Chapter 10 - The Boathouse
Celeste was standing inside the boathouse with Isabella beside her.
My daughter was not tied up.
That somehow made it worse.
My mother had placed a hand on her shoulder like they were posing for a family photograph.
“Daddy!”
Isabella ran toward me.
Celeste grabbed her arm.
I saw red.
“Take your hand off her.”
Celeste didn’t move.
“Sign the guardianship release.”
Beatriz whispered, “Celeste, stop.”
My mother laughed.
“You don’t get to grow a conscience now.”
I stepped forward.
Detective Harper and two deputies were somewhere behind the beach house, waiting for my signal.
Celeste knew that too.
“I have a gun in the cabinet behind me,” she said calmly. “If anyone rushes this building, things become unnecessary.”
Isabella looked at me.
She was scared.
But she wasn’t silent anymore.
“Grandma said Mommy was selfish.”
Celeste’s jaw tightened.
“Isabella.”
“She said Mommy chose money over family.”
“Stop.”
My daughter looked directly at her grandmother.
“Mommy said you’d make Daddy choose me or the company.”
Celeste froze.
I did too.
“When did she tell you that?” I asked.
“Before she died.”
Celeste hissed, “Children remember nonsense.”
“No,” I said. “They remember fear.”
I pulled the guardianship papers from my jacket.
“You want a signature?”
“Yes.”
I tore them in half.
Celeste’s face changed completely.
“You idiot.”
“No company is worth my daughter.”
“You don’t understand what your father built.”
“I understand what you turned it into.”
Celeste reached toward the cabinet.
Beatriz moved first.
She slammed the cabinet door shut on Celeste’s hand.
Celeste screamed.
Isabella ran to me.
Then a lantern crashed onto the wooden floor.
Fuel spread.
Fire climbed the wall in seconds.
“MOVE!”
Smoke filled the boathouse.
I lifted Isabella and ran toward the door.
The fire moved faster than thought.
I could hear Harper shouting outside. Wood cracked above us. Smoke turned the boathouse lights into orange blurs.
Beatriz shoved Isabella toward me as smoke rolled between us.
“Get her out!”
I pulled Isabella against my chest and bent low beneath the smoke.
“Stay behind me,” I told her.
She buried her face against my shoulder.
Isabella tightened both arms around my neck.
Behind us, Celeste cursed and fought with the jammed side door.
A ceiling board cracked overhead.
Harper shouted my name from outside.
I could barely see the exit.
Beatriz was still somewhere behind us.
For the first time, Beatriz’s voice held no command, only panic: “Gabriel, take Isabella and go!”
Behind me, Beatriz was coughing.
A burning beam fell between us.
“Beatriz!”
“GO!” she screamed.
Celeste disappeared through a side door.
I handed Isabella to Harper outside and turned back.
Beatriz was trapped behind the flames.
For one second, I saw the woman who had terrorized my daughter.
Then I saw a human being about to die.
I went back in.
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