Chapter 12 - A Father's Judgment
Mark left Julian gasping in the mud and climbed back up the ravine, moving swiftly to the van. He pulled his coat around the shivering, semiconscious boy and lifted him gently into his arms.
He glanced into the front seat. Claire’s eyes were open, staring blankly at the ceiling of the cab. Her hand still hung limply toward the rear aisle. She was gone.
A heavy, solemn breath left Mark’s lungs. Despite everything she had done—the cruelty, the lies, the abuse—she had used her final breath to save them. He gently closed her eyes, adjusted the coat around the child, and began the arduous climb up the muddy embankment toward the road.
When he crested the guardrail, Arthur Sterling stood waiting, an umbrella held over him by a burly driver. Arthur looked at the bundle in Mark’s arms, his expression unreadable.
"Is the boy intact?" Arthur asked, his voice steady against the howling wind.
"His name is Leo, isn't it?" Mark said, his voice trembling with exhausted fury. "You didn't even bother to give him a life, but did you at least give him a name?"
Arthur did not answer immediately. He looked down into the dark ravine where Julian was slowly crawling through the mud.
"Julian exceeded his authority," Arthur said flatly. "He believed he could liquidate this family's assets by eliminating the heirs. He followed Claire without my permission."
"Save your lies, Dad!" Mark yelled over the storm. "You stood there! You watched him try to kill us!"
"I came to stop him, Mark," Arthur said, taking a slow step forward, leaning heavily on his cane. "If I wanted you dead, my driver wouldn't have called the state police ten minutes ago. Listen."
In the far distance, cutting through the drumming rain, the faint, wailing sirens of multiple emergency vehicles echoed along the highway corridor. Red and blue flashes began to reflect against the low-hanging clouds in the south.
"I gave you the information at the boathouse so you could save the boy," Arthur continued, his voice softening by a fraction. "I made terrible choices, Mark. Choices born of arrogance. But I never wanted my grandson dead."
Mark held Leo closer, feeling the faint, rhythmic warmth of his son's breath against his neck.
"Your choices ended Claire's life," Mark said coldly. "They almost ended mine. And they nearly destroyed Maya. You are going to prison, Dad. Julian is going to prison. I'm handing the ledger to the troopers the second they pull up."
May you like
Arthur stared at his son for a long time. The harsh glare of the headlights carved deep, weary lines into the old man's face.
"Then do it," Arthur whispered, lowering his head. "Do what a real father should do."
