Chapter 3 - The Edge of the Abyss
The sickening tilt accelerated as the heavy steel frame tipped past its center of balance.
Clara shrieked in primal agony, her voice cracking against the glass railing of the penthouse.
Her plea was not for her own life, but for the tiny soul kicking frantically beneath her ribs.
The black wheelchair lurched downward like an anchor severed from its chain.
Victoria remained standing at the pool's stone perimeter, her crimson dress whipping sharply in the updraft.
Not a flicker of remorse softened the woman’s icy features as she watched the catastrophe unfold.
The rear wheels crossed the edge with a violent scrape that sparked briefly against the wet tile.
Clara threw her arms outward, clutching at thin air, before gripping the restraints with white-knuckled fury.
The golden sunlight splintered into jagged fragments across the disturbance on the pool’s glassy surface.
Time seemed to dilate into agonizingly slow pulses of heartbeat and thundering dread.
Clara’s dark hair whipped into her eyes as the downward plunge reached terminal momentum.
The reflection of the luxury penthouse windows spun violently in her blurring peripheral vision.
She drew one last frantic lungful of high-altitude air before the world inverted completely.
The sudden vacuum of freefall made her unborn child shift violently inside her womb.
Every survival instinct screamed at her to jump, but the nylon harness held her pinned to the iron frame.
Victoria stepped back into the shadows of the sliding glass doors, smoothing her scarlet dress.
The silent rooftop offered no handholds, no safety nets, and no mercy for the falling mother.
A single champagne glass vibrated on a nearby patio table from the force of the displacement.
Clara closed her eyes for a split second, whispering an involuntary prayer for Julian to appear.
The descent ended with the brutal, thunderous impact of hundreds of pounds of metal striking water.
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A colossal wave erupted outward, drenching the stone tiles and splashing against Victoria’s polished heels.
The pool swallowed Clara whole, dragging her downward into suffocating turquoise silence.
