CHAPTER 13 — THE PRICE OF ONE LIFE
Smoke filled the vault.
Nathan found the hidden exit behind the east shelf.
A narrow steel door opened onto a passage barely wide enough for one person.
A mechanical timer above the doorway showed sixty seconds.
Gabriel examined the mechanism.
“Once someone crosses, the door seals.”
“There must be another control,” Nathan said.
“There isn’t.”
Claire doubled over as another contraction struck.
Nathan held her upright.
“You go.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
“You and the baby come first.”
“I’m not leaving you to burn.”
June searched the walls.
“There may be ventilation shafts.”
Evelyn began coughing.
Gabriel looked at his mother.
Then at Claire.
The timer showed forty-two seconds.
Nathan made the decision.
He lifted Claire and carried her toward the passage.
She fought him.
“Nathan, stop!”
“You asked me to protect you. I’m doing it now.”
“This isn’t protection if you die!”
He kissed her forehead.
“I’m sorry it took me this long to believe you.”
Gabriel caught his shoulder.
“I’ll take her.”
Nathan looked at him.
“You need to stay with Evelyn.”
“No. You are Claire’s husband.”
“And you already lost your mother once.”
The timer dropped below thirty seconds.
Evelyn pushed herself away from the wall.
“Take the pregnant woman.”
Gabriel shook his head.
“Mother—”
“Take her.”
“I just found you.”
“You found the truth. That has to be enough.”
“It isn’t.”
Evelyn placed a trembling hand against his chest.
“You were taken because everyone chose power over love. Do not become them.”
Gabriel’s eyes filled with tears.
At fifteen seconds, he lifted Claire from Nathan’s arms and carried her into the passage.
June followed with the medical bag.
The door began closing.
Nathan pushed Evelyn toward it.
She resisted.
“No.”
“Go!”
“Nathan—”
He forced her through the narrowing gap.
The door sealed.
Nathan and Gabriel remained inside the burning vault.
On the other side, Claire screamed Nathan’s name.
Gabriel searched the shelves for another mechanism.
Nathan pulled files from the wall.
Behind the lowest row, he found a ventilation grate.
Together, they tore it loose.
The opening was too small.
Gabriel kicked the surrounding panels until the metal frame broke away.
The fire reached the nearest shelf.
Paper records ignited instantly.
Nathan crawled into the shaft first.
Gabriel followed.
They emerged behind the chapel seconds before the stained-glass windows exploded outward.
Claire lay on the grass while June checked her.
Nathan ran to her.
She reached for him.
“I thought you were gone.”
“I’m here.”
Police sirens sounded in the distance.
Margaret’s car remained parked near the front gate.
Nathan found her standing beneath an umbrella while the chapel burned behind her.
She had not attempted to flee.
“You knew there was another exit,” he said.
“I suspected.”
“You gave us sixty seconds to choose who lived.”
“I needed to know what kind of man you had become.”
Nathan looked at the flames.
“You set the fire.”
“No.”
“Then who did?”
Margaret’s gaze moved toward the tree line.
“Veronica.”
Nathan followed her eyes.
A dark figure stood between the trees.
Then disappeared.
Margaret lowered the umbrella.
“She no longer wants the trust.”
“What does she want?”
“Your child.”
Nathan moved toward her.
“Why?”
“Because Veronica believes the baby can replace the life I denied her.”
Claire cried out behind them.
June shouted:
“Her water broke!”
Nathan ran back.
Claire’s labor had begun.
The nearest safe hospital was more than thirty minutes away.
June looked at Nathan.
“The baby may come before we get there.”
Margaret approached slowly.
“I have a private maternity facility ten minutes from here.”
Nathan turned on her.
“You expect me to trust you?”
“No. But Claire may not have ten more minutes to argue.”
Claire grabbed Nathan’s sleeve.
“The baby.”
Nathan looked toward the ambulance.
Then toward Margaret.
For the second time that night, he had to choose without knowing which choice had been prepared as a trap.
He placed Claire in the ambulance.
“Take us to the facility.”
Margaret smiled faintly.
Nathan leaned close to her.
“But you ride where I can see you.”
As the ambulance pulled away, Gabriel remained near the burning chapel with Evelyn.
He opened the surviving blood ledger.
A folded note slipped from the back cover.
It was written in Claire’s handwriting.
Gabriel read the first line.
If Nathan learns who his biological father is, do not let him confront Cole alone.
May you like
Below it was another sentence.
Cole is not working for Margaret anymore.
