Chapter 4 - The Unexpected Sanctuary
We scrambled down the muddy embankment, sliding through wet leaves and thorns until our boots hit the cracked asphalt of the abandoned Texaco station. The rusted metal pumps stood like silent sentinels under the flickering yellow sodium light of the distant highway.
Behind the collapsed service bay sat a dark blue sedan with tinted windows and switched plates. Zachary unlocked the doors with a manual brass key, shoving my duffle into the backseat before sliding behind the steering wheel.
I jumped into the passenger seat, locking the door and keeping my stun gun firmly pressed against his right ribcage. "Start the engine, but if you make one wrong turn, I will paralyze you and take the wheel myself."
Zachary turned the ignition, and the V8 engine purred to life with a deep, muffled rumble. He killed the headlights, navigating the dark gravel path behind the station using only the ambient moonlight filtering through the storm clouds.
We merged onto the interstate heading south, far away from the international airport where Victoria’s team was undoubtedly waiting. The dashboard clock glowed in bright green digits: 8:42 PM—we had exactly three hours and eighteen minutes before the midnight deadline.
"Where are we going?" I demanded, watching the rear-view mirror for any sign of pursuit. "The Chicago probate office is closed, and Victoria owns every judge in Cook County."
"We aren't going to Cook County," Zachary answered, keeping his eyes glued to the dark highway ahead. "We are going to the private Swiss vault facility in downtown Milwaukee, where Arthur Cole has been hiding for two years."
My breath hitched in my throat as I stared at his profile. "Arthur is alive? Victoria told me he suffered a fatal stroke in Zurich!"
"Victoria tried to have him drowned in Lake Geneva after he discovered the digitalis vials in her private medicine cabinet," Zachary said grimly. "I paid two million dollars to an extraction team to fake his death and smuggle him across the Canadian border."
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I lowered the stun gun slowly, the ground beneath my feet shifting once again into a maze of conflicting truths. "You saved Arthur's life... but you still let your mother poison my father?"
Zachary gripped the steering wheel so tightly that his knuckles turned ghostly white in the dashboard glow. "I didn't know about your father until three days before his funeral, Sienna... and by then, the noose was already around my neck."
