Chapter 14 - THE FINAL MOVE THEY MADE
They came for me an hour later.
Three of them. Elena, Vanessa, and Mark. Julian stood by the door, hands behind his back, watching. They dragged me up the ladder and into the main room. Sophie was nowhere to be seen.
Elena held a poker from the fireplace, tapping it lightly against her palm. Her composure had shattered. She looked wild, desperate.
“Hand it over,” she said. “Whatever she left you. Hand it over, and I will not hurt the child. Keep it… and I will make her watch as I hurt you first.”
Vanessa stepped forward, eyes bright and feverish. “Where is it, Adrian? Give it to us! It is over! She is dead! Nothing changes what already happened!”
Mark stood slightly apart, pale, avoiding my gaze. He looked like a man already counting the years in prison.
I stood facing them, hands loose at my sides.
“Listen to yourselves,” I said quietly. “Vanessa begs. Elena threatens. Mark cannot even look me in the eye. You already know you lost. You only do not know it yet.”
Elena stepped closer, raising the poker. “Last chance.”
“Claire recorded everything,” I said. “I have shared copies sent to three different lawyers. If I do not check in by morning, every file goes public. Every word you spoke. Every threat. Every admission of poison. Every name.”
That was not true—not yet. But they did not know that.
Vanessa grabbed Elena’s arm. “Destroy him now! Before he sends anything! Julian—grab him!”
Mark spoke up suddenly, voice cracking. “Wait. If copies already exist… killing him does nothing. We all go down. Every single one of us.”
Elena rounded on him. “Traitor! You helped! You are just as guilty!”
“I was in debt!” Mark shouted back. “I owed you money, Elena! I never meant murder! I never meant a child to be in danger! If this goes public… my wife. My own children. They lose everything. I will not go to prison for your greed!”
Elena struck him hard across the face. “You belong to us! You helped kill her! There is no turning back!”
Mark stood breathing hard, cheek reddening, eyes wild. He looked at Vanessa. At Julian. At Elena. And then he looked at me.
“Adrian,” he said, voice shaking. “If I testify. If I tell everything. Every step. Every dose. Every meeting. Can you protect my family?”
Elena screamed and lunged at him with the poker. Mark caught her wrist. They struggled. Vanessa stepped in, clawing at Mark’s face. Julian stood frozen, uncertain, watching the people who had paid him to help destroy themselves.
I saw my chance.
I bolted for the bedroom door where I had heard Sophie whimpering earlier. Elena saw me break away and screamed after me. Julian stepped forward to block my path—but I slammed my shoulder into his chest. He stumbled backward, hitting his head against the doorframe, and dropped unconscious.
I threw open the bedroom door. Sophie huddled in the far corner, eyes wide, terrified.
“Run!” I shouted, grabbing her hand. “Now!”
We crashed through the window, glass shattering around us, and dropped into the darkness outside. Behind us, shouts erupted. Elena screaming. Vanessa shrieking. Mark yelling for everyone to stop. But I did not look back. I carried Sophie as far and as fast as my legs would take me, straight toward the nearest town.
Elena had made her final mistake. She had trusted people bound only by fear and greed. And when fear became greater than greed—her alliance shattered.
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But as I ran, Sophie gasping beside me, I realized something terrible. Elena was not the only one desperate. Vanessa had lost everything she had waited years to seize. And desperate people do not surrender easily. They strike from the shadows. They burn everything down rather than walk away empty-handed.
Somewhere behind us, she was coming. And this time—she would not stop at threats.
