Chapter 10 - The Last Horizon
The room was bathed in the pale, sickly light of the coastal afternoon. Clara lay on the narrow hospital bed, her face paper-thin, her skin translucent against the rough cotton pillowcase. Her chest rose and fell in shallow, frantic twitches as an oxygen mask fogged with each desperate breath.
A young nurse was frantically adjusting an intravenous line, her hands trembling under the blaring alarm.
“Clara,” Julian breathed, setting Emma onto the edge of the bed.
The moment Emma’s small hand touched Clara’s gaunt, cool fingers, the woman’s eyelids fluttered open. Her sunken amber eyes, clouded with fever, slowly focused on the child. A faint, broken smile tugged at the corner of her cracked lips.
“Emma…” she whispered through the clear plastic mask.
Emma held up the scuffed teddy bear, pressing its worn nose against her mother’s hand. “I found Daddy, Mommy. He has a big house with marble.”
Clara’s gaze drifted past the child, locking onto Julian. Her hand moved weakly, her index finger pointing toward a small leather pouch resting beside the water pitcher on the metal nightstand.
Julian grabbed the pouch. Inside was a heavy iron key with an engraved brass tag: Locker 42, Blackwood Municipal Drydock.
“He… forged… the title…” Clara gasped, her fingers weakly tightening around Julian’s wrist with surprising strength. “Your father didn't… sign… the harbor sale. Arthur… killed… the audit…”
The cardiac monitor flatlined into a continuous, deafening tone.
“Doctor!” the nurse screamed into the intercom.
May you like
Julian held Clara’s hand as her grip suddenly went limp, the amber light in her eyes extinguishing like a candle snuffed out by a sudden gale. Emma looked up, confused by the flat tone, gently patting her mother’s cheek. “Mommy? Wake up. Daddy’s here.”
In the doorway, Arthur Vance stood watching, his face completely devoid of pity, holding his phone to his ear. “The mother is deceased. Dispatch the custody van to the service entrance immediately.”
