Chapter 16 - The Arrival of the Lion
Within eighteen minutes—tearing through police roadblocks and breaking every speed limit in the tri-state area—Nathaniel’s sport coupe drifted sideways off the asphalt, spraying mud across the shoulder as it screeched to a halt beside the wreckage.
The door of his car flew open before it had even finished rolling.
Nathaniel didn't see the crushed metal. He didn't see the shattered glass or the smoking engine. He saw only the small pink jacket of Sophie's coat lying half-buried in the mud near the rear door.
"Miles! Grace! Sophie!" his voice cracked, raw and bleeding, tearing from the very bottom of his soul.
He vaulted over the guardrail, sliding down the muddy embankment into the ditch just as the protection officer pulled Miles out through the shattered rear window.
Miles blinked, looking up at his father with those identical gray eyes, his cheek smudged with dirt and grease. "Daddy? We crashed the castle car."
Nathaniel dropped to his knees in the wet mud, not caring about the expensive Italian wool suit, pulling all three children into his arms in a desperate, suffocating embrace. He held them so tightly his own ribs ached, tears cutting clean tracks through the dust and sweat on his face.
"You're safe," Nathaniel choked out, pressing his forehead against Miles's small head. "Daddy's here. You're safe."
Elena arrived five minutes later in a local police cruiser, having intercepted the emergency call from the estate. When she tumbled out of the car, sprinting down the embankment with her heels sinking deep into the mud, she looked like a ghost.
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When she saw them all sitting on the grass, bruised and shaken but alive, her knees buckled. Nathaniel caught her before she hit the ground, pulling her into the circle of his arms with the children.
"They're okay," Nathaniel whispered fiercely against her hair. "They're alive."
