Chapter 7 - The Betrayal Within
The front door didn't burst open; it unlocked with a quiet, sickening click.
The boy froze mid-sentence, his heart slamming against his ribs. His mother shoved him behind the heavy oak dining table, thrusting the heavy iron poker into his left hand. "Stay down. No matter what you hear, do not come out."
Heavy boots stepped onto the hardwood floor, tracking melting snow into the hallway. But the silhouette standing in the doorway wasn't Arthur.
It was Aunt Clara—the very person who had offered them this safe haven, the sister who supposedly hated Arthur more than anyone else in the world.
Clara closed the door quietly behind her, shaking snow off her wool coat. Her face wasn't panicked; it was twisted into an expression of bitter, exhausted resentment.
"You're insane, Sarah," Clara said, walking into the kitchen as if she owned the place. "Dragging our entire family into a messy legal war. Do you have any idea what Arthur is doing to my husband’s business accounts right now? He froze every asset we had tied up in his firm."
From behind the dining table, the boy stared in absolute disbelief. The safe haven was a trap. The sanctuary was sold out.
"So you traded us?" his mother’s voice rang out from the darkened hallway, cold and dead.
May you like
She stepped into the light of the single overhead bulb, the black pistol held steadily at her side, pointed directly at her sister’s chest.
Clara stopped dead in her tracks, her eyes widening in genuine terror. "Sarah... put that down. You don't understand. Arthur agreed to drop the lawsuits if I just let him talk to you for ten minutes. He’s outside right now, walking up the driveway."
