Chapter 27 - The Mother's Trap
Julian bolted for the nursery window.
David realized with a sinking wave of horror that Julian had planned this exit from the beginning. The window wasn't just closed; Julian reached out, flipped the emergency release latch he had tampered with earlier, and threw the double-hung sash wide open.
Outside, a metal extension ladder was already hooked onto the second-story sill.
"Stop!" Leah screamed from the floor, crawling on her knees, dragging her broken arm. "Please! Take me! Don't take my baby!"
Julian swung one leg over the sill, tucking the crying toddler under his good arm. "You had your chance to be a real family, Leah. You failed."
He began descending the ladder.
David forced himself past the excruciating pain in his shoulder and ribs. He sprang toward the window, throwing himself half out of the frame into the cool night air.
The ladder was swaying violently. Julian was already halfway down, moving with reckless speed despite his injuries. Below, waiting at the base of the ladder on the dark lawn, stood an elderly woman wrapped in an elegant cashmere shawl.
Even in the darkness, illuminated only by the pulsing blue-and-red flashing lights of approaching sirens miles away in the distance, David recognized her.
Evelyn Vance.
She looked frail, her silver hair cut short, her face hollowed by two years in psychiatric confinement. But her posture was regal, upright, and terrifyingly composed. She held her arms outstretched, looking up at the descending ladder with a beatific, worshipful smile.
"Bring her to me, Julian!" Evelyn called out, her voice floating up through the pine trees like a toxic lullaby. "Bring grandmother her darling!"
David didn't climb down the ladder. He knew he was too late to catch them step-by-step.
Without thinking, driven solely by the primal instinct of a father about to lose his child forever, David kicked off the windowsill and launched himself directly into the open air.
He collided with Julian six feet above the ground.
The impact was catastrophic. The ladder tore free from the siding with a violent screech of tearing aluminum. All three of them—David, Julian, and the screaming child—crashed down onto the wet grass in a chaotic tangle of limbs and steel.
David took the brunt of the fall on his back, knocking all the wind from his lungs in a painful wheeze. But his arms wrapped instinctively around Maya, shielding her tiny body with his torso as they hit the earth.
Maya was screaming, terrified, but safe in his arms.
A shadow fell over them.
David rolled onto his side, clutching Maya to his chest, looking up through blurred vision.
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Evelyn was standing right over them. In her wrinkled hand, glinting beneath the moonlight, was a silver surgical scalpel.
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