Chapter 8 - THE TICKING CRATE
The red light on the detonator in Maren's hand blinked rhythmically, a tiny, evil heartbeat in the dim warehouse.
Leo saw me and cried out, "Mommy!"
"Stay exactly where you are, baby," I yelled, my voice cracking. "Don't move!"
Silas looked up, his bruised face tightening with a mixture of relief and absolute fury. "Hannah, I told you to stay at the house!" he roared, pulling violently against the chains binding him to the steel pillar. The metal groaned but held.
"I wasn't going to let you die for my son," I shot back, stepping forward. Marco fanned out to the right, his gun trained on the Moretti guards. Liam stood frozen behind me.
"How touching," Maren sneered, her thumb hovering over the red button. "The maid and the mafia boss. A tragic romance cut short."
"It's over, Maren," Marco said, his voice hard. "My men have the building surrounded. You press that button, you die before the smoke clears."
Maren laughed, a high, unstable sound. "I don't care! The Morettis promised me Elena’s life. When she died, they promised me her fortune. Silas ruined it! He humiliated me in front of everyone!"
I looked at Liam. "Can you disarm the crate?" I whispered frantically.
Liam stared at the wooden box Leo was sitting on. He nodded slowly. "If I can get underneath it. But she has to be distracted."
I turned my attention back to Maren. I needed to keep her talking. I needed to break her focus.
"Why did you keep Liam’s watch?" I yelled, stepping closer, making myself the center of her attention. "Why keep Elena’s brooch? If you're so smart, why keep the evidence that could put you in prison?"
Maren glared at me. "Because they were mine! Trophies. Proof that I won."
"You didn't win anything," Silas’s deep voice echoed across the room. He had stopped pulling at the chains. He was staring at Maren with a cold, terrifying calm. "Elena recorded you. You thought you outsmarted my wife, but she knew you were a rat from the beginning. She left the recording because she knew I would eventually find it."
"Shut up!" Maren screamed, pointing the revolver at him.
"She left a trail, Maren," Silas continued, his voice dripping with dark amusement. "She left the music box. And she left the photograph of Hannah's son. Because Elena knew something you didn't."
Maren hesitated, her thumb slipping a millimeter off the button. "What? What did she know?"
Silas looked at me, a profound apology in his eyes.
"She knew that Liam didn't just fix her car that night," Silas said softly. "She knew that Liam betrayed her. Liam cut the brake lines for the Morettis."
The warehouse went dead silent.
I turned around slowly, looking at the man I had mourned for four years. The man who was supposed to be my hero.
Liam was pale, shaking his head. "Hannah... I had to. The Morettis said they would kill Leo if I didn't stop Elena from leaving."
My stomach heaved. The hit-and-run, the faked death, the four years of misery. It wasn't because Liam was innocent. He had murdered Elena Rourke.
"You killed her," I whispered, stepping away from him as if he were a snake. "You killed a mother to save yourself."
"I saved you!" Liam yelled, stepping forward.
"Move!" Marco shouted.
Everything happened in a chaotic blur. Liam, desperate to prove himself, lunged past me, diving toward the wooden crate to save Leo.
Maren panicked. She raised the detonator and pressed the button.
Nothing happened.
Maren stared at the device in shock. "What?"
Silas smiled, a brutal, feral expression. "You really think I walked in here without an EMP jammer in my pocket? The signal is blocked, you stupid woman."
Marco opened fire.
Two Moretti guards dropped instantly. The third fired blindly, the bullet grazing Marco’s shoulder before Marco put him down.
Maren screamed, raising her revolver toward Leo.
But she didn't get to pull the trigger.
A gunshot rang out, echoing off the high tin ceiling.
Maren gasped, the revolver slipping from her fingers. A dark red stain blossomed on the front of her white designer dress. She collapsed to her knees, staring in shock at Silas.
Silas was holding a small ankle gun. He had spent the last ten minutes grinding his wrist against the sharp edge of the steel pillar, snapping his own thumb bone to slip free from the handcuffs.
He didn't hesitate. He shot Maren in the chest.
She fell forward onto the concrete floor, lifeless.
I didn't care about Maren. I ran to the crate. "Leo!"
I pulled my son off the box, burying my face in his neck, sobbing uncontrollably. He clung to me, trembling but safe.
"Mommy," he cried. "I was so scared."
"I've got you," I cried, holding him tighter than I ever had. "I've got you."
Silas walked over, holding his broken hand against his chest. He looked down at Liam, who was cowering on the floor next to the crate.
"You killed my wife," Silas said, his voice devoid of emotion.
Liam scrambled backward. "Hannah, tell him! I did it for you! For Leo!"
I stood up, pushing Leo gently behind my legs. I looked at the man I used to love. I saw nothing but a coward.
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"You didn't do it for us," I said coldly. "You did it because you were in debt to monsters, and you chose to become one."
I looked at Silas. "He's yours."
