Chapter 28 - Face of the Gorgon
"Hello, my darling David," Evelyn whispered.
Her voice hadn't changed at all. It was the same calm, velvet tone she had used to tuck him into bed when he had fevers as a little boy. It was the same voice that had hummed classical melodies while she systematically poisoned his high school girlfriends, the same voice that had whispered threats into Leah’s ear while holding a kitchen knife over an infant.
"Stay back," David wheezed, unable to stand, his ribs screaming in protest. He rolled completely over Maya, covering her like a human shield, pressing her face against his chest so she wouldn't see the blade.
Beside them, Julian groaned, lying dazed among the twisted rungs of the fallen aluminum ladder, his shoulder bleeding profusely.
"You look so tired, David," Evelyn said, stepping closer, completely ignoring her injured older son on the grass. Her entire universe was focused exclusively on David and the child beneath him. "Look at what that woman has reduced you to. Living in the woods like a frightened animal. Bleeding in the dirt."
"You belong in hell, Evelyn," David choked out, spitting blood onto the lawn. "The police are two minutes away. Listen to the sirens."
The faint wail of multiple police cruisers was growing louder, echoing off the foothills, coming down the rural county highway.
Evelyn smiled—a thin, bloodless curve of her lips.
"The police are a minor inconvenience, my love. Julian bought us passports. A private airstrip in Idaho. A boat waiting in Vancouver. We were going to raise her in the mountains. Teach her what loyalty means. Teach her what *real* mothers do."
She raised the scalpel, her knuckles white.
"If you won't give her to me, David... then neither of you gets to leave this garden."
Before she could bring the scalpel down, a thunderous crack split the night.
*BANG.*
Evelyn’s body jerked. A dark blossom of red appeared on the shoulder of her cashmere shawl. She staggered backward, dropping the scalpel onto the grass, her eyes widening in profound disbelief.
David whipped his head around toward the second-floor window.
Leah was leaning over the shattered windowsill, her face streaked with tears and soot. In her unbroken right hand, she held David’s Glock 19, the barrel smoking in the cold night air.
She had found the gun in the nursery.
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"Get away from my family, you psycho bitch!" Leah screamed down from the window, her voice echoing across the valley like rolling thunder.
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