Chapter 19 - The Mask Falls Off
Martha picked up the silver spoon, dipping it into the shimmering, poisoned broth.
"Your mother was so very clever, Lily," Martha murmured, holding the spoon inches from the child’s trembling lips. "Claire thought she could run Sterling Pharma with morals. She thought she could shut down the offshore accounts that funded my family for thirty years. She had to be put to sleep. And then your father brought Victoria into this house—a greedy, incompetent amateur who nearly ruined everything with her impatience."
Tears streamed silently down Lily’s pale cheeks. "You... you hurt Mommy?"
"I gave your mother peace," Martha said coldly, pressing the spoon against Lily’s tightly clenched lips. "And now, I am going to give you peace. You will fall asleep. The doctors will say your little heart gave out from the trauma of tonight’s attack. And I will be the grieving guardian who inherits the Sterling Trust to ensure your memory is honored forever."
"NO!" Lily screamed, biting down viciously on Martha’s thumb.
Martha gasped in pain, dropping the silver spoon. The hot broth splashed across the hardwood floor, sizzling faintly against the finish.
"You ungrateful little brat!" Martha hissed, her mask of maternal tenderness shattering completely into a snarl of pure venom. She raised her backhand to strike the seven-year-old child across the face—
*CRASH!*
The reinforced window of the second-floor gallery outside the panic room shattered into a million crystal shards.
A figure burst through the opening, rolling across the floor, covered in mud, blood, and broken glass.
Julian Sterling.
He had dragged himself through two hundred yards of subterranean drainage pipe, scaled the eastern trellis with his bare hands, his fingers torn to ribbons, fueled by an adrenaline born of pure, unadulterated paternal desperation.
"GET AWAY FROM HER!" Julian roared.
Martha whipped around, reaching instantly into the pocket of her starched apron.
She pulled out a snub-nosed .38 revolver.
Julian didn't slow down. He didn't seek cover. He closed the ten-foot distance between them in a heartbeat, tackling Martha’s arm upward just as she pulled the trigger.
*BANG!*
The bullet punched into the ceiling, showering plaster dust across the room.
Julian grabbed Martha’s wrist, twisting the weapon out of her grip with a savage wrench that shattered her carpal bones. The revolver skittered across the floor, sliding beneath the sofa.
Julian threw Martha against the wall, his forearm pressed hard against her throat, pinning her feet off the floor.
"It was you," Julian growled, his face inches from hers, his eyes burning with a murderous rage that hovered on the knife-edge of sanity. "From the very beginning. You poisoned Claire. You orchestrated Victoria. You burned my child!"
Martha choked, blood flecking her lips, but she didn't look afraid. A sick, triumphant sneer spread across her face.
"Go ahead, Julian..." she wheezed through her crushed trachea. "Kill me. Strangle me in front of your daughter. Let her watch you become a murderer."
"Daddy!" Lily sobbed from the corner, clutching her knees. "Daddy, please!"
Julian’s knuckles trembled. Every instinct in his soul screamed at him to crush the life out of the monster who had destroyed his family. But as Lily’s voice hit his ears, he pulled himself back from the abyss.
With a disgusted snarl, Julian threw Martha down onto the floor.
"You're not getting off that easy, Martha," Julian panted, his chest heaving. "You're going to spend the rest of your miserable life in the darkest hole the state can dig."
From outside, the wail of dozens of sirens tore through the night. Searchlights from four police helicopters swept across the shattered windows, illuminating the panic room in brilliant, blinding white light.
The Westchester County SWAT team was swarming the grounds.
Martha slowly pushed herself up from the floor, leaning back against the wall, wiping blood from her chin. She looked up at Julian, and then, slowly, horribly, she began to chuckle.
"You think the sirens are for me, Julian?" she whispered.
May you like
Julian froze.
***
