Chapter 9 - The Final Chase
My heart completely and utterly stopped beating in my chest.
The police tactical unit had not reached my mother's suburban house in time to arrest her.
She had somehow used her false emergency contact status and fake documents to actively kidnap my highly vulnerable daughter.
The detective standing behind me immediately radioed dispatch for a massive, city-wide amber alert.
I suddenly remembered my mother owned a secluded, deeply rundown wooden cabin near the lake up north.
She had always talked romantically about fixing it up, but it had remained completely abandoned and rotting for years.
I told the detective the exact address, and he slammed his heavy boot on the gas pedal of the cruiser.
We tore recklessly through the morning commuter traffic, the loud sirens wailing aggressively across the busy city.
The fast drive felt like an agonizing, endless eternity, with every passing second ticking away Mia's fragile life.
We finally turned sharply onto the muddy, uneven dirt road leading to the deeply isolated lake property.
My mother's silver luxury sedan was parked haphazardly in the tall, overgrown, wet grass.
I did not wait for the detective to put the car in park before I threw the passenger door open and ran.
I kicked the rotting, splintered wooden door of the old cabin completely off its rusted hinges.
My mother was standing near the stone fireplace, holding a deeply sleeping Mia tightly in her arms.
She had a silver metal lighter in her hand and had poured a massive puddle of gasoline all over the wooden floorboards.
"If my Vanessa goes to prison, absolutely nobody in this family gets to be happy," my mother said with a deeply mad, broken smile.
She flicked the lighter open, the small, bright flame illuminating the absolute, terrifying madness in her eyes.
I lunged forward with explosive, desperate speed, completely ignoring the overwhelming, toxic smell of gasoline.
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I tackled her violently to the hard floor, wrapping my arms fiercely and protectively around my daughter.
The silver lighter flew completely out of her hand and landed harmlessly in a puddle of rainwater near the leaky sink.
