Chapter 7 - The Final Confession
“You’re alive,” Daniel breathed, lowering his flashlight slightly as he stared up at the woman standing beside his father. “Everyone thought… my father told everyone you were gone.”
“Your father is a very thorough liar, Daniel,” Clara said, her voice raspy from years of disuse, carrying a bitter edge that cut through the freezing air of the mill. “He needed me out of the picture so he could inherit the entire Pierce estate without a messy probate court battle. But he couldn't bring himself to finish the job. So he locked me away down here, paying for my silence with government checks and canned rations, while playing the respectable patriarch to you and your little family.”
Richard took a slow step down the metal stairs, his hand resting casually inside his coat pocket.
“Clara was inconvenient, Daniel,” Richard said smoothly, as if discussing business over Sunday dinner. “Just like your wife. Women who don't know their place, who think they can rewrite the rules of a family that existed long before they were born. Elena thought she could keep my granddaughter away from me. She thought a simple ‘no’ was enough to shut me out.”
“You poisoned a nine-year-old child!” Daniel yelled, his voice cracking with fury as he took two aggressive steps toward the staircase. “You poured drain cleaner into a cosmetic jar and watched her skin burn!”
“I gave her a lesson in consequence,” Richard snapped back, his eyes suddenly flashing with a cold, terrifying malice. “Just like I’m going to give you one right now.”
Before Daniel could react, a heavy shadow detached itself from the doorway behind him.
May you like
A sharp blow struck the back of Daniel’s head with sickening force. The world spun into a dizzying blur of white and black as Daniel collapsed hard onto the frozen wooden floorboards, his flashlight rolling away across the frost-covered planks.
As darkness closed in around the edges of his vision, Daniel heard the heavy click of a deadbolt sliding shut behind him.
