Chapter 8 - Victoria’s Choice
Avery could not breathe.
Leo was wrapped in a gray blanket, his face red from crying.
Victoria held him awkwardly, one hand supporting his neck while the other pressed him against her chest.
A man stood behind her with a gun.
“Avery,” Victoria said, “do not make sudden movements.”
Avery stared at her baby.
“How did you get him?”
Victoria’s expression flickered.
“I removed him before Samuel’s people could.”
“You kidnapped my son.”
“I saved him.”
“Give him to me.”
“I can’t.”
Liam’s voice broke.
“Mother, what have you done?”
Victoria looked at him.
“For once in your life, trust me.”
Samuel laughed softly.
“That would be a historic mistake.”
Victoria turned toward him.
“You promised no one would be harmed.”
“I promised many things.”
The armed man behind Victoria moved closer.
Avery realized he was not protecting her.
He was controlling her.
Samuel had manipulated Victoria into bringing Leo to the conservatory.
“Why does Samuel need Leo?” Avery asked.
Samuel glanced at the metal box.
“The trust requires a living descendant to assume control. If you die, your son becomes the beneficiary.”
Liam lunged forward.
Noah caught his arm before the gunmen fired.
Samuel continued calmly.
“A minor beneficiary requires a court-appointed guardian and trustee.”
“You,” Avery said.
“Eventually.”
Victoria’s face drained of color.
“You told me Avery planned to remove Liam from the company and take Leo overseas.”
Samuel smiled.
“And you believed me because it was what you feared.”
Avery saw the truth clearly.
Victoria had kidnapped Leo because she believed she was preserving the Sterling line.
Even now, every act of cruelty led back to ownership.
“You never saw me as Leo’s mother,” Avery said. “You saw me as a threat standing between you and him.”
Victoria looked down at the baby.
“I saw you as someone unprepared for the world he was born into.”
“He was born into my arms.”
The words struck harder than a shout.
Victoria’s eyes lifted.
For the first time, Avery saw shame there.
Samuel extended his hand toward the metal box.
“Give me the trust.”
Avery shook her head.
“You already have a certified copy.”
“I have enough to begin the transfer. I need the original recordings to control the criminal investigation.”
“You mean destroy them.”
“Control is a more useful word.”
Detective Ruiz spoke.
“You’re surrounded. State police know we’re here.”
Samuel looked amused.
“No, Detective. Your department believes you are following a false lead fifty miles south.”
Ruiz’s face hardened.
Samuel had someone inside law enforcement.
Noah studied the greenhouse roof.
Snow had begun sliding across the cracked glass panels.
Avery followed his eyes.
He was calculating something.
Samuel stepped closer.
“The trust, Avery.”
“No.”
The gunman behind Victoria pressed his weapon against her back.
Leo began crying again.
Victoria closed her eyes.
“Give it to him.”
Avery looked at her.
“If I do, he kills us anyway.”
Samuel smiled.
“She learns quickly.”
Victoria’s face changed.
Something inside her seemed to collapse.
For decades, she had survived by believing she was the smartest person in every room.
Now she understood she had never controlled Samuel.
She had merely been useful to him.
Victoria looked at Liam.
“I am sorry.”
Then she drove her elbow backward into the gunman’s throat.
The shot went off.
Glass shattered above them.
Noah tackled Avery as bullets struck the metal table.
Liam rushed toward his mother.
Victoria threw herself over Leo.
Detective Ruiz drew a hidden ankle weapon and fired at one of Samuel’s men.
The greenhouse erupted in chaos.
Noah shot the hanging cables supporting a row of heat lamps.
The heavy fixtures crashed between Avery and Samuel.
Avery crawled toward Victoria.
“Give me Leo!”
Victoria raised the baby.
Avery took him and rolled behind a stone planter.
Liam dragged Victoria to cover.
Blood spread across her emerald-colored coat.
“Mother!”
“I’m fine,” she gasped.
She was not.
The bullet had entered near her shoulder.
Samuel ran toward the rear exit carrying the metal box.
Detective Ruiz pursued him.
Avery held Leo close while Noah exchanged fire with the remaining gunman.
Then the roof groaned.
The broken support beams could no longer carry the snow.
“Everybody out!” Noah shouted.
Liam lifted Victoria.
Avery ran beside him with Leo.
They reached the doorway as the center of the greenhouse collapsed.
Thousands of glass panels crashed into the roses.
Samuel disappeared beneath the falling roof.
For several moments, no one moved.
Then Detective Ruiz emerged from the side entrance, coughing.
“Samuel escaped through a maintenance tunnel.”
Avery looked at the ruins.
“The box?”
“Gone.”
Sirens approached in the distance.
Real police this time.
Victoria collapsed in Liam’s arms.
As paramedics rushed toward them, she gripped Avery’s sleeve.
“There is something else,” Victoria whispered.
May you like
“What?”
“Your mother’s death was not an accident.”
