Dominic reaches the top of the shaft and immediately understands the danger: Rowan and Orly cannot escape through the vault, and if he cannot open the hatch above them, both will die. He discovers that the hatch is not merely rusted but has been deliberately welded shut, which turns a quick rescue into a desperate struggle against time.

Because going back for better tools would take too long, Dominic commits to using the angle grinder he has. He decides to break the small glass window in the hatch while Rowan and Orly are still near the bottom of the shaft so they can get air and communicate, even though the opening is far too small for either of them to climb through.

As Dominic grinds at the metal, he forces himself to concentrate, but the accusing voice he has long associated with Claire rises again. The voice drags him back to the beginning of his grief and guilt, insisting that part of him once wished Orly dead if it meant Claire could live.

In the middle of the rescue, Dominic finally sees that this voice is not Claire but his own monstrous shame. He remembers Claire as a loving, complex woman who gave her life for her child, and he rejects the idea that loving Orly means betraying her. Dominic tells the haunting within him that he will no longer be imprisoned by that choice, and when he looks down at Orly waiting below, he sees his son trusting him completely to save him.