Chapter 18 - The Bargain on the Mountain
Arthur Sterling looked like a skeleton wrapped in expensive linen.
His skin was paper-thin and translucent, revealing blue veins along his temples.
Yet his eyes burned with an icy, terrifying intellect.
He tapped his cane on the wood floor and looked down at me as I struggled to lift my head from the bloodstained stones.
"David Vance," Arthur said, his voice a dry, gravelly rasp.
"You look very much like your father."
"He was stubborn, too. Stubbornness cost him his life in the end."
"Don't... touch... my daughter," I choked out, spitting blood onto the rug.
Arthur smiled faintly, revealing straight, unnatural porcelain teeth.
"Your daughter?"
"She is an asset of the Sterling estate, my boy."
"Signed, sealed, and paid for eight years ago."
Claire was standing on the landing, trembling violently, looking down at Arthur.
"Father, please," Claire begged.
"You promised! You said if I brought you to the cabin, David wouldn't be hurt! You said we would take Emily to Switzerland together!"
Arthur didn't even look up at her.
"Silence, Claire," he said softly.
"You have spent eight years playing house with an accountant's son while my empire decayed."
"You gave Michael access to the trust accounts."
"You almost allowed my sole biological heiress to drown in four feet of chlorine because you were afraid of a prison sentence."
"You are no longer fit to manage this family's future."
Evelyn walked into the cabin behind Arthur, carrying a leather briefcase.
She pulled out two fountain pens and a stack of notarized international custody transfer documents.
"Emily comes with us to Montreal tonight," Evelyn said.
"And what happens to Claire?" I managed to ask, pushing myself up onto one elbow.
Arthur looked toward the window.
Outside, the generator sputtered and died.
The cabin was plunged into the amber glow of the dying woodstove.
"Claire has outlived her utility," Arthur whispered.
"She will stay here with you, David."
"In this lovely, remote cabin."
"Until the fire department arrives tomorrow morning to sift through the ashes of an accidental propane explosion."
Claire screamed.
She tried to run down the stairs, but one of Arthur's men caught her by the throat and threw her down against the lower steps.
Emily burst out of the bedroom above, screaming at the top of her lungs.
"Leave my Mommy alone!"
She threw an empty glass bottle down from the railing.
It struck the guard holding Claire right across the cheekbone, shattering with a sharp pop.
The guard stumbled backward, cursing and clutching his face.
Claire saw her opening.
She didn't run toward the door.
She lunged toward the woodstove, grabbed the iron fire poker from the stand, and drove it with all her strength into the orderly wheeling Arthur's oxygen unit.
The tank tipped over with a loud metal clang.
The valve sheared off against the stone hearth.
May you like
Pressurized oxygen began to hiss violently into the smoke-filled room.
***
