Chapter 6 - The Deadly Bargain
The freezing night wind whipped through the open balcony doors as Elena stood frozen in terror.
Sylvia was holding the fragile infant by the fabric of his pajamas, dangling him over the fifty-foot drop to the concrete patio below.
"Take one more step, and I will let him go," Sylvia threatened, her eyes completely devoid of any humanity.
Elena immediately raised her hands in surrender and slowly backed away from the balcony doors.
"Please, Sylvia, he is just an innocent baby, you do not have to do this!" Elena begged, tears streaming down her face.
Sylvia smiled wickedly and demanded that Elena hand over the silver backup drive immediately.
"If you give me the drive, I will pull the child back over the railing safely," Sylvia promised with a deceptive sweetness.
Elena knew Sylvia was a pathological liar, but she absolutely could not risk the baby's life.
She slowly reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out the heavy silver hard drive.
Elena carefully tossed the encrypted drive across the room, letting it slide across the floorboards to stop at Sylvia's expensive high heels.
Sylvia laughed triumphantly as she stepped on the device, violently crushing the delicate internal components with her sharp heel.
"You really are completely naive, Elena," Sylvia mocked, kicking the destroyed pieces of plastic away.
She looked down at the crying baby dangling in her hands and offered a cruel, heartless smirk.
"I told you I would eliminate all the obstacles in my path, and that includes this annoying little brat."
Without a single ounce of hesitation, Sylvia opened her hands and dropped the baby into the dark abyss.
Elena screamed in absolute, unadulterated agony and lunged desperately toward the stone railing.
She looked down, fully expecting to see a horrific tragedy on the patio below.
Instead, she saw Marcus standing firmly on the grass, holding the safely caught baby tightly against his broad chest.
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Before Elena could even process the miraculous rescue, a sharp, searing pain ripped through her shoulder.
Sylvia had pulled a hidden combat knife from her dress and plunged it deeply into Elena's flesh.
