Chapter 29 - The Iron Chain Ultimatum
"Drop your weapons! State Police! Drop your weapons now!"
Megaphones echoed across the valley, but the chaos did not stop.
Diane didn't surrender. Seeing her escape route severed by the police, her eyes locked onto the tree line where Daniel and Mason had disappeared. Driven by sheer madness and the refusal to spend her final days in a cage, she abandoned her driver, turned, and ran directly into the woods after Daniel.
Daniel reached the old stone footbridge over the swollen creek at the property line. The water beneath was churning, swollen five feet above normal by the torrential storm.
Suddenly, a shot kicked up the stone at Daniel's heel.
Daniel stumbled, falling to his knees on the slick stones of the bridge, shielding Mason with his back.
Diane stepped out from the shadows of the weeping willows onto the edge of the bridge. Her umbrella was gone, her face soaked with rain, her eyes wide with unhinged fury. The barrel of her gun was pointed directly at Daniel’s head.
"Give me the boy, Daniel," Diane hissed, cocking the hammer. "Give me Emily’s key, or watch your son die before you do."
Mason was shivering violently under Daniel's chest, but he didn't cry. He looked up at the woman who had tried to destroy his childhood.
Daniel slowly stood up, raising his hands, placing himself directly in the line of fire.
"You lost, Diane," Daniel said, his voice ringing out over the roar of the creek. "Vanessa is in federal custody. Julian is broken in my hallway. Look behind you—fifty cops are surrounding this woods. Shoot me, and you die right here in the mud."
"I don't care," Diane sneered, her finger tightening on the trigger. "A Vance never surrenders to a nobody like you!"
She squeezed.
*CLICK.*
The wet firing pin struck a damp cartridge. A misfire.
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In that half-second of divine hesitation, Daniel did not back down. He closed the distance with a feral roar, tackling Diane Vance off the bridge and into the roaring, black waters of the swollen creek below.
***
