CHAPTER 6: THE NIGHT ON COLDWATER LAKE
Coldwater Lake appeared through the trees like a sheet of black glass.
Rain had begun falling by the time Daniel and Detective Cross reached the ridge. Police units were still several minutes behind them.
The tracking signal came from the western shore.
Daniel saw the lake house first.
A single light burned in an upstairs window.
An SUV stood near the dock with both rear doors open.
The boat was gone.
Daniel ran toward the water.
Detective Cross caught his arm.
“Wait for backup.”
“My daughter is on that lake.”
“And Vanessa may be armed.”
Daniel looked across the dark water.
A faint light moved near the center.
Then disappeared.
He pulled free.
A smaller fishing boat was tied to the far side of the dock. Daniel jumped aboard and reached for the ignition.
Detective Cross climbed in beside him.
“You drive. I call in our position.”
The engine coughed twice before starting.
Daniel pushed the throttle forward.
Rain struck his face as the boat cut across the lake.
Lily’s emergency microphone remained active, but the sound was distorted.
Vanessa’s voice rose in the background.
“Sit still!”
Lily cried.
Nolan shouted something Daniel could not understand.
Then came a crash.
The signal went silent.
Daniel drove faster.
The larger boat emerged from the rain.
It drifted with no navigation lights.
One side sat dangerously low in the water.
Daniel pulled alongside.
“Lily!”
A small face appeared near the cabin window.
“Daddy!”
Daniel’s heart nearly broke from relief.
Vanessa seized Lily and dragged her away.
Nolan stood near the rear of the boat, holding a red fuel container.
Detective Cross raised her weapon.
“Police! Put down the container!”
Nolan stared at her.
Rainwater ran down his face.
“You don’t understand.”
“Put it down!”
Vanessa emerged from the cabin with one arm locked around Lily’s chest.
In her other hand, she held a flare gun.
Daniel stopped breathing.
“Let her go.”
Vanessa smiled.
Her hair was soaked, and dark makeup streaked her cheeks.
She no longer looked like the woman who had once walked toward Daniel in a white wedding dress.
“You ruined everything,” she said.
“You ruined it yourself.”
“I gave you nine years.”
“You studied me for nine years.”
“I made you successful.”
“My employees made me successful.”
“I gave you the image of a perfect family.”
Daniel looked at Lily.
“She was never an image.”
“No,” Vanessa said. “She was leverage.”
Lily squeezed her eyes shut.
Daniel’s voice hardened.
“Do not say that in front of her.”
“Why? You think she doesn’t know?”
Nolan moved closer.
“Vanessa, this is over.”
She turned the flare gun toward him.
“You betrayed me.”
“You were going to leave me behind.”
“You became useless.”
Nolan laughed bitterly.
“I spent twelve years believing you loved me.”
“I loved what you were willing to do.”
His face crumpled.
Daniel understood then.
Nolan was guilty.
Weak.
Greedy.
But he had also been consumed by the same woman who had consumed every person around her.
Detective Cross shouted again.
“Put down the weapon!”
Vanessa pulled Lily closer to the edge.
“If anyone boards this boat, we all go into the water.”
Daniel glanced at the boat’s damaged side.
Water poured through a split near the lower deck.
She had intentionally opened the emergency valve and damaged the hull.
The boat would sink within minutes.
“Vanessa,” Daniel said, forcing calm into his voice. “You don’t want to die.”
“No.”
“You don’t want Lily to die either.”
Vanessa looked down at her daughter.
For the briefest moment, something moved in her expression.
Not love.
Possession.
“She belongs to me.”
“She is not property.”
“She came from me.”
“And she is terrified of you.”
Vanessa’s face tightened.
Lily opened her eyes.
“I want Daddy.”
The words destroyed whatever restraint Vanessa had left.
She raised the flare gun.
“You ungrateful little—”
Nolan struck her arm.
The flare fired into the air.
A streak of red light vanished into the rain.
Lily broke free.
Vanessa grabbed her pajama shirt.
The fabric tore.
Lily fell backward over the side.
Daniel jumped.
The water hit him like ice.
He surfaced and heard Lily screaming nearby.
“Daddy!”
He swam toward her.
The waves pushed them apart.
Daniel reached her, wrapped one arm around her body, and kicked toward the fishing boat.
Detective Cross leaned over the side.
“Give her to me!”
Daniel lifted Lily.
Cross pulled her aboard.
Behind them, Nolan and Vanessa fought for the flare gun.
Vanessa struck him with the metal handle. Nolan fell against the fuel container, spilling gasoline across the deck.
The larger boat tilted sharply.
Daniel climbed into the fishing boat.
Lily wrapped both arms around his neck.
“I knew you’d come.”
He held her.
“I will always come.”
A gunshot cracked across the water.
Detective Cross had fired into the air.
“Vanessa! Drop it now!”
Vanessa stood at the edge of the sinking boat.
Nolan lay unconscious behind her.
She held the flare gun near the spilled gasoline.
“If I cannot leave, neither can he.”
Daniel shielded Lily’s face.
“Vanessa, stop.”
She looked at him.
“Did you ever love me?”
Daniel stared at the stranger wearing his wife’s face.
“I loved the person you pretended to be.”
Her mouth twisted.
“That isn’t an answer.”
“It’s the only one I have.”
The boat dipped lower.
Water swept across the deck.
Vanessa aimed the flare gun at the gasoline.
Detective Cross fired.
The bullet struck Vanessa’s shoulder.
She spun and fell into the lake.
The flare gun dropped harmlessly into the water.
Nolan began sliding across the deck as the boat rolled.
Daniel moved toward him.
Detective Cross grabbed his jacket.
“The fuel could ignite.”
“He’ll drown.”
“He helped kidnap your daughter.”
“And I’m not becoming them.”
Daniel guided the fishing boat close enough to reach Nolan. He grabbed the unconscious man by the collar and pulled him into the smaller vessel.
Another police boat arrived.
Officers searched the water.
They found Vanessa clinging to a floating seat cushion twenty yards away.
Even wounded, she fought them.
She screamed that Daniel had attacked her.
That he had kidnapped Lily.
That the boat belonged to him.
Her story continued until the officers played Lily’s emergency recording over the radio.
Vanessa finally became silent.
At the hospital, Lily was treated for mild hypothermia and a cut along her shoulder. She refused to let go of Daniel’s hand.
Nolan suffered a concussion and two broken ribs.
Vanessa underwent surgery under police guard.
Near dawn, Detective Cross entered Lily’s hospital room.
“We recovered most of the company money,” she told Daniel. “The offshore transfer had not cleared.”
“And the board?”
“They reviewed the evidence from Celeste’s computer. Your authority has been restored.”
Daniel looked at Lily sleeping beside him.
“It doesn’t feel important anymore.”
“It will tomorrow.”
“What happens now?”
“Vanessa will face kidnapping, child abuse, identity fraud, conspiracy, financial theft, and attempted homicide charges.”
“And Celeste?”
“She has agreed to cooperate.”
Daniel nodded.
Detective Cross hesitated.
“There’s one more thing.”
She handed him an official laboratory report.
The hospital had expedited the test using Daniel and Lily’s blood samples.
Daniel read the result.
Probability of paternity: 99.9998 percent.
He closed his eyes.
A small voice came from the bed.
“What does it say?”
Lily was awake.
Daniel sat beside her.
“It says what I already knew.”
“What?”
He kissed her forehead.
“That you are my daughter.”
She smiled sleepily.
“Forever?”
“Forever.”
Lily closed her eyes again.
Daniel thought the nightmare had ended.
Then his phone rang.
It was his attorney.
“Daniel, Vanessa filed an emergency custody petition from the hospital.”
Daniel looked at his sleeping daughter.
“On what grounds?”
His attorney exhaled.
“She claims you orchestrated everything because you wanted sole custody.”
Daniel’s grip tightened around the phone.
May you like
The criminal battle was nearly over.
The war for Lily had just begun.
