Chapter 9 - Blood on the Marble
The deafening roar of three gunshots shattered the night simultaneously.
Vanessa fired wildly at Julian. The bullet caught him in the upper chest, knocking him back a step, but the momentum of his sheer bulk carried him forward like a raging bull.
Julian fired twice.
One round tore through Vanessa’s right shoulder, spinning her around like a broken doll. The second round shattered the stone railing of the pool deck right beside her.
Vanessa screamed in agony, her snub-nosed revolver clattering onto the wet stone as she dropped to her knees, clutching her bleeding shoulder.
Julian stumbled forward, gasping for air, blood bubbling at the corner of his mouth from a punctured lung. He raised his weapon one last time to execute his former wife at point-blank range.
"NO!" Daniel shouted.
Daniel fired two rounds with surgical precision.
The heavy .45 hollow-points slammed into Julian’s right shoulder and hip, neutralizing the threat instantly. Julian’s gun flew out of his grip, splashing into the deep end of the swimming pool. The massive convict collapsed onto the travertine stone with a heavy, wet thud, gasping for air, unable to move his limbs.
Footsteps pounded across the patio.
Marcus Vance and four heavily armed private security operatives swarmed the pool deck, tactical lights illuminating the entire courtyard like a stadium.
"Target down! Area secure!" Vance shouted, kicking Julian’s backup knife away and pressing a knee into the convict’s back, securing his wrists in heavy zip-ties.
Sirens wailed in the near distance—this time, half a dozen LAPD cruisers, followed by the screeching tires of unmarked federal vehicles, roared up the private drive, their red and blue flashers painting the estate’s facade in violent colors.
Vanessa was on the ground, sobbing, crawling backward toward the edge of the pool. Blood pooled around her emerald-green dress, mixing with the falling rain.
Daniel walked over to her. He stood directly above her, towering over her broken, pathetic form. He lowered his Kimber, but his eyes remained merciless.
"Daniel... please..." Vanessa wept, looking up at him with eyes full of desperate, animalistic pleading. "Call an ambulance... I’m bleeding... Daniel, remember how much you loved me... please..."
Daniel looked down at her. He saw the manipulative monster who had held his daughter over a forty-foot drop. He saw the cold-blooded killer who had whispered, *“You ruined everything,”* before releasing a terrified six-year-old into the abyss.
"I never loved you," Daniel said, his voice flat, dead, devoid of all human warmth. "I loved an illusion that you murdered. And the only thing you’re getting from me is justice."
Detective Miller burst onto the patio deck, his weapon drawn, flanked by six uniformed officers.
Miller took in the scene: the shattered glass, Julian Cross bleeding out under Vance’s knee, the discarded weapons, and Vanessa Carter sobbing in a pool of blood.
Miller walked over to Vanessa, pulled a pair of steel handcuffs from his utility belt, and knelt beside her.
"Sarah Jenkins, also known as Vanessa Sterling," Miller read with cold satisfaction, snapping the cuffs tightly around her uninjured wrist and wrenching her arms behind her back. "You are under arrest for attempted capital murder, grand conspiracy, aggravated assault on a child, identity theft, and federal fraud."
Vanessa shrieked as the metal dug into her flesh. "He shot me! Daniel shot me! Arrest him!"
Miller didn't even blink. "I saw the whole thing on Mr. Vance’s live surveillance feed, Sarah. It was textbook self-defense. Save your breath for the state prosecutor."
As the officers hauled Vanessa to her feet, dragging her soaked, bloodied body across the stone patio, she caught Daniel’s eye one last time.
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There was no elegance left. No charm. Only the bitter, hollow ruin of a parasite that had failed its harvest.
***
