Chapter 10: The Leap of Faith
The lock clicked completely open, and the heavy oak door began to swing inward.
Jax didn't wait. He hoisted himself effortlessly onto the wide marble windowsill, the cold night wind whipping his long dark hair across his face. He looked down into the murky darkness of the courtyard below, where the flat copper roof of the conservatory gleamed under the amber glow of the security lights.
"Leo," Jax called softly, extending a large, calloused hand backward into the room. "Come here, buddy."
Leo didn't hesitate. He climbed onto the plush armchair, then up onto the sill, his scuffed sneakers scraping against the polished stone. He looked down at the drop, his small chest rising and falling in slow, controlled breaths. There was no screaming, no exaggerated panic—just the cold, clear assessment of a child who had learned to survive by trusting the only person who had ever looked at him with genuine care.
"I've got you," Jax said, his voice steady and low. "Jump."
Leo stepped forward into the dark air.
Jax caught him with practiced ease, absorbing the boy’s momentum against his chest before rolling smoothly onto the damp copper roof below. The metal made a dull, echoing thud against the stone foundation, but the sound was instantly swallowed by the night wind.
"I'm okay," Leo whispered, his voice calm as he scrambled to his feet on the sloping metal surface, clutching his jacket pocket where the photograph and the paper rested.
Jax looked back up toward the open second-story window. Clara stood framed in the aperture, her silhouette trembling against the amber light of the bedroom. Behind her, the doorway had fully opened, and Eleanor stood in the hallway, flanked by two towering private security guards in dark suits.
Eleanor’s face was a mask of cold fury, her eyes locked on Clara with a terrifying intensity.
"Clara," Eleanor’s voice sliced through the wind, sharp as a scalpel. "If you step through that window, you are dead to this family. You will leave with nothing. No trust, no name, no safety net."
Clara looked back over her shoulder at her mother, then down at Jax and Leo waiting in the dark below. For a long, agonizing moment, the decades of psychological chains held fast. Her shoulders shook, her breath coming in shallow, ragged gasps.
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"Clara!" Jax called up, his voice ringing with absolute clarity. "Choose."
Clara closed her eyes. When she opened them, the fear had vanished, replaced by a quiet, desperate resolve. She turned her back on her mother, climbed unsteadily onto the windowsill, and let herself drop.
