Chapter 7 - The Choice in the Ashes
The sound of their heavy boots faded down the hallway, followed by the clinking of glass as they poured gasoline across the parquet floors of the foyer.
Inside the panic room, I watched through the slit as Eric lay motionless on the carpet, his chest barely moving, blood pooling under his cheek, his eyes wide and fixed on the mirror. He couldn't move a muscle. He couldn't speak. But I could see the absolute, agonizing terror in his pupils.
He knew I was behind that glass. He knew I had heard every word Mercer said.
BEEP. BEEP. BEEP.
The fire alarms throughout the estate began to shriek. The smell of burning wood and plastic began to seep through the ventilation shafts of the panic room.
I had thirty seconds to make a choice.
I could stay in the fireproof, bulletproof panic room with Leo. The room had its own oxygen supply for forty-eight hours. The local fire department would arrive, put out the blaze, and rescue us. I would be safe. Leo would be safe.
And Eric would die on that floor, his heart stopping from the neurotoxin while his body burned into ash.
He had lied to me for a year. He had funded the syndicate that destroyed my sister's life. He had caused the stress that contributed to the loss of my unborn baby. He deserved to rot.
I looked down at Leo. The tiny boy was looking up at me with those big, dark, innocent eyes—the same eyes my sister Maya had.
"Elena..." a tiny, choked whisper came from the microphone system outside.
It was Eric. The paralysis hadn't fully stolen his voice yet. He was using every ounce of his failing will to speak his last words to the mirror.
"Elena... I'm sorry..." Eric choked out, tears mixing with the blood on his cheek. "Save... Leo... don't... forgive me..."
Orange flames licked through the bedroom doorway, catching the silk curtains, sending a wall of heat roaring into the room.
I pressed my palm against the inner biometric panel of the panic room door.
CLICK.
The heavy steel door slid open.
I stepped out into the smoke, holding Leo wrapped tightly in my coat. I walked through the heat, stopping directly above my paralyzed husband.
Eric looked up at me, his eyes filled with unbearable shame and heartbreak. He expected me to step over him and run.
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Instead, I dropped to my knees.
I reached into the pocket of my coat, pulled out the auto-injector epinephrine pen I always carried for my severe peanut allergy, and slammed it straight through Eric’s shirt into his thigh!
