The expert’s face went pale the moment he saw them. Lily’s parents felt the room tighten, the air thicken, as if the walls themselves were closing in on them. His usual calm, professional demeanor had vanished completely, replaced by a terrified whisper that made the hairs on the back of their necks stand up. Every second suddenly mattered more than anything else in the world. The word “evacuate” was no longer a calm, procedural suggestion—it became a desperate, urgent command, a line that trembled with unspoken danger. Lily watched, frozen, as her childhood home, a place once filled with laughter,...
Continues…