Chapter 4 - Shadows in the North
Three hundred miles north, nestled against the jagged, pine-covered cliffs of the Adirondacks, a wood-smoke chimney curled gray spirals into the crisp mountain air.
The cabin was modest, hidden down a logging road that didn't appear on modern GPS systems. It belonged to an old uncle of Elena’s who had passed away years ago, leaving the property forgotten by tax authorities and syndicate bosses alike.
Inside, the heat from a stone fireplace crackled softly.
Serena sat in an old rocking chair, nursing Niko. The baby latched hungrily, his tiny fingers kneading against her palm. Outside, the wind howled through the pines, but inside, the room was safe.
Elena bustled around the small kitchen, boiling water for tea on a cast-iron stove. "The fuel will last us through the month if we ration it," she said, not looking up. "And I left the rental car twenty miles away in a ravine. No one will trace it back to us."
Serena looked down at her son. His dark hair caught the firelight. He looked so much like his father—the sharp arch of the brow, the stubborn curve of the chin—that it hurt to look at him sometimes. But beneath those inherited traits was something entirely her own. He was free.
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"He’ll find us, Elena," Serena said quietly. "Lucien doesn't lose things."
"Let him try," Elena replied, setting a steaming mug on the wooden table. "He’s looking for a terrified wife hiding in city hotels. He has no idea his wife was raised in these mountains by men who taught her how to hunt before she knew how to read."
