Chapter 10 - THE FATHER’S BETRAYAL
Mara remained on the floor with Elara in her arms.
Rowan slowly positioned his body between them and the guns.
“Put it down, Daniel,” he said.
Daniel’s face looked twenty years older.
“I cannot.”
“You can.”
“No.”
His hand shook.
Adrian stood rigid, his weapon still aimed at Rowan.
Caleb aimed at Adrian.
A chain of death connected all of them.
Mara held Elara’s face against her shoulder.
“Do not look, baby.”
Elara whispered, “Grandpa Daniel?”
The name almost broke him.
Daniel’s weapon lowered an inch.
Then footsteps sounded outside.
Petrov soldiers surrounded the house.
Daniel looked toward the windows.
“I had no choice.”
Mara’s anger became strangely calm.
“You always have a choice.”
“Viktor owns everything.”
“You gave him your business.”
“He owns more than the business.”
Daniel looked at Elara.
“He has evidence that I ordered your mother’s doctors to stop treatment.”
Mara stopped breathing.
“What?”
“She was suffering.”
“You killed her?”
“No. I ended what could not be cured.”
“You did not have the right.”
“I loved her.”
“Then why would Viktor’s evidence control you?”
“Because the treatment decision was tied to insurance fraud and forged medical documents. If released, I would spend the rest of my life in prison.”
Mara stared at him.
“You traded my daughter to save yourself.”
“I was told she would be raised safely.”
“By men who named her property.”
Daniel’s eyes filled.
“I did not know.”
“You never wanted to know.”
Outside, a man called through a speaker.
“Send out Adrian and the child.”
Adrian looked toward the windows.
“My father.”
Rowan said, “How many?”
“Twenty, perhaps thirty.”
Marcus’s voice entered Rowan’s earpiece.
“We are two minutes out.”
Rowan glanced toward Mara.
She understood.
They needed time.
Daniel pressed the gun more firmly against Adrian.
“Go outside.”
Adrian laughed softly.
“My father will kill me.”
“He wants you alive.”
“No. He wants my blood claim and no witness.”
Caleb kept his weapon raised.
“Daniel, lower the gun.”
Daniel looked at him.
“You were supposed to stay dead.”
Mara’s heart tightened.
Caleb’s expression changed.
“You knew?”
“I knew the warehouse would be attacked.”
Rowan’s voice became deadly.
“You gave Thomas the location.”
Daniel nodded.
“I thought Caleb would deliver the ledger first.”
Mara stared at her father.
“You helped kill him.”
“I was trying to stop a war.”
“You caused one.”
Daniel’s face crumpled.
“I wanted to protect our family.”
“No,” Mara said. “You wanted to remain the man in charge of it.”
A bullet shattered the front window.
Everyone dropped.
Rowan covered Mara and Elara.
Caleb fired toward the doorway.
Adrian shot out a side light.
Darkness swallowed the house.
Petrov men entered.
Gunfire exploded.
Daniel disappeared into the kitchen.
Rowan dragged Mara toward an upstairs bedroom.
“Lock the door.”
“No.”
“Mara.”
“I will not be left behind again.”
He looked at Elara.
Their daughter clung to Mara’s neck.
Rowan’s expression softened.
“Then stay behind me.”
They moved through the upper hallway.
Caleb and Adrian guarded the stairs.
Despite everything, the three men fought together.
Brothers by blood.
Brothers by choice.
Enemies through lies.
Marcus’s team struck the Petrov soldiers from outside.
The battle shifted.
Mara carried Elara through a back bedroom toward a hidden service staircase.
Daniel emerged from the closet.
His gun pointed at Mara.
She stopped.
“Give her to me.”
“No.”
“Viktor promised no one would be hurt.”
“You still believe him?”
“I can fix this.”
“You have spent years fixing your mistakes with my life.”
Daniel began crying.
“I am your father.”
“Then act like one.”
The gun shook.
Elara looked at him.
“Grandpa, are you bad?”
Daniel made a broken sound.
The weapon lowered.
That was when Viktor Petrov appeared behind him.
Viktor fired.
Daniel’s body jerked.
He fell.
Mara screamed.
Rowan entered and shot Viktor in the shoulder.
Viktor grabbed Mara, pulling her against him.
A knife pressed beneath her ribs.
Rowan aimed at his head.
“Release her.”
Viktor smiled through pain.
“You will not risk your daughter’s mother.”
“No.”
Rowan’s answer was calm.
“But she might.”
Mara understood.
She drove her heel into Viktor’s foot and dropped.
Rowan fired.
Viktor fell.
The knife slid across the floor.
Elara screamed from the doorway.
Mara crawled to her.
Rowan kicked Viktor’s weapon away.
Caleb arrived, breathing hard.
“Clear downstairs.”
Adrian followed.
“My father?”
Rowan looked at the body.
“Dead.”
Adrian closed his eyes.
No grief appeared.
Only release.
Mara reached Daniel.
Her father was still breathing.
Blood spread beneath him.
She pressed both hands against the wound.
“Stay with me.”
Daniel looked at Elara.
“I am sorry.”
“You can tell her later.”
“No.”
“Do not do this.”
His eyes returned to Mara.
“Your mother did not blame you.”
“For what?”
“The night you left before the crash. You argued with her.”
Mara remembered.
Her last fight with her mother.
“I told her I hated her.”
“She knew you didn’t.”
Tears fell onto Daniel’s face.
“You should have told me.”
“I should have told you many things.”
His breath weakened.
“Mara.”
“I’m here.”
“Choose the man who tells you the truth even when it costs him.”
Her gaze moved involuntarily toward Rowan.
Daniel saw.
A faint smile touched his mouth.
Then he looked at Caleb.
“I am sorry.”
Caleb knelt.
“I know.”
Daniel Whitlock died with his daughter’s hand holding his.
Outside, the gunfire stopped.
Morning light spread over the frozen lake.
Mara sat on the floor between her dead father and her living child.
May you like
The blood debt had finally been paid.
But it had cost the life of the man who created it.
