Chapter 8 - DOCTOR'S ORDERS
"Put the gun down," Sophie said, her little voice surprisingly stern as she took one careful step down the marble stairs. "Doctors don't allow loud noises in hospitals."
Evelyn stared at the child, her hand trembling violently on the grip of the silver revolver. "Get back, you little brat!"
"Sophie, go back to the panic room!" Rachel screamed, panic cold in her throat as she scrambled toward the stairs.
"No," Sophie said firmly, holding Nico tight against her tiny chest. The six-month-old baby wasn't crying; he was looking up at Evelyn with big, calm dark eyes.
Sophie reached the middle of the staircase and stopped. She pointed her red plastic stethoscope disc directly at Evelyn’s face.
"You have a bad heart," Sophie announced loudly.
Evelyn flinched as if she had been slapped. "What did you say?!"
"Your heart goes thump... thump... thump real bad," Sophie said, her brown eyes filled with total, childlike honesty. "Like the mean dog at the park that bites because it's scared."
Evelyn’s breath hitched. Tears welled in her eyes, smearing her expensive mascara down her pale cheeks. "You... you don't know anything about me!"
"I know you made Nico cry in the hot car," Sophie said softly. "And doctors don't like people who make babies cry."
Outside, the air was suddenly pierced by the wail of approaching sirens—dozens of them, screaming down the marsh road toward the estate. Red and blue lights flashed through the shattered front entrance, illuminating the smoke and broken glass in rhythmic pulses.
Evelyn looked at the flashing lights, then down at her silver revolver, and finally up at the small girl holding the baby on the stairs.
The madness drained from Evelyn’s face, leaving behind only the hollow, pathetic shell of a woman who had lost everything to her own greed and bitterness.
The silver revolver slipped from her trembling fingers, hitting the marble floor with a heavy clack.
Evelyn dropped to her knees among the shattered crystal prisms, burying her face in her hands, weeping hysterically as SWAT officers burst through the shattered front doors, weapons raised.
"POLICE! DON'T MOVE!"
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Roman didn't look at the police. He didn't look at Evelyn.
He bounded up the stairs in three long strides, wrapping his arms around Rachel, Sophie, and baby Nicholas, pulling all three of them into a tight, protective embrace right there on the staircase.
