Chapter 18 - THE LIGHTHOUSE OF SHADOWS
The beacon of Point Sorrow Lighthouse cut through the swirling fog like a giant blade of pure ivory.
Breathing heavily, their clothes soaked through with freezing rainwater and marsh mud, Clara, Daniel, and Noah tumbled through the heavy oak side-door of the lighthouse base. A tall woman with a rain slicker slammed the heavy iron bolt shut behind them.
"You're bleeding," Elena gasped, shining a flashlight on Daniel's torn shoulder where the shotgun blast had sprayed buckshot fragments.
"It’s just grazed," Daniel grunted, setting Noah gently onto a dry wooden bench. "Where’s your brother?"
Elena’s face went dreadfully pale. She didn't answer immediately. Her flashlight beam wavered, dancing across the spiraling iron staircase that climbed into the blackness of the tower.
"Elena?" Clara asked, a cold knot of dread tightening in her gut. "Where is Mark?"
From the top of the iron staircase, the slow, rhythmic click of designer high heels echoed down through the hollow steel core of the tower.
*Clack. Clack. Clack.*
A woman’s voice, smooth as chilled champagne and laced with venomous amusement, drifted down from the shadows.
"Mark was very cooperative, Clara. It’s remarkable what a hundred thousand dollars in cash can buy from an underpaid lighthouse keeper."
Stepping onto the intermediate iron platform forty feet above them was Victoria Sterling. She was dressed in an impeccably tailored black cashmere trench coat, her platinum hair slicked back into an aristocratic chignon. Flanking her were two hulking private security contractors armed with submachine guns.
In her right hand, casually dangling by the chain, was Elena’s brother’s employee security badge, smeared with fresh blood.
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"Elena..." Clara whispered, turning to the woman who had guided Noah through his recovery.
Elena burst into frantic, sobbing tears, backing away toward the wall with her hands raised. "They have my daughters, Clara! She took my girls from their school! She said she would butcher them if I didn't send you to the lighthouse! I had no choice... I had no choice!"
