Chapter 4 - The Midnight Extraction
Upstairs, Clara heard the muffled thud downstairs followed by a sharp crash of breaking glass. Her heart leaped into her throat. She zipped her leather duffel bag—packed with her mother’s heirloom pearl necklace, her passport which she had managed to retrieve from Richard’s briefcase while he was distracted, and a change of dark clothing.
The bedroom door rattled.
"Clara!" Richard’s voice roared from the hallway, frantic and enraged, completely stripped of its prior composure. "Clara, open this damn door right now! What did you do?!"
Clara backed away from the door, her eyes wide. She looked at the French doors leading out to the second-story balcony. Without hesitation, she unlocked them and stepped out into the crisp, autumn Connecticut air. Below her, the manicured lawn stretched out toward the dense treeline bordering the estate.
A pair of night-vision goggles glowed faintly from the shadows near the pool house. A low, reassuring voice crackled through the comms earpiece she had hastily inserted into her ear.
"Mrs. Sterling, this is Bravo-Two. We have visual. Drop your bag over the balcony rail; I've got it."
Clara didn't hesitate. She dropped the duffel bag into the darkness, where a pair of strong tactical gloves caught it mid-air. She hoisted herself up onto the wrought-iron railing, ignoring the throbbing pain in her bruised eye, and let herself drop into the waiting arms of her father's private extraction team.
Within seconds, they were moving silently across the lawn like ghosts, melting into the thick pine forest just as the heavy oak master bedroom door splintered inward with a deafening crash.
Richard stood in the ruined doorway, panting heavily, a heavy iron fireplace poker in his hand. The room was empty. The French doors were blown wide open, fluttering in the midnight breeze. He rushed to the railing and looked down, his face twisting into an expression of unadulterated madness.
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"You think you can run from me, Clara?!" he screamed into the empty night, his voice echoing off the stone walls of the mansion. "You're nothing without me! You belong to me!"
Far down the private access road, a sleek black armored SUV accelerated smoothly into the darkness, its headlights off, carrying Clara toward freedom and her father's fortress.
