Chapter 6 - THE NIGHT SHE CAME FOR AMELIA
My father transformed the estate into a fortress in eleven minutes.
Gates locked.
Exterior lights killed.
Thermal surveillance activated.
Federal agents moved through hallways where my mother usually hosted Christmas dinners.
Amelia slept through all of it.
I stood beside her bassinet with one hand pressed over my incision and the other holding the tactical watch that had already saved our lives once.
“You need to go to the safe room,” my father said.
“I’m not leaving her.”
“She goes with you.”
“Then fine.”
The safe room was hidden behind a wall in my father’s study.
Steel door.
Independent oxygen.
Satellite communication.
Enough supplies to last several days.
I had hated it as a teenager.
Tonight, I loved it.
My mother entered carrying Amelia.
I took my daughter.
“Where are you going?” I asked my father.
“To coordinate security.”
“No.”
His eyebrows lifted.
“You’re sixty-three years old.”
“I remain professionally insulted by that observation.”
“Dad.”
He kissed my forehead.
“I’m not chasing anyone through the woods, Genevieve.”
My mother gave him a look.
He added,
“Unless necessary.”
Then the door closed.
For twenty minutes, nothing happened.
My mother sat beside me.
Amelia woke and began fussing.
I fed her while watching security screens.
The normality of the act almost broke me.
A newborn should not know what a safe room is.
Her mother should not be hiding from her father’s mistress.
“Mom?”
“Yes?”
“Did you ever hate Dad?”
She looked surprised.
“Several times.”
I almost smiled.
“Seriously.”
“So am I.”
She adjusted the blanket around Amelia’s feet.
“Love does not mean never being furious. It means the person you love never makes you afraid of their character.”
I looked down.
“I should have known.”
“You knew something was wrong.”
“I stayed.”
“You hoped.”
“That feels stupid now.”
“It was human.”
A light blinked on the security monitor.
Motion sensor.
North garden.
Then another.
Garage.
My mother’s eyes sharpened.
“Two entry points.”
My father’s voice came through the room speaker.
“Stay inside.”
A camera showed a figure moving between trees.
Black clothing.
Another appeared near the service entrance.
Victoria had not come alone.
Gunfire cracked outside.
Amelia startled and began crying.
I held her tightly.
My heart slammed against my ribs.
Then the security feed to the garage went black.
One camera.
Then another.
“They’re cutting power.”
My mother picked up the emergency phone.
Backup systems activated.
The screen flickered back.
A man was inside the house.
“How?”
My mother’s voice changed.
He moved through the kitchen as if he knew exactly where he was going.
Not searching.
Navigating.
“He’s been here before,” I whispered.
Then his face appeared beneath a hallway camera.
I recognized him.
“Robert.”
Chairman Robert Ellison.
The man who had suggested I recuse myself from Julian’s company.
The man who voted against Julian only after seeing Daniel’s evidence.
My mother stared.
“He’s involved.”
Robert reached my father’s study.
He went directly to the bookshelf concealing the safe room.
My blood froze.
“He knows.”
My mother grabbed a handgun from the safe.
She had trained with my father for thirty years.
I had almost forgotten.
Robert pressed a hidden switch.
Nothing happened.
The room was locked internally.
He pulled a pistol.
Then Victoria stepped into view.
Her hospital gown was gone.
She wore black jeans, a dark jacket, and a bandage across her temple.
She looked directly into the security camera.
“Genevieve.”
Her voice came through the study intercom.
“I know you’re watching.”
I held Amelia closer.
“Open the door.”
I pressed the microphone.
“No.”
Victoria smiled.
“We can do this the easy way.”
“You lost the right to use that sentence when you dragged me through an ocean.”
Her smile vanished.
“This is your fault.”
My mother actually laughed.
Victoria’s face twisted.
“You think you’re better than me because you were born a Sterling?”
“No.”
I looked directly into the camera.
“I think I’m better than you because I don’t try to murder pregnant women.”
Robert grabbed Victoria’s shoulder.
“We need to go.”
She jerked away.
“Not without the baby.”
Every protective instinct inside me ignited.
My mother whispered,
“She wants you angry.”
“She has achieved that.”
Robert looked toward the doorway.
Something had frightened him.
Then gunshots erupted.
He disappeared from camera.
Victoria crouched behind my father’s desk.
The feed shook.
My father’s voice came through the speaker.
“Genevieve, remain inside.”
Then silence.
Victoria fired toward the hallway.
Someone returned fire.
Glass shattered.
Amelia screamed.
I pressed my lips to her forehead.
“You’re okay.”
I did not know whether that was true.
Then Victoria moved toward the bookshelf.
She took something from her jacket.
Explosive charge.
My mother saw it too.
“If she detonates that—”
The safe room would hold.
Probably.
But Amelia’s ears—
My recovering body—
The fire risk—
I looked around.
“There’s another exit.”
My mother nodded.
A narrow emergency tunnel led from the safe room to the pool house.
My father had built it years earlier.
We opened the secondary door.
I carried Amelia.
My mother went first with the gun.
We moved through the concrete tunnel.
Halfway through, an explosion shook the wall.
Dust fell from the ceiling.
Amelia wailed.
“Keep moving,” my mother said.
We reached the pool house.
I expected security.
Instead, Victoria was waiting.
She had known about the tunnel.
She pointed a pistol directly at my mother.
“Drop it.”
My mother froze.
“How do you know about this exit?” I asked.
Victoria smiled.
“Julian.”
Of course.
My husband had spent holidays here.
He had toured the property.
He knew more about my parents’ security than I realized.
“Put the gun down, Eleanor.”
My mother slowly lowered hers.
Victoria looked at me.
“Give me the baby.”
“No.”
“I’m not going to hurt her.”
“You already did.”
“This isn’t about her.”
“It became about her when you tried to kill us.”
Victoria’s eyes filled with something frightening.
Not tears.
Resentment.
“You had everything.”
I stared at her.
“What?”
“Money. Family. Julian.”
“You wanted Julian?”
“I wanted what he was supposed to become.”
There it was.
Not love for Julian either.
Access.
Power.
Status.
She stepped closer.
“Then I discovered who you were.”
“You knew about my family.”
“Years ago.”
“How?”
“Daniel.”
My heart stopped.
“Daniel told you?”
“He found your investment records.”
“Why?”
“He was trying to understand where Julian’s bailout money came from.”
Victoria laughed softly.
“When I realized you were Hector Sterling’s daughter, everything changed.”
“You could have told Julian.”
“Why would I?”
She looked disgusted.
“He would have spent the rest of his life begging you for approval.”
“So you manipulated him.”
“I showed him what he wanted.”
“And Daniel?”
Her expression flickered.
I saw it.
Guilt.
Or fear.
“You killed him.”
“No.”
“Who did?”
Robert’s voice came from behind us.
“She did.”
Victoria spun.
Robert stood in the doorway holding his injured shoulder.
Blood covered his shirt.
“You idiot,” Victoria hissed.
Robert laughed weakly.
“You’re finished.”
“You helped me.”
“I helped move a car. You told me Daniel was already dead.”
My mother whispered,
“He’s confessing.”
Victoria pointed the gun at him.
Robert continued.
“Julian hit Daniel during the argument.”
My breath stopped.
“He fell against a desk. He was alive afterward.”
Victoria’s face became savage.
“Shut up.”
Robert looked at me.
“She said if Daniel woke up, all of us went to prison.”
My stomach turned.
“What did she do?”
“She injected him.”
The same method she had tried to use on me at the hospital.
Victoria shot Robert.
The sound was deafening.
He collapsed.
Amelia screamed.
My mother lunged toward the dropped gun.
Victoria swung toward her.
I moved without thinking.
I threw myself into Victoria.
Pain exploded through my abdomen.
We hit the floor.
The gun skidded beneath a table.
Victoria grabbed my hair.
“You should have died in Cabo!”
I drove my elbow into her wrist.
She screamed.
Then my father appeared.
“VICTORIA!”
She froze.
A laser sight centered over her chest.
Agents filled the doorway.
Victoria looked around.
No escape.
No allies.
No smile.
My father’s voice was quiet.
“Move away from my daughter.”
Victoria slowly raised her hands.
I crawled toward Amelia.
My mother had already lifted her from the floor.
She was crying.
Alive.
Safe.
Victoria was handcuffed.
Robert was still breathing.
Paramedics rushed in.
As Victoria passed me, she whispered,
“Julian will blame you for everything.”
I looked at her.
“No.”
I took Amelia into my arms.
“He’ll blame himself.”
And for the first time, I believed that might actually be true.
Because the empire Julian had built from lies was collapsing.
The woman he had chosen over his family had just implicated him in murder.
May you like
And by morning, the father of my child would no longer be facing only attempted murder.
He would be facing the truth about Daniel Cross.
