Chapter 16 - Rosa Fights Back
Rosa hit the alarm and moved at the same time.
Her heel came down on Marcus’s foot.
He cursed.
She drove her elbow backward into his ribs and twisted away.
The gun fired.
The shot exploded inside the small room.
Noah screamed.
Daniel charged.
Marcus swung the gun toward him, but Rosa grabbed his wrist with both hands.
“Run, Noah!”
The boy crawled beneath the desk.
Daniel slammed into Marcus, driving him against the wall.
The gun fell.
Rosa kicked it across the floor.
Marcus punched Daniel once in the jaw, twice in the ribs.
Daniel barely felt it.
He hit Marcus back with three years of missed signs, every bruise on Noah’s wrist, every lie Vanessa had told him, every night his son had cried for him while he sat in an airport believing everything at home was fine.
Marcus went down.
Sirens screamed outside.
“Daddy!”
Daniel turned.
Noah was under the desk, blood on his cream sweater.
Daniel’s heart stopped.
“Noah?”
Rosa dropped beside him.
The blood was not his.
A bullet had grazed Rosa’s upper arm.
She had not even noticed.
Daniel ripped a towel from the safe-room cabinet and pressed it to her wound.
“You’re hurt.”
“I’m fine.”
“You’re bleeding.”
“Noah.”
The boy launched himself into her lap.
Rosa winced but wrapped both arms around him.
Police flooded the hallway.
Marcus was handcuffed face-down on the carpet.
He laughed.
Daniel looked at him.
“What?”
“You think this fixes anything?” Marcus said.
“It fixes you leaving.”
Marcus turned his head enough to smile.
“Vanessa already told them you planned all of it.”
Daniel stared.
“What?”
“She made a deal.”
Rachel appeared behind the officers.
Her face confirmed the worst part.
May you like
Vanessa had been found alive.
And she was accusing Daniel of orchestrating the entire fraud.
