Chapter 16 - THE WHARF CONFESSION
Daniel didn't hesitate. He pulled the trigger until the slide locked back empty.
The bullets sparked off the granite rocks around Julian, forcing the dying billionaire to duck behind a heavy cast-iron mooring post.
"Run, Claire! To the marina! Take Miller’s boat!" Daniel screamed, ejecting the empty magazine and fumbling for a spare in his jacket pocket.
Claire didn't look back. With Theo wrapped tightly in her arms, his small hands clutching her collar with terrifying strength, she sprinted through the narrow alleyways between the seaside cottages. The smell of burning rubber and chemical smoke filled the air behind them as Julian's mercenaries swarmed the property.
Theo was crying silently, his tears soaking into Claire's shoulder. "Mommy, is that the bad man from the water? Was he on the big boat?"
Claire felt a cold shock pierce her panic. She skidded behind an overturned wooden skiff on Pier Seven, catching her breath. "What did you say, Theo?"
Theo looked up at her, his hazel eyes wide and terrified. "On Grandma's big boat. Before she pushed me. That man was down in the kitchen. Grandma was yelling at him. She had a knife. She told him, 'You won't cut my grandson into pieces.' Then the man laughed and said he already owned the boy's bones."
Claire choked back a sob. The puzzle pieces locked together with horrifying clarity. Eleanor hadn't pushed Theo in cold blooded malice. Eleanor had seen Julian standing on the lower deck with a medical extraction team. She had realized that once the yacht entered international waters, Theo would never see the light of day again.
Eleanor threw Theo overboard hoping Claire would jump—hoping the Coast Guard and the public would intervene—turning a private abduction into a public disaster! Eleanor took the blame, went to prison, and accepted the label of a monster just to keep Theo out of Julian's surgical clinic.
May you like
And now, Julian had butchered Eleanor in her cell to clear the final obstacle.
"He's not taking you, Theo," Claire whispered, her voice hardening like forged steel. "I pulled you out of that ocean once. I will tear this entire coast down before I let anyone put a hand on you."
