Chapter 16 - THE EDGE OF THE QUARRY
"Brianna, look at me!" I yelled, throwing myself forward onto my stomach in the mud.
The beam of a police flashlight hit Brianna directly in the eyes, blinding her for a crucial fraction of a second.
"Police! Do not move!" a booming voice commanded from the tree line.
Brianna shrieked, shielding her eyes with the arm that held Sophie's shoulders.
In that single, chaotic second, Sophie bit down hard on Brianna's forearm.
Brianna let out a howl of pain and instinctive shock, her grip loosening on my daughter.
Sophie slipped from her grasp, falling two feet into the thick, muddy ferns below.
"Sophie!" I screamed, lunging forward with every ounce of strength left in my body.
I grabbed Sophie’s pink flannel sleeve, yanking her violently toward my chest as I rolled backward into the dirt.
Brianna lunged after the child, her hands hooked into claws, her face contorted with rage.
"She's mine!" Brianna shrieked.
Her foot caught on a thick tree root protruding from the muddy embankment.
Her body lurched forward, momentum carrying her heavily against the rusted chain-link fence.
The ancient metal groaned under her weight, the rusted ties snapping with the sound of gunshots.
The fence gave way entirely.
Brianna let out a blood-curdling scream as the ground beneath her boots crumbled into the dark abyss of the quarry.
Her hands frantically clawed at the wet dirt, her fingernails ripping against gravel and exposed roots.
"Help me!" she screamed, her voice suddenly stripped of all malice, replaced by pure, paralyzing terror.
She was dangling over the edge of the sixty-foot drop, held only by her fingertips gripping the muddy rim.
I clutched Sophie against my chest with my left arm, the little girl sobbing uncontrollably into my neck.
Two police officers burst through the brush, their guns drawn, but they were twenty feet away.
Brianna's fingers were slipping through the slick mud.
"Nora, please!" Brianna wept, her eyes wide with the realization of what lay beneath her. "My baby! Please!"
Every instinct in my body screamed at me to turn around and walk away.
She had tried to kill my twins before they were born; she had stolen my child from her bed.
She was a monster who had brought nothing but terror and ruin into my life.
Yet beneath that monster’s chest beat another unborn heart, innocent of its mother's sins.
I passed Sophie to the first officer who reached my side. "Hold her!" I ordered.
Then, without thinking of the danger, I threw myself flat onto the wet edge and reached over the drop.
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I grabbed Brianna's slick, mud-covered wrist with both of my hands just as her fingers gave way.
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