Chapter 6 - Cornered
Silence enveloped the pitch-black kitchen, broken only by the steady drum of rain and the heavy idling of the truck outside. Sarah pulled Lily behind her, crouching beside a row of metal shelves.
Clara moved with practiced stealth, pulling a small tactical flashlight from her pocket without switching it on. “Arthur tracked my vehicle,” Clara whispered, her voice barely audible. “They didn’t find you; they followed me.”
The sound of footsteps crunched on broken glass near the rear entrance. A heavy blow hit the steel door, rattling the deadbolt in its frame.
“Clara!” Arthur’s voice boomed from the other side, muffled yet dripping with venom. “I know you’re in there. Did you really think you could play savior to that pathetic girl and her brat? Open the door, and maybe Bianca will let you leave the state alive.”
Beside him, another voice chimed in—sharp, elegant, and chillingly familiar. Bianca.
“Come on, Sarah,” Bianca called through the metal. “Give me the girl. You can’t afford her surgery anyway. Sign the papers, and I’ll pay for her hospital bills. Keep running, and you’ll spend the next ten years in prison.”
Sarah tightened her grip on Lily. Hearing her own sister offer her child’s life as a bargaining chip ignited something fierce inside her chest. The fear that had paralyzed her for years evaporated into pure, icy resolve.
“There’s a storm cellar beneath the pantry,” Clara whispered, gesturing toward the floor. “It leads out to the drainage canal. Go now. I’ll stall them.”
“I’m not leaving you,” Sarah replied.
May you like
“You have to,” Clara hissed, thrusting the flash drive into Sarah’s palm. “If they take this drive, we lose everything.”
Before Sarah could move, the sound of a crowbar squealed as the hinges of the back door gave way.
