Chapter 15 - THE BRIDGE

I drove to the bridge. It was late. The road was empty. Rain fell again, just like it had that night.

I parked and got out. The bridge stretched out before me, dark and slippery. Below, the river raged.

"Marcus!" I called out. "I’m here!"

He stepped out from the shadows at the far end of the bridge. He looked wild. Disheveled. Eyes burning with rage. He held a gun in his hand.

"Where is it?" he shouted. "Give me the evidence, Adrian!"

"It’s gone," I said. "Copies are everywhere. You can’t destroy it. You can’t run from it. It’s over, Marcus."

He raised the gun.

"It’s over when I say it’s over! Give me the boy! He is mine!"

"He is not yours!" I shouted back. "He is Emily’s son. And he is mine! You killed her. You murdered the mother of my child. And for what? Money? Power?"

"She betrayed me!" Marcus screamed. "She hid what was mine! She stole my son!"

"She protected him!" I said. "She knew what you were. She gave her life to keep him away from you!"

Marcus took a step forward. The gun remained pointed at my chest.

"I will kill you," he said. "Just like I killed her. And then I will find the boy. And I will take what belongs to me."

He cocked the gun.

"Goodbye, Adrian."

A shot rang out.

But it didn’t come from Marcus’s gun.

Marcus stumbled forward. A look of shock on his face. He spun around.

Standing behind him was Vanessa. Her arm still raised. The gun trembling in her good hand.

Vanessa stood in the rain, her face pale and determined.

"Go to hell," she said.

Marcus stared at her. Blood seeping from his chest.

"You…" he whispered.

Then he collapsed.

Sirens wailed in the distance. Growing closer.

Vanessa dropped the gun. She stood trembling, staring at Marcus’s body.

"I killed him," she whispered. "I killed him."

I ran to her, holding her steady.

"You saved us," I said. "You saved Caleb. You saved me."

Vanessa looked up at me, tears mixing with the rain.

"Emily gave me a chance," she said. "I finally took it."

The police arrived. Paramedics. Lights flashing. Voices shouting.

Marcus was still alive, barely. They loaded him into an ambulance. He would live to stand trial.

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Vanessa was placed in custody. But she didn’t resist. She looked at peace.

"I’m not sorry," she told the officers as they led her away. "I would do it again. To protect that child."