Chapter 16 - THE AMBUSH AT 8:00 A.M.
"You touch my children, and I will tear your throat out with my bare hands!"
Daniel’s voice roared from the dining room, followed by the sound of breaking porcelain. He had managed to break free from whatever had pinned him. A violent scuffle erupted on the other side of the door. Claire heard Victoria grunt in pain, followed by the clatter of a glass bottle shattering across the floor.
Claire backed up down the cellar stairs, grabbed a heavy iron pipe from the plumbing scrap pile near the water heater, and charged up the steps. With all the adrenaline surging through her veins, she swung the pipe against the vintage wooden paneling near the lock.
The ancient wood splintered. Claire struck it again and again, splintering the frame until the latch gave way with an explosive crack.
She burst into the kitchen, the iron pipe raised high.
The room was in shambles. A dining chair lay broken in pieces. A pool of clear chemical fluid was spread across the rug, but Victoria was nowhere in sight.
Daniel lay slumped against the island, clutching his ribs, blood dripping from a gash over his eyebrow where he had been struck with a brass candlestick.
"Noah..." Daniel choked out, his vision unfocused. "She took... she ran toward the back patio..."
Claire didn't hesitate. She dropped the pipe, grabbed Daniel’s winter jacket from the hook, and threw open the back French doors.
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Out in the snow-covered backyard, the morning sun had barely crested the tree line. In the distance, near the edge of the dense pine woods that bordered their ten-acre estate, two figures were moving fast through knee-deep drifts. Victoria was dragging Noah, who was screaming and kicking, his bright yellow snow boots thrashing wildly against the white landscape.
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