Chapter 5
Robert struck the windshield.
The cracked glass collapsed inward.
I raised my arms as pieces scattered across the dashboard.
“Where is the drive?” he demanded.
I fought with the seat belt.
It would not release.
Robert reached through the broken windshield and grabbed my jacket.
“You should have left this alone.”
“My mother took Sophie.”
“She’s correcting a family problem.”
“She kidnapped a child.”
His expression did not change.
“To protect all of us.”
Lucas groaned.
Robert looked at him.
“He was never supposed to know.”
I finally released the belt.
Before Robert could react, I drove my shoulder into the damaged door.
It opened just enough for me to fall onto the wet ground.
Robert swung the metal bar.
It struck my back.
Pain exploded through my body.
I rolled before he could hit me again.
His shoe slipped in the mud.
I grabbed his leg and pulled.
He fell beside me.
The bar landed several feet away.
Robert punched me in the jaw.
I drove my fist into his stomach.
He gasped.
Headlights appeared around the bend.
Robert scrambled toward the trees.
Officer Mercer’s vehicle stopped behind the truck.
He ran after Robert while another officer rushed to us.
“Lucas is hurt,” I said.
The officer checked him.
“He’s breathing.”
An ambulance arrived minutes later.
As paramedics pulled Lucas from the wreck, Mercer returned alone.
“He knew these woods,” he said. “I lost him.”
“Diane has Sophie at the cabin.”
“We have units surrounding it.”
I tried to stand.
Pain tore across my back.
“You’re going to the hospital.”
“No.”
“You may have internal injuries.”
“My niece is in that cabin.”
Mercer looked at the paramedic.
The paramedic shook his head.
“He shouldn’t be moving.”
“I’m not asking permission.”
Mercer swore under his breath.
“Fine. You ride with me. You remain behind cover and follow every instruction.”
The cabin stood beside a black lake surrounded by pine trees.
Police vehicles waited with their lights off.
An officer showed Mercer the layout.
“No movement inside. A child was visible through the east window ten minutes ago. Adult female near the kitchen.”
“Any sign of Robert?”
“None.”
A negotiator called Diane.
She refused to speak with anyone except Lucas or me.
Mercer handed me the phone.
“Keep her talking.”
Diane answered immediately.
“Where is Lucas?”
“In an ambulance because Robert ran us off the road.”
“He wasn’t supposed to hurt him.”
“You knew Robert was waiting.”
“I told him to retrieve the drive.”
“He attacked us with a metal bar.”
Silence.
Then she said, “Lucas should have stayed loyal.”
“Let Sophie walk outside.”
“When I have the files.”
“You already know the police have them.”
“Thomas made multiple copies.”
“He was smarter than both of you.”
Her breathing changed.
My father’s name still had power over her.
“Your father was a coward.”
“He documented every dollar you stole.”
“He gave away what belonged to me.”
“It belonged to the company.”
“I built that company with him.”
“You stole from your own sons.”
“I took what I deserved.”
A curtain moved.
A small face appeared at the window.
Sophie.
She saw the police and quickly disappeared.
Diane’s voice became colder.
“Bring me the red box.”
“It’s at my house.”
“Then go get it.”
“That will take hours.”
“You have thirty minutes.”
“What happens after thirty minutes?”
“You’ll find out.”
She disconnected.
Mercer ordered the tactical team into position.
“We cannot wait,” I said.
“We need a clear view of both subjects.”
“There may only be one.”
“Robert could have circled back.”
I remembered the cabin from childhood.
A storm cellar connected to a storage room under the kitchen.
There was an exterior entrance behind the woodshed.
I showed Mercer.
“If Robert returns, he’ll use that door.”
Mercer sent two officers around the rear.
Seconds later, gunfire cracked through the trees.
Everyone dropped.
An officer shouted over the radio.
“Suspect at the storm cellar! He’s armed!”
Robert had returned.
While officers moved toward him, the cabin door opened.
Diane stepped outside with Sophie in front of her.
One arm was wrapped around the girl’s chest.
In her other hand, she held a kitchen knife.
Lucas’s daughter was crying.
“Tell them to move back,” Diane shouted.
Mercer raised his hands.
“Diane, nobody wants anyone hurt.”
“Then give me a vehicle.”
“We can talk about that.”
“No more talking.”
Sophie saw me.
“Uncle Adam!”
Diane pressed the blade closer.
“Be quiet.”
“Mom,” I called.
Her eyes found mine.
“Tell them to lower their guns.”
I looked at Mercer.
He gave a small nod.
The officers lowered their weapons but remained ready.
“Let Sophie come to me.”
“You chose Thomas over me.”
“This isn’t about Dad.”
“It has always been about him. He made you believe I was a monster.”
“You locked my children in a shed.”
“They refused to obey.”
“They’re children.”
“They’re spoiled. Just like you were.”
Sophie suddenly lifted her foot and stomped on Diane’s toes.
Diane cried out.
The knife moved away from her throat.
Sophie bit her arm and ran.
I rushed forward.
Diane grabbed for the girl.
I reached Sophie first and pulled her against my chest.
A gunshot sounded behind the cabin.
Diane froze.
Robert shouted from the storm cellar.
Then officers ordered him to drop his weapon.
Mercer ran toward Diane.
She turned and fled into the cabin.
I carried Sophie behind a police vehicle.
“Are you hurt?”
She shook her head.
“Grandma said she would cut me, but she said she didn’t mean it.”
I checked her neck.
The blade had left a thin red line.
“You’re safe now.”
“What happened to Daddy?”
“He was hurt in a car accident. Doctors are helping him.”
“I want my mom.”
“She’s coming.”
Smoke appeared through the cabin windows.
Someone shouted, “Fire!”
Diane had set the curtains on fire.
Flames climbed the walls.
She appeared at an upstairs window.
“Mom!” I shouted.
Mercer grabbed me.
“Stay back.”
“She’ll die.”
“That may be what she wants.”
The fire spread through the wooden cabin.
Diane broke the upstairs window with a chair.
Then she climbed onto the roof.
For one terrible second, I thought she would jump.
Instead, she crossed toward the rear where a tree grew close to the building.
She grabbed a branch and disappeared into the smoke.
Officers ran around the cabin.
They found no one.
Robert was arrested near the storm cellar with a pistol and the missing company ledger.
Diane escaped into the forest.
Search teams worked through the night.
Dogs followed her trail to the lake.
Beside the water, officers found her coat and one shoe.
There was no body.
Mercer believed she had entered the lake.
I did not.
My mother hated losing too much to choose death.
At the hospital, Lucas woke with a fractured wrist and fourteen stitches in his head.
Sophie climbed carefully beside him.
“I’m sorry Grandma hurt you,” she whispered.
Lucas held her with his uninjured arm.
“It wasn’t your fault.”
Emily stood on the other side of the bed.
She had not spoken to him since learning that he had given Diane the school password.
When Sophie left with a nurse, Emily turned to him.
“You let your mother into every part of our life.”
“I thought I could control her.”
“You couldn’t even tell when she was controlling you.”
“I know.”
“She took our daughter.”
“I know.”
“You don’t get to keep saying that as if it fixes anything.”
Lucas began to cry.
I had never seen my brother cry.
“I spent my whole life trying to keep Mom calm,” he said. “Every time Dad fought her, I apologized for him. Every time Adam refused her, I gave her what she wanted. I thought that made me the good son.”
Emily’s anger softened but did not disappear.
“It made you an unsafe husband.”
He closed his eyes.
“I’ll change.”
“You’ll prove it.”
Those words stayed with me.
Rachel was waiting in the hallway.
She had heard everything.
“I have to prove it too,” she said.
“Yes.”
“I contacted a lawyer about the agreement with Diane. I also gave Naomi every bank statement.”
“Good.”
“I’ll accept whatever happens.”
I looked at her.
“Do you want to leave me?”
“No.”
“Do you think I should leave you?”
“I think you have the right.”
I sat beside her.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
She nodded.
“But I know Diane wants this family destroyed. I won’t make a decision while she’s still pushing us toward it.”
Rachel reached for my hand.
I allowed her to hold it.
Mercer approached.
“We recovered the original watch files.”
Relief moved through me.
“All of them?”
“Enough. We also have Robert’s ledger and the flash drive.”
“Will he talk?”
“He already is. He claims Diane planned everything.”
“Of course he does.”
“He says she forged your signature, created the guardianship petition, arranged the media post, and ordered Kevin to steal the drive.”
“Where is she?”
“He says she had an escape plan.”
I knew it.
“What kind?”
“Cash, false identification, and a vehicle hidden near the lake.”
“Did she tell him where she was going?”
“No.”
Mercer handed me a photograph recovered from Robert’s wallet.
It showed Diane standing beside a woman I did not recognize.
On the back was an address in another state.
“Who is she?” I asked.
“Her name was Caroline Price. According to Robert, she helped Diane create the false documents.”
“Was?”
“She died eight years ago.”
“Then why does this matter?”
Mercer turned the photograph over again.
Beneath the address was a handwritten date.
It was tomorrow’s date.
May you like
And below it was a message.
Bring Lily.
