Chapter 5 - The Final Snowfall
With his bail revoked, Nathan was supposed to be transported to a maximum-security federal holding facility. But Nathan had spent years cultivating loyalists on his payroll.
Two days after the hearing, Elias invited me to stay at his heavily fortified ranch on the outskirts of Denver until the trial began. It felt safe. I was finally breathing easier, setting up a nursery for Lily in a sunlit room, planning a future that belonged entirely to us.
It happened at midnight.
The security alarms didn't go off. The cameras didn't show a breach. Nathan had paid off one of Elias’s night-shift perimeter guards.
I woke up to the sound of shattering glass in the nursery.
I bolted out of bed, grabbing the heavy brass lamp from my nightstand, and sprinted down the hall. The door to the nursery was open. The freezing night wind whipped through a broken window.
Nathan stood over the crib, wearing dark tactical clothing, holding a suppressed pistol in one hand and reaching for Lily with the other. His eyes were wild, manic, completely detached from reality.
"You took my company," he whispered, a terrifyingly calm smile stretching across his face. "You took my reputation. You took Celeste. So I'm taking the only thing you have left. We’re going to disappear, Claire. Just me and the baby. And you’re going to stay here and bleed."
He raised the gun toward my chest.
I didn't think. I didn't scream. A mother’s instinct is older and deeper than fear.
I threw the heavy brass lamp directly at his face with every ounce of strength I possessed. It struck him hard in the temple. The gun discharged, the bullet splintering the doorframe inches from my head.
Nathan stumbled backward, blood pouring down the side of his face. I threw myself across the room, placing my body entirely over Lily’s crib, shielding her with my back as I braced for the second shot.
“Drop it, Nathan!”
The voice was a thunderclap. Elias Thorne stood in the doorway, wearing his silk robe, aiming a massive, double-barreled hunting shotgun directly at Nathan’s chest. Behind him, three loyal security guards had their weapons drawn.
Nathan froze, clutching his bleeding head, looking at the arsenal pointed at him.
"You shoot her, and I will tear you in half before you hit the floor," Elias growled, cocking the shotgun. The mechanical click echoed in the silent room.
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Nathan looked at me, then at Lily, who had begun to cry from the noise. The arrogance finally drained out of him, replaced by the pathetic realization that he had absolutely nothing left. He dropped the pistol to the carpet and fell to his knees, sobbing into his hands.
I scooped Lily out of the crib, holding her tight against my rapidly beating heart, and walked out of the room without looking back.
