Chapter 10 - Betrayal or Mercy
The silence on the other end of the line stretched until Julian thought the connection had dropped. Then, Clara spoke, her voice shaking with sorrow.
"Meet me at the old carriage house in Oakwood," Clara whispered. "My family owns it, but Arthur doesn't have the deed. I have a pediatrician who owes my mother a favor. She won't ask questions."
"Clara... if this is a trap—"
"I loved you, Julian," she snapped, pain cutting through her words. "I may hate you right now for the lies, but I am not a murderer. Bring him to the carriage house. Be there in thirty minutes."
Julian hung up, returning to the boathouse. Maya looked at him with profound skepticism. "You called your fiancée? She was standing there while you humiliated her in front of five hundred people!"
"Clara has pride, but she has a conscience," Julian said, lifting Leo into his coat against his chest. "We don't have another choice. Leo won't survive the night in this cold."
They hotwired an old maintenance pickup truck parked behind the docks, chugging through the blizzard-choked backstreets of Oakwood. The carriage house sat isolated among towering pine trees, dark except for a single amber light in the kitchen.
Julian stepped out first, scanning the perimeter. No black SUVs. No obvious traps.
May you like
The side door opened, and Clara stood there, wrapped in a heavy wool coat, eyes red and swollen. Behind her stood an elderly woman holding a medical kit. Clara looked at Julian, then down at the blanket in his arms. Her lips parted, but she didn't speak. She simply opened the door wider and stepped aside.
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