Chapter 13 - Fire The fire climbed faster than I expected.
Plastic wrapping ignited.
Cardboard boxes collapsed.
Black smoke swallowed the upper floor.
We stayed low.
Then we heard Vanessa scream.
She had been trapped beneath a fallen steel rack.
The handbag was several feet away.
I could have left her.
For one terrible second, I wanted to.
She had lied about Claire.
She had manipulated me.
She had threatened my children.
She had helped destroy my family.
Then Noah moved toward her.
“Help me.”
I grabbed him.
“She's dangerous.”
“She saved nobody.”
Noah looked at me.
“But she's still a person.”
Claire had raised him right.
Together, we lifted the metal.
Vanessa pulled herself free.
She immediately grabbed the handbag.
“Where's the token?”
She laughed.
“You're too late.”
A figure appeared through the smoke.
Elliot.
Gun in hand.
“Vanessa.”
She turned.
“You tried to kill me.”
“I tried to finish this.”
“You're insane.”
“You were always the weak link.”
Elliot raised the gun.
Noah kicked a pipe across the floor.
Elliot looked down.
I hit him.
The gun fired into the ceiling.
We crashed into a stack of crates.
Elliot struck me.
I fell.
He aimed at Noah.
I grabbed his ankle.
Then Ruiz burst through the side entrance.
“DROP THE WEAPON!”
Elliot hesitated.
That was enough.
Ruiz kicked the gun away.
He was cuffed.
Vanessa was taken outside.
The handbag was searched.
Empty.
No token.
Vanessa looked at Noah.
“Ask him what your mother gave you the morning she disappeared.”
Noah's face changed.
May you like
Slowly, his hand moved to his wrist.
To the leather bracelet Claire had given him.
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