Chapter 12 - THE CORNERED VIPER
Clara saw Marcus emerge from under the deck, standing alive and unshot on the lawn, and realized in a single, terrifying instant that her trap had completely failed.
Her composure shattered into pure, unadulterated madness.
"You ruined everything!" Clara shrieked, reaching into her black coat pocket.
Instead of a phone or a key, her hand emerged clutching a small, silver 9mm handgun she had stolen from Marcus’s nightstand drawer earlier that morning. She raised the weapon, pointing it directly at Marcus’s chest with trembling, white-knuckled hands.
"Drop the weapon!" Detective Miller roared, instantly raising his sidearm and locking his sight onto Clara’s torso. "Drop it now!"
"He took everything from me!" Clara screamed, her eyes wild, bloodshot, and completely devoid of reason. "He was supposed to die in that house! They were both supposed to die!"
Marcus didn't run. He stood his ground on the wet lawn, keeping his body positioned squarely between Clara’s gun and the lattice opening where Lily was hidden.
"It's over, Clara," Marcus said, his voice terrifyingly calm amid the screaming wind and rain. "Sarah recorded everything. She left the drive in the basement wall. They know what you did."
Clara’s eyes flickered with a terrifying realization. The silver key, the ledger, the hidden files—the entire lie she had built over eighteen months was crumbling into dust around her feet.
Her finger tightened on the trigger.
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BANG.
A sharp, deafening gunshot echoed across the residential neighborhood, cutting through the sound of the storm like a thunderclap.
