Elena: I caught her! She tried to drop baby Lily!

The rain poured in violent sheets over the deserted runways of the private county airfield.

Lighting cracked across the ink-black sky, illuminating a sleek, white Gulfstream jet idling near the edge of Hangar 4. Its twin engines roared, casting twin streams of water vapor into the dark night.

A black luxury SUV roared through the airfield perimeter gates, its tires screeching against the wet asphalt as it slammed to a halt diagonally in front of the jet’s nose cone, blocking its taxi path completely.

Inside the SUV, Mark, David, and Elena stepped out into the blinding storm.

On the stairs of the jet, holding a heavy crocodile-skin briefcase and draped in a mink coat, stood Eleanor Vance. Two armed private security guards in dark suits stood beside her, their hands reaching into their coats as they saw Mark’s team approach.

"Mark Carter!" Eleanor shouted over the roar of the jet engines and the thunder, her mink coat dripping wet. "You are trespassing on private aviation property! Get out of my way before my security puts a bullet through your head!"

"Put the briefcase down, Eleanor!" Mark shouted back, stepping forward into the rain, his body forming a physical shield in front of Elena. "The runway is surrounded! Detective Vance has blocked every road within five miles!"

Eleanor let out a sharp, hysterical laugh. "You think three local cops scare me? By the time they get through the storm, I'll be at thirty thousand feet! Shoot them!" she ordered her guards.

Before the first guard could draw his weapon, David raised his tactical rifle, firing two fast, precise non-lethal rubber rounds.

BANG! BANG!

The heavy impacts struck both guards squarely in the chest, sending them tumbling backward off the jet stairs onto the wet tarmac, groaning in pain.

Eleanor shrieked in horror, dropping her umbrella as she scrambled up the remaining stairs toward the open cabin door of the aircraft.

"Elena! The briefcase!" Mark yelled.

Elena didn't hesitate. She sprinted through the blinding rain, her boots splashing through puddles, vaulting over the fallen guards, and lunging up the jet stairs right behind Eleanor.

"Get away from me, you filthy maid!" Eleanor screamed, swinging her heavy designer handbag at Elena’s face.

The blow caught Elena across the cheek, but she barely flinched. The fire of ten years of grief, injustice, and pain exploded within her. Elena grabbed Eleanor’s wrist, twisting it sharply, forcing the older woman to drop the briefcase onto the metal platform.

"This belonged to my father!" Elena roared over the thunder, kicking the briefcase back toward Mark, who caught it smoothly at the bottom of the stairs.

Eleanor lost her footing on the slippery metal step, stumbling backward onto the jet floor. She looked up in pure terror as Elena stood over her in the doorway, drenched in rain, looking like an avenging angel.

"You took my father’s life," Elena said, her voice dropping into a deadly, steady register that cut right through the roar of the jet engines. "You tried to destroy Mark. You tried to murder an innocent baby. It's over, Eleanor. Your empire is gone."

Sirens wailed in the distance. A fleet of six police cruisers, led by Detective Vance’s unmarked sedan, tore around Hangar 4, their spotlights blinding the tarmac, encircling the jet completely.

Detective Vance stepped out of his car with a megaphone. "Eleanor Vance! Step out of the aircraft with your hands above your head! You are under arrest for conspiracy to commit murder, high-level corporate fraud, and grand treason!"

Eleanor lay on the carpeted floor of her luxury jet, her mink coat ruined, her hair plastered to her face, weeping pathetic, angry tears as the officers boarded the plane and snapped steel handcuffs onto her wrists.

Mark climbed the stairs, stepping into the cabin. He looked down at the woman who had caused so much pain, then turned to Elena, taking her into his arms and pulling her close as the police led Eleanor away.

"You did it, Elena," Mark whispered softly, wiping the rain from her wet face. "Your father is free now."