Chapter 9
Samuel Price was arrested before sunrise.
Police found cash, false identification cards, and a second passport carrying Diane’s photograph inside his apartment.
But Diane was not there.
Samuel refused to speak.
Then officers found a printed reservation for a flight leaving that night.
The passenger name was fake.
The photograph was Diane’s.
Police surrounded the airport.
Maya told me to stay home.
I tried.
Then Megan called.
“Claire, Dad is gone.”
Victor had left the safe house without his medication.
Security footage showed him entering a taxi alone.
He left a note.
I started this. I will finish it.
Victor knew Diane better than anyone.
He also knew the flight reservation was a distraction.
When Detective Hale searched Victor’s room, he found an old photograph of a lakeside house.
Megan recognized it.
“Our grandmother’s home.”
The property had been abandoned for years.
Police headed there.
My father insisted on going with Hale because he remembered the roads around the lake.
I remained at home with an officer outside.
Twenty minutes later, the power died.
The alarm system switched to battery mode.
Then the kitchen camera went dark.
I locked the bedroom door and called Hale.
Before he answered, I heard footsteps downstairs.
Slow.
Deliberate.
The same rhythm Diane used when she walked through my house as if she owned it.
I grabbed the heavy lamp beside the bed.
The doorknob turned.
“Claire,” Diane called softly. “We need to talk.”
“Police are coming.”
“No, they aren’t.”
She slid a phone beneath the door.
A live video showed my father standing inside the lakeside house.
Victor was beside him.
Carl held what appeared to be a gun.
“If you want your father alive, come downstairs.”
I opened the door.
Diane stood in the hallway holding the metal broom handle.
For a moment, neither of us moved.
Then she smiled.
“It belongs to me.”
“No. It belongs in court.”
“Court is for people who need permission.”
She ordered me downstairs.
The officer who had been stationed outside was unconscious near the front entrance.
He was breathing.
Diane had entered through a hidden basement door Ryan installed during a renovation.
She led me into the kitchen.
The torn transfer papers still lay inside an evidence-marked bag on the counter.
“Sign a new document,” she said. “Then I disappear.”
“You already lost.”
“I never lose.”
“Your son betrayed you.”
Her expression flickered.
“Ryan is weak.”
“You made him weak so you could control him.”
“I made him useful.”
“You made him hate you.”
Diane struck the counter with the broom handle.
“Sign.”
I picked up the pen.
Her attention shifted toward the paper.
I swung the lamp I had carried downstairs.
It struck her arm.
The broom handle fell.
She lunged at me, and we crashed against the table.
Pain shot through my injured knee.
I almost fell.
But this time, I stayed upright.
Diane reached for the handle.
I kicked it beneath the refrigerator.
She slapped me.
I shoved her away.
Police sirens sounded outside.
Her face changed.
“You called them.”
“The alarm has a separate battery.”
Diane ran toward the basement.
Megan stepped through the doorway and blocked her path.
She had come with the police after learning Diane was at my house.
“For once,” Megan said, “you’re not leaving me behind.”
Diane grabbed a knife from the counter.
Officers entered with weapons raised.
“Drop it!”
Diane held the blade against Megan’s throat.
Megan trembled but did not look away.
“You ruined both your children,” she whispered.
Diane pulled her closer.
Then Ryan’s voice came through a police loudspeaker outside.
“Mom, it’s over.”
He had led police to the lakeside house, where Victor and my father had been rescued.
Carl surrendered.
Diane stared toward the window.
Ryan continued.
“You told me family means loyalty. But you were only loyal to yourself.”
Diane’s hand loosened.
Megan drove her elbow backward and broke free.
Officers rushed forward.
They forced Diane to the floor and handcuffed her.
She turned her face toward me.
“This isn’t finished.”
I picked up the unsigned transfer document.
May you like
Then I tore it in half.
“Yes,” I said. “It is.”
