Chapter Twenty-Five: Scorched

Lark awakens drugged in darkness on a cold metal floor, gradually realizing she is sealed inside a rotary batch oven. Through a narrow window, Abe Midus appears, taunting her with Biblical verses and revealing he abducted her from home, injured by her dog in the process.

Abe outlines his plan: he can start the oven on a timer, track Rowan Kane’s car, and remotely detonate a bomb beneath it, as well as email fabricated evidence framing Lachlan for multiple murders. He declares the choice is Lachlan’s, not his—forcing a moral dilemma.

Lachlan arrives and tries to free Lark, but Abe demands he disarm. Abe sets an ultimatum: stop the oven and save Lark, or stop the bomb and save Rowan. Seeing Lachlan’s anguish, Lark chooses for him—“Save Rowan”—even as the oven begins its cycle, heat and airflow rising around her.

As alarms blare and the chamber heats, Rose reaches the control area with Lachlan. The emergency stop is sabotaged, so Lachlan shoots out the window, venting heat. They force the door, drag Lark onto the cool concrete, and find Abe dead from a gunshot, his earlier tool discarded beside him.

Rose confirms Rowan and Sloane pulled off the road and escaped their vehicle before any detonation. Shaken but alive, Lark and Lachlan cling to each other; he confesses he can’t live without her, and they reaffirm their commitment in the aftermath of Abe’s failed vengeance.