Chapter 15 - ELEANOR’S LAST ESCAPE
Eleanor escaped during a transfer between interrogation rooms.
A guard collapsed after drinking poisoned coffee.
Security footage showed Eleanor entering a service elevator wearing his uniform.
A black van waited outside the detention center.
The driver was never identified.
Detective Ruiz issued a statewide alert.
Claire refused to return to Hawthorne Manor.
Ethan moved her and Sophie into a secured house owned by the federal government.
Nathan was released into protective custody after providing evidence against Samuel’s network.
Julian agreed to cooperate in exchange for a reduced sentence.
By evening, federal agents had arrested three Hawthorne board members, two judges, and the former director of the Vermont clinic.
Yet Eleanor remained missing.
Claire sat beside Sophie’s temporary bed.
The child had begun sleeping only when Claire held her hand.
Ethan stood in the doorway.
“She trusts you.”
“She had no one else for most of her life.”
“She had your mother.”
“Until Eleanor found us.”
Ethan entered the room.
“I should have protected you.”
“You did not know.”
“I should have known something was wrong.”
“Eleanor spent your entire life teaching you not to question her.”
“That is not an excuse.”
“No.”
Claire looked at him.
“But it is the truth.”
Ethan sat beside her.
“Do you still love me?”
Claire’s eyes filled.
“I never stopped.”
“That does not mean everything can return to the way it was.”
“I know.”
“I spent eighteen months surviving.”
“You spent eighteen months believing I betrayed you.”
“We are not the same people.”
Ethan nodded.
“Then we start as the people we are now.”
Claire looked down at Sophie.
Before she could answer, the lights went out.
Ethan stood immediately.
The security system remained active.
A backup generator started.
The bedroom door locked from the outside.
Sophie began crying.
Ethan struck the door.
“Ruiz!”
No one answered.
Claire smelled smoke.
It came through the ventilation grate.
Ethan covered Sophie’s face with a blanket.
Claire pulled the bedside table away from the wall.
Behind it was a narrow maintenance panel.
She removed the screws with a metal hair clip.
“How did Eleanor find this place?”
Ethan looked toward the ceiling camera.
“She did not need to.”
The camera had been turned away from the bed.
Someone inside the security team had helped her.
Ethan kicked through the maintenance panel.
They crawled into the adjoining bathroom.
The hallway outside was filled with smoke.
Two federal agents lay unconscious near the stairs.
Claire checked their pulses.
“They’re alive.”
A woman’s voice came through the house speakers.
“Bring Sophie to the basement.”
“Or the building burns with everyone inside.”
Ethan looked at Claire.
“No.”
“She will burn it.”
“She needs Sophie.”
“She needed Sophie before the files became public.”
“Now she wants revenge.”
Claire placed Sophie in Ethan’s arms.
“I’ll go.”
“Absolutely not.”
“She expects both of us to protect Sophie.”
“She will not expect me to come alone.”
Ethan grabbed her arm.
“I already lost you once.”
Claire touched his face.
“Then trust me enough not to lose me again.”
She walked toward the basement stairs.
The smoke thickened.
Eleanor waited below with a fuel can and a lighter.
Her prison uniform was hidden beneath a stolen coat.
Claire stopped at the bottom step.
“It’s over.”
Eleanor smiled.
“It ends when I decide it ends.”
May you like
She dropped the lighter.
Fire raced across the floor.
