Chapter 10 - The Dawn
We scrambled out into the wet grass just as the entire cellar collapsed behind us in a massive shower of sparks.
The cool night air tasted like a miracle against my scorched throat.
Flashing red and blue lights illuminated the entire property, surrounded by a dozen police cruisers.
Other deputies had already arrested my husband and his mother, pressing their faces hard against the hoods of the patrol cars.
My husband locked eyes with me, his face a mask of shock and defeat as handcuffs were slapped tightly onto his wrists.
Mara was sitting on the curb, weeping into her hands as an officer read her her rights.
Paramedics rushed toward me with a stretcher, wrapping a thick thermal blanket around my trembling shoulders.
The brave sheriff leaned heavily against an ambulance, nodding at me respectfully as medics treated his burned hands.
They loaded me into the back of the ambulance just as the final, overpowering contraction hit.
Ten hours later, the morning sun poured through the wide windows of the hospital maternity ward.
I held my perfectly healthy, beautiful baby girl against my chest, tears of profound relief falling onto her soft cheek.
The nightmare was finally over, and they were all going away to prison for a very long time.
A kind nurse walked into the room holding a clear plastic evidence bag containing my cracked, mud-stained phone.
She smiled and said the police managed to recover it from the yard and wanted me to have it back.
I turned the shattered screen on to see a single unread text message from an unknown number.
May you like
The message read: "They failed to finish the job, but I won't."
I stared at the screen as the door to my hospital room slowly clicked shut.
