Chapter 17 - The Guardian Angel
Claraâs heart pounded in her chest as she watched two masked men descend the slope, their flashlights cutting through the dark rain. Her door was jammed shut, and Julian was completely unresponsive. She reached down, her fingers searching the floorboards until they wrapped around a heavy metal emergency flashlight.
Using all her strength, she kicked the shattered passenger window, crawling out into the mud just as the men reached the vehicle.
"The girlâs out!" one of the men shouted, raising a silenced pistol.
Before he could pull the trigger, the loud, deafening roar of an engine echoed from the highway above. A sleek, black tactical SUV tore through the broken guardrail, plunging down the embankment and crashing directly into the first attacker, sending him flying into the darkness.
The second attacker turned to fire, but the door of the SUV flew open, and a team of private security operatives dressed in tactical gear swarmed the area, disarming the remaining assassin within seconds.
From the back seat of the tactical vehicle stepped an elderly woman with silver hair, carrying herself with an air of absolute authority that dwarfed even the memory of Beatrice. It was Margaret VanguardâClaraâs maternal grandmother, the true matriarch of the Vanguard bloodline who had been living in self-imposed exile in Europe for two decades, believing her entire family had been wiped out by Arthur.
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"I lost my daughter to these monsters fifteen years ago," Margaret said, her voice shaking with a fierce, grandmotherly rage as she walked toward Clara. "I will be damned if I lose my granddaughter too."
Clara collapsed into her grandmotherâs arms, crying tears of pure relief as the medical team rushed to extract Julian from the wrecked car. The hidden family secret hadn't just brought enemies; it had finally brought her protector home.
