Chapter 11 — The Mother’s Choice
Chapter 11 — The Mother’s Choice
Raymond gave Victoria one hour.
She had to come alone to the old Ashford summer estate.
If she brought police, Adrian would die.
If she refused, Raymond promised to send pieces of him to the hospital.
Marcus’s replacement, Deputy Director Lena Ortiz, refused to let Victoria go unmonitored.
“We place a tracker beneath your skin,” Lena said. “No visible wires. No phone.”
Victoria stared at the live image of Adrian.
“He will search me.”
“Then we implant the tracker.”
Evelyn expected Victoria to hesitate.
She did not.
A medic inserted the device beneath the skin near her shoulder wound.
Before leaving, Victoria approached Emma.
The little girl stepped behind Evelyn.
Victoria stopped at a respectful distance.
“I’m sorry for what I did to you.”
Emma looked up at her mother.
Evelyn said nothing.
The apology belonged to Emma.
“You called me trash,” the child said.
“I did.”
“Did you think I was trash?”
Victoria swallowed.
“I thought I could treat you as though you were because I believed no one powerful would stop me.”
“That’s worse.”
“Yes.”
Emma considered her.
“I don’t forgive you yet.”
Victoria nodded.
“You shouldn’t.”
She drove alone to the summer estate.
Federal teams tracked her from several miles away.
Evelyn watched from a command vehicle with Noah and Lena.
The estate stood abandoned near the lake, its windows boarded after years of neglect.
Victoria entered through the front door.
The tracker showed her crossing the foyer and moving downstairs.
Then the signal stopped.
“They found it,” Lena said.
Evelyn reached for the door.
“Wait,” Noah warned.
“My sister and nephew are inside.”
“She may not be on your side.”
“She took a bullet for Emma.”
“That doesn’t erase twenty-two years.”
“No. But it tells me what she chose when the moment came.”
Lena authorized the team to move closer.
Inside the estate, Victoria found Adrian tied beneath the old dining table.
Raymond stood beside the fireplace.
Nathan waited near the window.
Victoria looked at him first.
“You came.”
“To see whether you choose differently this time.”
Raymond placed a pistol on the table.
“One bullet.”
Victoria stared at it.
“One bullet for what?”
“One son.”
Adrian struggled against the ropes.
“Mom, don’t listen.”
Raymond smiled.
“You can free Adrian by shooting Nathan.”
Victoria looked toward Nathan.
“Or,” Raymond continued, “you free Nathan by shooting Adrian.”
“You’re insane.”
“No. I’m fair. You had two sons and built a life around one. Now balance the account.”
Nathan’s face was unreadable.
“You agreed to this?” Victoria asked him.
“I wanted to know what you would do.”
Victoria picked up the gun.
Adrian began crying.
Nathan did not move.
Victoria aimed at Raymond.
The pistol clicked.
Empty.
Raymond laughed.
“That was your choice?”
“You were always the choice.”
His smile vanished.
Victoria threw the gun and lunged toward Adrian.
Raymond struck her across the face.
Nathan stepped forward.
“Enough.”
Raymond turned.
“You wanted the truth.”
“I have it.”
“You think she loves you now?”
“No. But I know she hates you.”
Raymond reached for his weapon.
Nathan drew first.
A shot exploded through the room.
Raymond staggered backward.
Blood appeared beneath his ribs.
Nathan stood frozen with the smoking pistol.
Victoria untied Adrian.
Raymond collapsed near the fireplace.
“You ungrateful little—”
Nathan fired again.
The second bullet struck Raymond’s chest.
Federal agents stormed the house moments later.
Nathan dropped the gun and raised his hands.
Victoria held both sons, one on each side of her.
For several seconds, they resembled a family.
Then Raymond began laughing from the floor.
The bullets had missed his heart.
“You still don’t understand,” he coughed.
He pointed toward an old security monitor.
The screen showed a storage facility across the city.
Inside were hundreds of barrels marked with the Ashford Chemical logo.
A timer counted down from fourteen minutes.
“If the police entered the estate,” Raymond said, “the transmitters activated.”
Lena grabbed him.
“What’s in the barrels?”
“Enough contaminated solvent to turn the Bellhaven River into a graveyard.”
Evelyn looked at the monitor.
The storage facility stood upriver from East Bellhaven.
Thousands of people lived downstream.
Noah recognized the detonator design.
“The timer cannot be stopped remotely.”
“Then someone has to enter the facility,” Evelyn said.
Raymond smiled through bloody teeth.
“The door requires an Ashford family biometric scan.”
Victoria looked at the countdown.
Thirteen minutes.
Evelyn, Victoria, Adrian and Nathan all carried Ashford blood.
But the facility was twelve minutes away.
Only one of them could reach it in time.
Nathan grabbed the car keys.
“I’m closest to the door.”
Victoria caught his arm.
“You don’t know what’s inside.”
He looked at the mother he had spent his life hating.
May you like
“Neither did the children your company poisoned.”
Then he ran.
