Her Stepmother Chased Her Down the Hallway With a Wooden Candlestick—Until the 1-Year-Old Girl Fell Down the Stairs! Her Father Rushed In to Save Her, but What She Whispered About the Locked Room Left Him Frozen in Horror! / Chapter 9 / 40

Chapter 9 - Sirens in the Storm

In the distance, the wail of sirens pierced the stormy night.

Red and blue emergency lights flashed through the trees at the bottom of the estate’s long driveway.

Noah had done more than just save his sister in the laundry room—before sliding into the utility corridor, he had pressed the silent alarm panic button built into the master bedroom headboard, a protocol Daniel had taught him two years ago.

The first three state trooper cruisers smashed through the ornate iron gates of Mercer Manor, tires sliding across the wet asphalt, followed closely by two massive fire engines and an ambulance.

Armed officers poured out of their vehicles, weapons drawn, scanning the blazing mansion.

“DROP YOUR WEAPONS! POLICE!”

Daniel didn't flinch. He raised his hands slowly and turned toward the garden. “Over here! The suspect is trapped in the vehicle! I have two injured children in the fountain!”

Within seconds, the scene turned into a coordinated blur of emergency response.

Paramedics sprinted across the lawn with stretchers and thermal blankets. Four state troopers surrounded the crushed Porsche, pry-bars in hand, while firefighters dragged heavy hoses toward the blazing facade of the mansion.

Daniel dropped to his knees beside the granite fountain.

Noah was still hovering over Lily, shivering uncontrollably. When he saw his father, the boy didn't say a word—he just fell forward into Daniel’s chest, weeping so hard he could barely draw breath.

Daniel scooped both of them up into his arms, wrapping them in the heavy wool blankets handed to him by a breathless paramedic.

“Sir, you’re bleeding, you need to sit down,” a female paramedic urged, touching Daniel’s arm.

“Check them first,” Daniel commanded, his voice shaking with fierce paternal authority. “Check my son. Check my daughter. Do not leave their side.”

Across the lawn, hydraulic rescue cutters sheared through the Porsche’s door frame with a screech of tearing metal. The officers dragged Vanessa Mercer out into the mud.

She screamed curses, kicking wildly, her face a bloody, hideous mask of rage as the handcuffs were ratcheted tightly around her wrists.

“Daniel! You ruined me!” she shrieked into the rain, thrashing against three burly state troopers. “You hear me, Daniel? I’ll buy my way out! My lawyers will tear your life apart!”

Lead Investigator Marcus Thorne of the State Police walked up to Daniel, watching Vanessa get shoved into the back of a police cruiser. He looked down at the dented flash drive Daniel held out to him.

“What’s on this, Mr. Mercer?” Thorne asked grimly.

“The murder confession for my first wife, Clara,” Daniel said, his voice ringing with cold certainty. “And every offshore transaction funding her execution. Make sure she never sees the sun again.”