Chapter 29 - The Edge of the Quarry
"You're late, Arthur," Clara said, her finger resting lightly against the trigger.
The morning light was filtering down through the iron grates above, catching the sharp angles of Clara’s face.
She looked entirely unbattered, dressed in a dark tactical jacket, her gaze unwavering.
"Clara, let her go," Arthur said, slowly raising his empty left hand while keeping Lily shielded behind his legs. "You have Julian. He's right here."
Julian slumped against the railing of the catwalk, panting heavily.
"Clara, please..." Julian begged, his voice trembling. "Take the money. I transferred the accounts to a Swiss dummy corporation. You have the access codes!"
Clara didn't even glance at him.
"This was never about the money, Julian," Clara said, her voice dripping with venom. "It was about what you made her do."
Below them, the water had reached Eleanor’s knees.
"Arthur!" Eleanor cried out, struggling against the heavy ropes binding her to the pillar. "The automatic release is on the main console! She set the override!"
Arthur looked at Clara. "Why kill her if you hate Julian? She's your sister!"
"She traded me!" Clara screamed, her composure finally breaking, exposing a terrifying vortex of rage beneath her polished exterior. "Eight years ago, when our father’s company collapsed, Julian offered us a choice. One daughter went to prison for fraud, and one daughter walked away with the inheritance."
Arthur blinked, looking down at Eleanor.
"Eleanor chose the money," Clara whispered, tears of hatred spilling down her cheeks. "She signed the affidavit that put me in a federal penitentiary for seven years while she lived in luxury, pretending to be the innocent victim!"
"That's a lie!" Eleanor wept from the rising water below. "Julian forged my name! I thought you had escaped to Europe!"
"Shut up!" Clara shrieked, firing a bullet into the concrete floor inches from Eleanor’s head.
The ricochet screamed off the steel walls, sending a shower of sparks into the dark water.
Lily flinched, clutching Arthur’s leg tighter.
"You took seven years of my life, Eleanor," Clara said, lowering the gun toward Eleanor’s chest. "And now I'm going to take everything that was supposed to be yours."
The horn sounded again, louder this time.
*HONK... HONK...*
A massive hydraulic valve groaned open in the depths below.
A torrent of dark, foamy water began cascading from the ceiling vents, crashing down directly onto Eleanor’s shoulders.
May you like
The water level in the chamber jumped to her waist in seconds.
"You have ten seconds to choose, Arthur," Clara said, turning the barrel of the gun directly toward Lily’s forehead. "Save the woman who lied to you from the start... or watch your daughter die right now."
