Chapter 23 - The Poisoned Cradle
"Get down!" Daniel roared, throwing his entire body over Emily in the backseat.
A hail of high-caliber rounds shredded the hood of the SUV, sending showers of sparks and broken glass across the interior.
Liam shifted the transmission into reverse, flooring the gas pedal with reckless precision.
The SUV spun in a violent circle, smashing backward through the guardrail of an access ramp.
Metal groaned and snapped as the heavy vehicle plummeted four feet onto the lower industrial service road.
The tires hit the ground with a bone-jarring impact, blowing out the rear suspension.
"Out! Now!" Liam yelled, kicking his warped door open.
Daniel pulled Emily through the shattered window frame, dragging her into the shadows of an abandoned warehouse district.
Behind them, the pursuers' headlights swept across the wet brick walls like predatory eyes.
"They aren't trying to capture us," Emily panted, clutching her ribs as they ran through the dark alley. "They're trying to eliminate us before we reach Victoria."
Daniel's phone vibrated violently against his hip.
It was an encrypted video call from the upstate safehouse.
Daniel answered instantly, pressing the phone to his ear with shaking fingers. "Marcus! Report!"
The screen flickered to life, showing Marcus bleeding from a severe scalp wound inside the safehouse living room.
"Daniel... they breached the perimeter fifteen minutes ago," Marcus wheezed, struggling to speak.
"Where is Sophie?" Emily screamed into the microphone, pure maternal terror tearing through her vocal cords. "Where is my baby?!"
Marcus slowly turned the camera toward the center of the safehouse floor.
Sophie's favorite stuffed rabbit lay in the center of the living room rug, soaked in dark, murky pond water.
Next to the toy was a small antique silver cradle, stained with fresh black mud.
"They didn't take her to kill her, Emily," Marcus coughed blood onto the carpet. "Evelyn took her personally."
Emily dropped to her knees on the cold, wet pavement, an agonized sob tearing from her soul.
Daniel took the phone, his teeth grinding so hard he could taste copper in his mouth.
"Marcus, where did she take my daughter?" Daniel demanded, his voice trembling with unrestrained rage.
"Evelyn left a voice recording," Marcus said weakly, holding the audio receiver close to the phone speaker.
A woman's raspy, familiar, aristocratic voice echoed through the speaker like venom dripping onto stone.
*Daniel, my ungrateful boy. You always belonged in the water with your real mother.*
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*Bring the Austrian documents to the Blackwood Sanatorium by midnight, or Sophie will finally learn how to swim like Victoria did.*
The call abruptly disconnected into static.
