Chapter 48 - The Weight of the Ledger
Two small, trembling arms wrapped instantly around my neck.
I hauled Lily up out of the cellar just as a burning support beam crashed down behind us, sending a shower of sparks across the hallway. I clutched her against my chest, burying her face into my coat to shield her lungs from the black smoke.
"I’ve got you, baby. Mommy's got you," I sobbed, tears cutting through the soot on my cheeks as I held her tiny, shivering frame.
"Mommy, the house is burning!" Lily cried, burying her face into my collar.
"We're leaving. We're going right now," I promised.
"Emma! Look out!" Sarah's scream cut through the roar of the fire.
I turned just in time to see Caleb rise from the flames. His coat was scorched, blood streaming down his face from his broken nose and shattered shoulder, his eyes burning with unhinged, homicidal fury. In his left hand, he held a heavy iron fireplace poker, raised high above his head.
"You don't get to walk away!" Caleb howled, lunging forward with psychotic rage.
Before he could bring the iron down, Campbell tackled him from the side, slamming the Austrian heir into the flaming cabinetry. The two men wrestled violently on the burning floor, glass and embers flying as they traded brutal blows.
"Get her out of here, Emma! GO!" Campbell roared, pinning Caleb’s arm behind his back while the flames began to consume the walls around them.
I didn't look back. Clutching Lily to my chest with one arm, I grabbed Sarah by her uninjured shoulder, hauling her to her feet. Together, we stumbled through the blinding smoke toward the blown-out front entrance.
We burst through the burning frame of the porch, tumbling down the steps into the freezing, pristine snowbank below.
The sub-zero Vermont air hit my lungs like a shock of pure adrenaline. Behind us, the roof of the Willow Creek farmhouse groaned, the central timber snapping with the roar of an avalanche. A massive plume of fire and sparks exploded into the black winter sky.
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Two seconds later, Campbell dived out of the living room window, rolling through the snow with Caleb pinned beneath him in heavy steel zip-ties. Both men were gasping for air, covered in soot, the fire illuminating the dark forest around us in shades of violent orange.
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