" Damon narrowed his eyes on Julian, his entire body turning stiff. This time, he truly looked like a wild beast ready to tear his prey’s throat out.

Julian smiled, enjoying the way Damon’s expression darkened with barely contained rage. "The antidote is inside one of the rooms in the tunnel," he said, tilting his head slightly. "If you don’t find it within the next thirty minutes, the vial will shatter, and Charlotte, along with her baby, will die."

Damon’s body tensed, his fists clenched so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

He wanted nothing more than to rip Julian apart, but Charlotte’s weak breathing reminded him of what mattered most right now.

Julian took a step back, his smile widening. "Tick-tock, Uncle. Every second you waste glaring at me is a second closer to her death."

He smirked and added, "Oh, I almost forgot. If you even think about capturing me now, I can break the vial right this second."

Julian pulled a small remote from his pocket, his finger lazily hovering over the red button.

The way he toyed with it made it clear that one wrong move, and Charlotte was done for.

Charlotte clenched her jaw, frustration filling her heart. She knew she was a burden right now, and the guilt weighed on her, but the searing pain in her body reminded her this wasn’t her fault.

She never chose to be in this situation.

She wasn’t scared of dying. But if she died, her baby would die too.

And more than anything ... she didn’t want to go without at least trying.

She had a dream, however small, of building a life with Damon. A home. A family.

Dying? That wasn’t the scary part. What truly terrified her was leaving this world before she even had the chance to make that dream come true.

"I’ll let you go," Damon muttered through clenched teeth. He hated every second of this, but no matter how much he wanted to rip Julian apart, nothing mattered more than Charlotte and their baby. He couldn’t risk losing them.

Julian’s smile widened, clearly enjoying the way Damon was forced to swallow his pride. "Smart choice, Uncle," he said, spinning the remote between his fingers. "Now, go find that antidote before time runs out."

Damon didn’t waste another second. With one last glare at Julian, he turned and sprinted toward the tunnel.

"Find the antidote now!" Damon shouted at the people around him.

The urgency in Damon’s voice sent everyone into motion. His men scattered, throwing open doors and searching every inch of the tunnel. Time was slipping away, and the pressure was suffocating.

Damon moved faster than anyone, his sharp eyes scanning every room he entered. Shelves, cabinets, crates, he tore through them all.

Twenty minutes left.

Charlotte crawled and leaned her back against the wall, watching as people ran from one room to another.

She just realized that none of the rooms had anyone inside them, a sign that Julian had likely moved his prisoners elsewhere.

No, something told Charlotte that this was a trap.

After she guessed that, suddenly, the tunnel filled with a thick, toxic smoke. It spread rapidly, seeping through the cracks and swallowing everything in sight.

Damon coughed, covering his nose and mouth with his sleeve. "Shit! Everyone, move faster!" he barked.

The others immediately picked up the pace, frantically searching every corner, every hidden compartment.

They didn’t have time between the countdown and the suffocating smoke.

"Get Charlotte out of here," Damon ordered Diana. "And the rest of you, leave first."

Diana hesitated. "But—"

"Go! Now!" Damon snapped.

Diana gritted her teeth, torn between following orders and staying to help. But when she looked at Charlotte who was getting pale and barely holding on, she immediately made the decision.

"Be careful," said Diana to Damon.

Without another word, she rushed to Charlotte’s side, carefully lifting her up. Charlotte winced, her body weak and trembling, but she didn’t protest. She knew she couldn’t stay here.

"Hang on," Diana murmured as she helped her move toward the exit.

The others hesitated for a moment, but at Damon’s furious glare, they turned and sprinted out of the tunnel. The toxic smoke was getting thicker, making it harder to see, harder to breathe.

Damon turned back to the locked container, his jaw tight. Sixteen minutes left.

On the other side, Charlotte coughed violently as soon as she got out of the tunnel. She looked back toward the tunnel, struggling to reach the exit. "No ... tell him to get out now."

She didn’t want Damon to get hurt because of her. She didn’t want him to die.

Tears rolled down her cheeks. "Just ... just tell him I’ll be fine."

But that was a lie. The wounds on her body were decaying by the second.

She could die at any moment.