Chapter 5 - The Fire Inside
The two security guards stepped forward, their hands reaching into their jackets for their weapons. They thought they were dealing with an exhausted, postpartum woman trapped in a corner.
They forgot that a mother fighting for her child’s life doesn't feel pain. She only feels purpose.
As the first guard reached out his hand to grab Clara’s blanket, I swung the heavy iron skillet with a vicious, upward arc. The solid iron caught him cleanly under the jaw with a sickening thud. His teeth shattered, and his eyes rolled back as he collapsed forward onto the floor, completely unconscious.
The second guard drew his pistol, but before he could raise it, the pantry door flew open. Maya charged out, slamming a heavy glass gallon jar of pickled vegetables directly over the back of his head. The glass exploded, showering the room in vinegar and shards, and the second guard stumbled backward, clutching his bleeding scalp.
"Thomas! Run!" I screamed to Maya, grabbing Clara and bolting toward the back window of the kitchen.
Thomas roared in frustration, lunging past his bleeding guard to grab the hem of my hospital gown. "You aren't leaving here alive, Eleanor!" he shouted, his fingers clawing at my back.
I turned around, my elbow driving hard into Thomas’s nose. I felt the bone break beneath my impact, and he stumbled back, blood spurting across his pristine white shirt.
Maya threw open the rear window, and we scrambled out into the freezing mud behind the cabin, the rain immediately drenching us once again. Quincy was already outside, having slipped through a side hatch. We sprinted toward Maya’s car, but as we reached the driveway, we saw a black luxury SUV blocking the exit.
The door of the SUV opened slowly.
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Beatrice Vance stepped out into the mud. She wasn't wearing her silk and pearls anymore; she was wrapped in a heavy fur coat, her silver hair styled perfectly despite the storm. In her right hand, she held a small, sleek silver revolver.
"Enough of this ridiculous melodrama," Beatrice said, her voice cutting through the sound of the wind like a scythe. "Eleanor, you have been an irritation since the day Thomas brought you home. You are a common girl from a common family. You do not belong in our world. Give me the child, or I will put a bullet through your heart right now, and the forest will bury the truth forever."
