Chapter 7 - THE WIDOW’S COURAGE
Inside the reinforced study, Sophia heard the muffled pops of gunfire echoing through the massive house. Every instinct screamed at her to run, but she knew the heavy steel door was their only salvation.
She pulled Emma under the massive oak desk, wrapping her body around the child like a human shield.
“Is it thunder, Mommy?” Emma asked, holding Barnaby tightly.
“Yes, baby. Just a storm. Keep your eyes closed,” Sophia whispered, pressing her lips to the top of Emma’s head.
Suddenly, the handle of the study door rattled.
Sophia froze, her breath catching in her throat. Alessandro had said only he could open it. But the rattling grew violent. Then, the sound of a heavy blow—a sledgehammer or a battering ram—struck the reinforced wood. The steel core held, but the hinges groaned.
“Open the door, you stupid bitch!” Lorenzo’s voice filtered through the wood, frantic and completely unhinged. “I know you’re in there! I know your husband told you about me!”
Sophia’s blood ran cold. The man who had murdered her husband was on the other side of that door.
She looked around the room desperately. She had no gun. She had no training. But she had spent ten years married to a brilliant chemist, and she had spent her life cleaning houses. She knew exactly what household chemicals could do when mixed improperly.
She crawled out from under the desk and ran to the small en-suite bathroom attached to the study. She grabbed a bottle of heavy-duty bleach from the cleaning supply cabinet, and an ammonia-based floor cleaner from the corner.
She ran back to the door just as a massive explosive charge blew the electronic lock off its hinges. The heavy door swung inward.
Lorenzo stepped into the room, holding a suppressed pistol, his suit soaked with rain, his face twisted in a manic grin.
“There you are,” he sneered.
Before he could raise the gun, Sophia uncapped both bottles and hurled their contents directly into his face.
The mixture of bleach and ammonia created an instant, blinding cloud of toxic chloramine gas. Lorenzo screamed in agony as the chemicals burned his eyes and lungs. He dropped the gun, clawing at his face, stumbling backward into the hallway.
Sophia didn’t hesitate. She grabbed the heavy brass fire poker from the study’s fireplace, stepped forward, and struck him across the temple with all her might.
Lorenzo collapsed to the floor, groaning, blinded and incapacitated.
A shadow fell over the doorway. Sophia raised the poker again, trembling, ready to fight to the death.
It was Alessandro.
May you like
He looked at the fallen Lorenzo, the toxic puddle on the floor, and the fierce, protective fury in Sophia’s eyes. The weapon lowered in her hands as she realized who it was. She fell to her knees, gasping for air.
Alessandro stepped over his cousin, knelt beside Sophia, and pulled her into his arms. “You did it,” he whispered, amazed. “You saved yourselves.”
