Chapter 11 - BLOOD DOESN’T MAKE YOU SAFE
Claire moved first.
“Give me Lily.”
Thomas tightened his hold on the baby.
“Claire, listen.”
“Give her to me.”
“I’m trying to keep everyone calm.”
“You helped kidnap my daughter!”
“No.”
Ethan stepped toward the stairs.
“Then why are you here?”
Thomas looked at Evelyn.
“She called me.”
“So you came running?”
“She said she was going to disappear with Lily.”
Ethan froze.
Thomas continued.
“I got here before you.”
“Why didn’t you call the cops?”
“I did.”
Evelyn spun.
“You what?”
Thomas’s face hardened.
“They’re coming.”
She stared at him.
“You betrayed me.”
“No, Mom.”
His voice shook.
“I finally stopped protecting you.”
Evelyn lunged.
She grabbed a fireplace poker and swung.
Thomas ducked.
The poker smashed into the wooden railing.
Lily screamed.
Claire charged up the stairs.
Ethan grabbed Evelyn from behind.
“Stop!”
“LET ME GO!”
Thomas handed Lily to Claire.
The second the baby touched her chest, Claire broke down.
“I’ve got you. Mommy’s got you.”
Evelyn heard the word Mommy.
Something savage flashed across her face.
She drove her heel into Ethan’s shin and broke free.
Then she rushed Claire.
Thomas stepped between them.
Evelyn swung the poker again.
It struck a lamp.
The lamp crashed into a curtain.
Flame climbed the fabric almost instantly.
“Fire!” Thomas shouted.
Smoke rolled across the ceiling.
Evelyn backed away.
For the first time, she looked afraid.
Ethan grabbed the extinguisher from the kitchen.
It didn’t work.
“Everybody out!”
Claire ran downstairs with Lily.
Thomas followed.
Ethan turned toward his mother.
She wasn’t behind him.
“Mom!”
Flames crawled along the wall.
“Evelyn!”
He found her upstairs.
Standing in Richard’s old bedroom.
Holding a photograph.
Their wedding photograph.
“Leave it!”
She stared at the flames.
“He promised me forever.”
Ethan coughed.
“Dad is dead.”
“He left me.”
“He died.”
“He left me first!”
The ceiling cracked.
Ethan grabbed her wrist.
She fought him.
“No!”
“Move!”
“I have nothing!”
“You still have a life!”
She stared at him.
“Do I?”
A burning piece of ceiling dropped between them.
Ethan yanked her through the smoke.
They stumbled outside as police vehicles tore down the gravel drive.
Claire stood in the rain with Lily under her coat.
Thomas was on his knees, coughing.
Fire consumed the upstairs windows.
Officers tackled Evelyn as she tried to run back toward the cabin.
“No!” she screamed. “My house!”
Ethan watched the roof burn.
“It was never the house.”
Claire came beside him.
“What?”
He looked at his mother fighting the officers.
“She couldn’t stand losing people.”
Claire’s voice was cold.
“So she tried to own them.”
Evelyn suddenly stopped struggling.
Her eyes locked onto Ethan.
“Ask your brother.”
Thomas went still.
Ethan frowned.
“Ask him what?”
Evelyn smiled through the rain.
“Ask him who gave me Claire’s hotel location.”
Ethan turned.
May you like
Thomas’s face had gone white.
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