Chapter 6: The Bullet Came From Inside the Family
“Sophie!” Adrian threw himself beside his sister.
Daniel knocked the gun from Claire’s hand and kicked it across the room.
“I didn’t fire!” Claire cried.
Everyone froze.
The pistol lay near the bed, untouched, while smoke drifted from the open doorway behind Robert.
Elena stared at Robert’s right hand.
A smaller handgun was hidden against his leg.
“Put it down,” she said.
Robert raised the weapon. “No one needs to get hurt.”
“You just shot her!” Adrian shouted.
Sophie groaned. Blood spread across the shoulder of her coat.
“She moved,” Robert said. “I was aiming for the document.”
Daniel looked at him in disbelief. “You shot a woman over a piece of paper?”
“That paper can destroy everything I built.”
“You mean everything you stole.”
Robert aimed at Sophie again. “Give me the document.”
Adrian covered her body with his own. “You’ll have to kill me first.”
Robert’s face showed no emotion. “Don’t tempt me.”
Margaret stepped between them.
“Robert, stop.”
“Move.”
“No.”
“For thirty years, I protected you from your mistake.”
Margaret’s voice trembled. “Daniel was never a mistake.”
“He was another man’s child!”
“He was a baby!”
“And I gave him my name. I paid for his schools. I handed him a company.”
Daniel spoke softly. “A company that should have been mine before you ever touched it.”
Robert glanced at him. “You would have had nothing without me.”
“That is what you needed me to believe.”
Elena quietly shifted Noah to one arm and pulled out her phone.
Robert noticed. “Drop it.”
“I already called the police.”
“Drop it!”
She placed the phone on the floor.
Sirens were not yet audible.
Robert looked at Claire. “Pick up your gun.”
Claire shook her head.
“Pick it up!”
“No.”
Robert’s expression hardened. “Do you think they’ll believe you were innocent? Your fingerprints are on the forged trust documents.”
Claire began shaking. “You said you destroyed those.”
“I kept insurance.”
Daniel looked at his aunt. “Help us now, and tell the police everything.”
Claire stared at Robert, then at Sophie bleeding on the floor.
“The safe,” she whispered.
Robert’s eyes widened.
Claire continued, louder this time. “The forged documents are in Robert’s private safe beneath the wine cellar.”
Margaret looked stunned. “We don’t have a safe beneath the cellar.”
Robert backed toward the stairs. “You should have kept your mouth shut.”
Elena stepped forward. “Where are you going?”
“Out.”
Daniel blocked the doorway. “You’re not leaving.”
Robert pointed the gun at Noah.
Elena stopped breathing.
“Move,” Robert said to Daniel, “or your son pays for your stubbornness.”
Daniel slowly raised his hands.
“Fine. I’ll move.”
As he stepped aside, Claire grabbed the discarded pistol from the floor.
Robert fired.
Claire fell backward.
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The sirens finally screamed outside, but Robert seized Margaret around the neck and dragged her toward the stairs.
“Tell them to stay back,” he warned, “or I’ll reveal what Margaret did to Thomas the night he died.”
