Chapter 9
I heard the sirens first.
Distant.
Getting closer.
Then the thump of rotors.
The helicopter was coming.
Ethan’s grip on my arm tightened.
“Here we go.”
The helicopter appeared over the roof of the next building.
A black Bell 429.
No markings.
It hovered twenty feet above the helipad.
Dust and debris swirled around us.
“Tell them to land!” Ethan yelled.
I waved.
The pilot started to descend.
And then I heard it.
A second helicopter.
Approaching from the west.
Marked POLICE.
Ethan saw it.
Cursed.
He spun me around.
Gun pressed to my temple now.
“You set me up!”
“Ethan, don’t.”
The police helicopter hovered above us.
A megaphone crackled.
*ETHAN WARD. RELEASE THE HOSTAGE AND DROP YOUR WEAPON. YOU HAVE NOWHERE TO GO.*
Ethan laughed.
It was a wild, desperate sound.
“Nowhere to go? I have your precious Daniel, and I have a bullet with his name on it! Back off! Or I kill him right now!”
He dragged me backward.
Toward the edge of the roof.
My toes were inches from the drop.
Twelve stories.
One hundred and twenty feet.
“Ethan.” My voice was calm despite the terror in my chest. “It doesn’t have to end like this. Put the gun down. We can make a deal.”
“A deal?” He spat the word. “Your father made a deal. Look where it got him. Your mother made deals her whole life. She’s lying in that hospital bed with a needle in her arm because of it. No deals, Daniel. This ends one of two ways. I walk out of here on that helicopter. Or we both go over this edge. Your choice.”
The unmarked helicopter landed.
The door slid open.
And I froze.
Victoria was inside.
And Megan.
They’d found them.
Or they’d made a deal.
Victoria stepped out.
“Ethan,” she called over the wind. “Let him go. We have what we need. Let’s go.”
Ethan stared at her.
“You came for me.”
“Of course I came for you. You’re my son.”
For a split second, I saw something in Ethan’s face.
Doubt.
Confusion.
Something almost human.
And in that split second, I moved.
Ducked.
Drove my elbow backward into his stomach.
The gun went off.
The bullet whizzed past my ear.
I rolled away.
Ethan staggered.
Recovered.
Raised the gun again.
Two shots rang out.
From the police helicopter.
Ethan’s shoulder exploded in red.
The gun flew from his hand.
He stumbled backward.
Arms windmilling.
For one terrible moment, he balanced on the edge.
His eyes met mine.
Surprise.
Then acceptance.
And he fell.
Twelve stories.
I ran to the edge.
Looked down.
He lay on the pavement below.
Still.
The sound of sirens was deafening now.
Victoria was screaming.
Megan was sobbing.
Police swarmed the roof.
Took Victoria and Megan down.
Cuffed them.
Sarah was beside me in an instant.
Held me.
I couldn’t speak.
Couldn’t breathe.
I’d just watched a man die.
A man who was family.
Who’d tried to kill my mother.
Who’d destroyed my father.
But still.
Family.
Sarah led me back down to my mother’s room.
They’d removed the tape from her mouth.
Taken out the IV Ethan had tampered with.
She was sitting up.
Pale.
Shaken.
But alive.
“Daniel,” she said when she saw me.
I went to her.
Held her.
“It’s over, Mom. It’s really over.”
The next few hours were a blur.
Statements.
Paramedics checking me over.
Detective Marquez telling us Ethan was dead on arrival.
Victoria and Megan had been arrested and charged with conspiracy, attempted murder, and a dozen other counts.
They would be in prison for the rest of their lives.
My father’s charges were being reduced.
With Ethan dead, Victoria and Megan in custody, and the full story of manipulation revealed, the DA was offering him five years probation and community service.
He would never go to prison.
But he would never be the same.
That evening, Sarah and I sat in my mother’s room.
The sun was setting.
Casting long shadows across the floor.
My mother was quiet.
Staring out the window.
“I’ve been thinking,” she said finally. “About the will. About Victoria. About everything that happened.”
She looked at me.
“I did change it, you know. Thirty years ago. After she stole that money from my father. I was angry. Hurt. I wanted to punish her. So I had the will altered. Left her nothing. Not a dime. I thought I was being strong. I thought I was teaching her a lesson.”
She paused.
“And instead, I created a monster. Thirty years of hatred festering inside her. Passed down to her son. To Megan. All because I couldn’t find it in myself to forgive.”
She reached for my hand.
“Promise me something, Daniel. Promise me you won’t make the same mistake. With your father. With Sarah. With anyone. Life’s too short to hold grudges. They eat you alive from the inside out.”
I squeezed her hand.
“I promise, Mom.”
She looked at Sarah.
“And you. I haven’t always been kind to you. I haven’t always welcomed you into this family. But you saved my life. More than once. And I will spend the rest of my days making that up to you.”
Sarah smiled through her tears.
“You don’t have to make anything up, Evelyn. We’re family.”
May you like
My mother closed her eyes.
“Family,” she repeated. “Yes. Family.”
