Chapter 9 - The Lake House
The backup generator should have turned on in eight seconds.
It didn’t.
Ethan grabbed Emily’s hand. “Basement safe room.”
“No. If they’re already inside, that traps us.”
A sound came from the back hall.
Glass breaking.
Ethan moved toward the kitchen drawer where he kept a heavy flashlight.
Emily whispered, “Police.”
Her phone had one bar. The call connected, then dropped.
Footsteps crossed the pantry.
Ethan shoved Emily behind the island.
A man appeared in the doorway.
Not the attacker from Nora’s apartment.
This one wore a delivery jacket and held a pry bar.
Ethan rushed him.
The man swung. Ethan ducked and drove him into the refrigerator. Emily grabbed a skillet and slammed it against the man’s forearm.
The pry bar clattered away.
He ran through the broken back door.
“Are you hurt?” Ethan asked.
Emily shook her head, breathing hard.
The baby kicked.
“Whoever is doing this knows we have the documents,” she said.
Ethan looked toward the dark driveway.
“And Nora is still in danger.”
They met police at the hospital. Nora was safe. The photograph Margaret sent had been taken earlier that afternoon, before a security officer was assigned to her room.
“The man in the picture?” Ethan asked.
Nora swallowed. “Grant.”
At 6:20, Ethan drove to the lake house with two detectives following at a distance.
Emily was furious he had agreed to go.
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
“She hit me. She forged my child’s paternity. I’m done being protected out of the room where people decide what happens to my life.”
Ethan looked at her for a long moment.
“Stay in the car unless I call you.”
“That’s the best deal you’re getting.”
The lake house sat dark beneath tall pines.
Margaret waited on the porch with a glass of wine.
“You brought her.”
Emily stepped out of the car. “Disappointed?”
Margaret looked at her belly, then at Ethan.
“This is your last chance to handle this privately.”
“You mean quietly,” Ethan said.
Margaret smiled without warmth. “Same thing in our family.”
Emily held up the trust papers.
“You’re terrified of losing control.”
Margaret’s expression changed.
Then she said, “You think that trust is why I need the baby gone?”
Emily felt cold.
May you like
Margaret took a slow sip of wine.
“Oh, Emily. You still don’t know what Ethan’s father found out before he died.”
