Chapter 19 - The Poison TreeWe pulled Claire inside, laying her on the living room sofa while Alexander rushed to retrieve the emergency medical kit from the master bathroom.
Her face was deathly pale, her lips blue from the freezing cold. A deep laceration cut through her jacket along her ribs, blood oozing steadily onto the cushions.
"Claire! Claire, look at me!" I yelled, pressing a bundle of clean towels hard against her wound to stop the bleeding. "Alexander, call the local doctor! NOW!"
"No... no police... no hospital..." Claire wheezed, her hand clawing weakly at my sleeve, her dark eyes wide with unadulterated terror. "Emma... listen to me..."
"Don't speak, Claire, you're losing too much blood!" I begged, applying firmer pressure.
"It's not over..." Claire choked out, coughing up a drop of blood. "Eleanor... she didn't act alone five years ago... the board... the Royce-Sterling merger..."
Alexander rushed back into the room, kneeling beside us with bandages and antiseptic. "Claire, what happened to you? Who did this?!"
"Arthur Caldwell's brother... Marcus..." Claire gasped, fighting for every breath. "He found out... I gave you the audit records... He came to my apartment in Manhattan tonight... He took the St. Jude financial ledgers... the ones naming the overseas buyers!"
Alexander’s face turned into a terrifying mask of thunder. "Marcus Caldwell was in Dubai during the trial. He came back?"
"He's destroying... all the evidence..." Claire wept, her fingers digging into my arm. "He knows... he knows you're in Montauk, Alexander... He's coming to finish what Eleanor started... He wants to take Noah to silence the family line once and for all..."
Before Alexander could respond, the lights in the house flickered twice—and died.
The refrigerator hummed to a halt. The warmth of the heaters faded. Outside, the headlights of two heavy black SUVs cut through the thick snowfall in our driveway, blinding us through the dark living room windows.
The power line had been cut.
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From the hallway upstairs, a small, sleepy voice called out into the pitch-black house.
"Mommy? Daddy? Why is it dark?"
