Chapter 30 - Bloodlines and Betrayal
The mud pulled at Gabriel’s boots with every step. Amelia clung to his neck, her small hands locked in a death grip around his collar, while Biscuit stayed glued to his right heel, growling at the shadows behind them.
Behind them, searchlights swept across the marsh reeds. Men were shouting, their voices swallowed by the rising wind.
They reached the rusted embankment of the abandoned Norfolk Southern rail line. Gabriel climbed the steep gravel slope, his lungs burning, his torn temple throbbing with every heartbeat. At the top of the tracks stood a derelict signal shack, its wooden door hanging off its hinges.
Gabriel slipped inside, pulling Amelia and Biscuit down into the pitch-black corner. He pressed his back against the rotted wood, chest heaving.
"Daddy, I'm scared," Amelia whispered, shivering so violently her teeth chattered.
Gabriel wiped the blood from his brow with his sleeve, then pulled the legal dossier from inside his jacket. It was damp, but the plastic sleeve had preserved the contents. He turned on the screen of his phone, keeping the brightness at its lowest level.
He flipped open the folder. The documents were notarized, official, and undeniable.
Amelia was indeed the biological child of Nora’s sister, Julianna, who had supposedly vanished in Switzerland twelve years ago. But the document went deeper. It was a signed confession from the attending doctor at Saint Jude Memorial Hospital.
Marlene hadn't just forged adoption papers. When Julianna was brought in after a staged "hiking accident," Marlene had ordered the life support machines turned off while Nora was still on a transatlantic flight. Marlene then used her power as hospital board chair to alter the birth records, claiming Amelia was Nora and Gabriel’s daughter to prevent the Sterling estate from reverting to a Swiss charitable foundation.
And then Gabriel read the final paragraph, and the blood froze in his veins.
Nora’s car crash three years ago had not been an accident. Nora had obtained these exact hospital records. She was on her way to the state prosecutor’s office when Marlene’s mechanic tampered with the brake lines of Nora's sedan.
Marlene didn't just want to control Amelia. She was systematically erasing anyone who could expose the truth of the Sterling trust.
Suddenly, Gabriel’s phone vibrated violently in his palm. An unknown number flashed on the screen.
Gabriel hesitated, then pressed accept and held the phone to his ear without speaking.
"Did you really think running into the swamp would save you, Gabriel?"
The voice was sweet, cultured, and venomous. It was Marlene.
"You're in jail," Gabriel breathed through clenched teeth.
May you like
"Oh, Gabriel, my naive boy," Marlene chuckled softly over the receiver. "A fifty-thousand-dollar bail bond and a sympathetic magistrate who owes his judgeship to your grandfather can work wonders. I've been home for an hour. Drinking tea by the fire. And right now, you are a fugitive who kidnapped a child under state custody protection."
***
