Chapter 8 - The Price of Silence
Arthur took a half-step toward her, lowering the barrel of the revolver toward the floor, though his finger never left the trigger guard. The yellow light from the stairwell cast half of his face in shadow, giving him the appearance of a grotesque split mask.
""The letter doesn't matter, Chloe,"" he said soothingly, extending his left hand toward her, palm upward. ""It was the rambling of a sick woman who wasn't in her right mind. Your mother was confused. She didn't understand the pressures I was under—the debts, the bank loans that were threatening to take this estate away from us. I did everything to keep our legacy intact. For you. Don't you understand that? Everything was for you.""
""You poisoned her for money,"" Chloe said, each word feeling like jagged glass in her throat. She stood tall, refusing to shrink back, though every instinct screamed at her to flee. ""You put rat poison in her tea, Dad. You watched her get sick day after day, and you smiled at breakfast while she slowly died.""
Arthur’s face twitched. The calm paternal facade cracked, revealing the hollow, desperate creature beneath. ""She was going to divorce me! She was going to take you away to Europe and leave me with nothing! Thirty years of building this family’s empire, and she was going to wipe it out in a single court filing! I built this life!""
""It was her grandfather's money!"" Susan shouted from the shadows by the window. ""You were just an accountant she took pity on!""
Arthur snapped. He swung the revolver toward Susan, his finger tightening on the trigger.
BANG!
The gunshot was deafening in the enclosed attic. The muzzle flash illuminated the rafters in a blinding, violent strobe of light. Susan screamed, stumbling backward against the arched window. The heavy tire iron clattered from her hands, skittering across the floorboards. The bullet had missed her by inches, shattering the antique glass pane behind her head. Cold mountain wind rushed into the attic through the jagged hole, carrying the scent of pine, rain, and sulfur.
""Stop it!"" Chloe shrieked, covering her ears.
""Give me the flash drive, Chloe!"" Arthur roared, turning the smoking barrel back toward his daughter. The madness had completely taken over; his eyes were bloodshot, dilated with adrenaline. ""Give it to me, or I swear to God, I will burn this entire house to the ground with all three of us inside it!""
Chloe reached into her pocket. Her fingers wrapped around the brass key. She pulled it out slowly, holding it up so the glint caught the moonlight.
""You want it?"" Chloe whispered, her eyes burning with pure hatred. ""Come get it.""
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Instead of handing it over, Chloe pivoted on her heel and hurled the flash drive with all her might straight through the shattered arched window into the pitch-black woods surrounding the estate.
Arthur screamed in fury, lunging toward the window like a madman. At that exact moment, Susan dropped to the floor, swept her leg across Arthur's ankles, and sent him crashing heavily onto the pine floorboards. The revolver flew from his hand, spinning across the dust directly toward Chloe’s feet.
