Chapter 13 - The Night We Chose Our Family
The river terminal became a battlefield.
Federal agents surrounded the property.
Mercer threatened to kill everyone if they entered.
So Stellan and I went in alone.
Fern and Rose were upstairs.
Cassandra and Lily were below.
Mercer stood between them.
“You can save one floor,” he said.
My stomach turned.
“What?”
“Choose.”
Stellan stared at him.
Mercer smiled.
“Children or adults.”
“You’re insane.”
“No. I’m demonstrating what power is.”
I looked at Stellan.
He understood.
We would not choose.
We separated.
Stellan went downstairs.
I went up.
Mercer’s men followed.
I reached the babies.
Fern screamed when she saw me.
Rose cried too.
I lifted both.
Heavy.
Beautiful.
Mine.
Gunfire exploded downstairs.
Then Anna appeared.
For one horrible second, I thought she had betrayed us again.
Instead, she shot the lock behind me.
“Go!”
“What about you?”
“I’m ending what my family started.”
She stayed.
I ran.
Outside, agents took the babies.
I turned back.
Stellan had not emerged.
Neither had Cassandra.
I went inside again.
Smoke filled the terminal.
I found Stellan pinned beneath a fallen beam.
Mercer stood above him with a gun.
“You could have inherited everything,” Mercer said.
Stellan laughed through blood.
“I already have everything.”
His eyes found mine.
Mercer turned.
That distraction was enough.
Stellan knocked the gun away.
I grabbed it.
Mercer looked at me.
“You won’t shoot.”
I pointed it directly at him.
“No.”
Then federal agents flooded the room.
“But they’ll arrest you.”
Mercer was taken alive.
His empire died in court, not in a warehouse.
Stellan collapsed.
I ran to him.
His eyes closed.
“Stellan?”
Nothing.
“Stellan!”
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For the second time in my life, the man I knew as Adrian disappeared while I was holding onto him.
This time, I refused to let him go.
