Chapter 17 - The Second Fall
Nobody moved.
The firefighters froze.
My mother stood with one foot on the lower rail, smoke drifting behind her.
She wanted an audience.
Even now.
Even here.
“Mom,” I said. “Step down.”
“You don’t get to tell me what to do anymore.”
“That’s true.”
She blinked.
I continued, “But I’m asking anyway.”
“Why? So I can spend the rest of my life being called a monster?”
“I don’t know what the rest of your life looks like.”
“You already decided.”
“No. You did.”
Her face twisted.
“You chose Claire.”
“I chose my wife and daughter.”
“Over your mother.”
“Over fear.”
The words landed differently.
She looked down at the marble floor.
At the place where Claire had landed in my arms.
Then she whispered, “She should have left when I told her.”
Ruiz looked at me sharply.
It was almost a confession.
I took one step closer to the barrier.
“Did you push her?”
My mother stared at me.
Her eyes filled with tears.
For half a second, I almost saw the woman who used to sit beside my bed when I had the flu.
Then she said, “I only needed her gone.”
A firefighter lunged.
My mother jerked backward.
Her foot slipped.
The crowd screamed.
But she did not fall.
The firefighter caught her arm and dragged her back onto the balcony floor.
Minutes later, officers brought her out in handcuffs.
She passed within ten feet of me.
She did not look at the police.
She looked at me.
“I gave you everything.”
“No,” I said. “Dad did. Claire showed me what it cost.”
Her expression went blank.
Then the officers put her into a car.
Firefighters contained the blaze to the east wing and library. The mansion survived.
So did most of the records inside.
Ruiz walked over to me.
“You heard what she said.”
“Yes.”
“We did too.”
I nodded.
It should have felt like an ending.
It didn’t.
Because the next morning, Claire woke me with a sharp cry.
May you like
Her hands were gripping her stomach.
“Nathan,” she gasped. “Something’s wrong.”
