Chapter 8 - The War Their Fathers Started
The window exploded inward.
Adrian pulled Clara and Anna to the floor.
“Back room!”
Another shot tore into the wall.
Clara crawled toward the hallway.
“Who’s shooting?”
“I don't know.”
That was the problem.
Richard had men outside.
Victor had men outside.
Marcus had men outside.
Three sides.
Three betrayals.
One farmhouse.
Adrian kicked open the back door.
A man was waiting.
Adrian struck first.
The gun fell.
Clara grabbed it.
Adrian stared at her.
“What?”
“My mother taught me.”
Anna shouted from behind them, “Not very well!”
Even Clara laughed.
For one insane second.
Then gunfire erupted outside.
Victor shouted.
“Richard!”
Richard’s men returned fire.
Marcus disappeared behind the vehicles.
Adrian understood.
“Marcus started it.”
“Why?”
“To make Richard and Victor kill each other.”
Anna looked at the folder in Clara’s hand.
“And then he takes her.”
A vehicle roared toward the house.
Adrian shoved both women behind a stone wall.
The SUV crashed into the porch.
Marcus emerged.
“Clara!”
She aimed the gun.
He smiled.
“You won't shoot.”
“She might not,” Adrian said.
“I will.”
Marcus raised his hands.
“Then you'll never know where Lily is.”
Adrian froze.
Clara's face changed.
“What?”
Marcus smiled.
“Call home.”
Adrian did.
Evelyn answered immediately.
“She's gone.”
His blood turned cold.
“What happened?”
“The alarms went off. Pierce found a broken window.”
Marcus laughed.
“You really should stop leaving that child behind.”
Adrian charged him.
Marcus fired.
The bullet struck Adrian’s side.
Clara screamed.
He fell.
Victor shot Marcus in the leg.
Richard's men surrounded them.
Everything stopped.
Clara dropped beside Adrian.
Blood spread through his shirt.
“Look at me.”
“I'm fine.”
“You were shot.”
“I've had worse.”
“Stop trying to sound impressive.”
He almost smiled.
Victor approached.
“Pressure on the wound.”
Clara looked up at her father.
For the first time, she saw something besides a criminal.
Fear.
For her.
Richard emerged from behind the vehicles.
“Enough.”
Victor aimed at him.
Richard aimed back.
Anna stepped between them.
Both men froze.
“Thirty years,” she said.
Her voice shook with fury.
“Thirty years of this.”
“Anna, move,” Richard ordered.
“No.”
“Move.”
“You stole Victor's company.”
“He deserved it.”
“You destroyed Adrian's childhood.”
“I protected him.”
“You hunted my daughter.”
Richard looked at Clara.
“I never wanted her hurt.”
“You wanted her controlled.”
Anna turned toward Victor.
“And you are no better.”
Victor lowered his weapon slightly.
“You imprisoned Evelyn.”
“I protected—”
“No.”
Anna's voice cut through him.
“You punished Adrian by taking his wife because he had his father's name.”
Victor said nothing.
“You both turned love into ownership.”
Clara pressed harder against Adrian's wound.
He whispered, “She's terrifying.”
“Runs in the family.”
Sirens approached.
Marcus looked alarmed.
Richard did too.
Victor smiled faintly.
“You called them?”
Anna nodded.
“Before you arrived.”
Federal agents flooded the property.
Not local police.
Anna had spent years building evidence.
Financial crimes.
Kidnapping.
Conspiracy.
Attempted murder.
Richard Blackwood was arrested.
Marcus Reed was carried away in restraints.
Victor lowered his gun and surrendered.
Clara stared at him.
“You could run.”
He looked at her.
“I've spent enough years running.”
Then he glanced at Adrian.
“Take care of her.”
Clara frowned.
“I don't need him to take care of me.”
Victor smiled.
“Definitely your mother's daughter.”
But Lily was still missing.
Adrian refused an ambulance until they knew where she was.
Then Clara noticed Marcus's phone.
She grabbed it before agents bagged the evidence.
The last outgoing message contained coordinates.
Blackwood Manor.
Not the house.
The old gatekeeper’s cottage.
They returned with federal agents.
Evelyn ran beside them.
The cottage door was locked.
Adrian kicked it open despite his bandaged side.
Inside they found Pierce tied to a chair.
Alive.
“Lily?”
“Basement.”
They ran.
The basement door opened.
Lily sat on a mattress.
Beside her was the same woman Clara had cared for in hospice.
The woman she had buried.
Except she was alive too.
Clara stopped.
“What?”
Pierce explained later.
The hospice woman had been Margaret Reed.
Marcus's mother.
Anna had helped her disappear after discovering Marcus planned to use her identity in a financial scheme.
When Anna staged her own death, Margaret volunteered to take her place publicly.
But she had not died.
The hospice had falsified that too.
Secrets inside secrets.
Lily ran into Adrian’s arms.
He dropped to his knees despite the pain.
“You okay?”
She nodded.
“Mrs. Margaret gave me cookies.”
Adrian looked at the elderly woman.
“Thank you.”
Margaret smiled.
“Your daughter talks a lot.”
“I know.”
“She told me you burn cakes.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
Clara laughed.
For the first time in days, the sound didn't feel wrong.
That night, Lily slept between Adrian and Evelyn in the master bedroom.
Not because it repaired their marriage.
It didn't.
Some wounds could heal without returning people to who they had been.
Clara sat alone in the kitchen.
Adrian entered carefully, one hand against his bandage.
“You should be in bed.”
“So should you.”
He sat opposite her.
“Victor confessed.”
“To everything?”
“Most of it.”
“And Richard?”
“Blaming everyone except himself.”
Clara nodded.
“Sounds about right.”
Adrian looked at her.
“What happens now?”
“With the company?”
“With you.”
She looked surprised.
“I don't know.”
“You could leave.”
“I could.”
“Will you?”
Clara studied him.
“I probably should.”
His face remained controlled.
But she saw disappointment.
“You're still technically my employer.”
“Not anymore.”
“What?”
“The documents your mother kept are legitimate.”
Adrian leaned forward.
“You own controlling interest in the holding company.”
Clara blinked.
“Meaning?”
He smiled.
“Technically, you're my employer.”
She stared.
Then laughed so loudly that someone upstairs shouted.
“Quiet!”
Lily.
Adrian and Clara looked at each other.
Then both began laughing harder.
Neither noticed Evelyn standing at the top of the stairs.
She watched them.
And slowly understood something painful.
She had returned home.
May you like
But home had changed while she was gone.
And so had Adrian.
