Chapter 13 - No More Family Secrets
“Side door,” Clara called.
The nearest officer turned.
Inside the vestry, Evelyn shoved past a rack of robes.
Milo stopped at the doorway when she grabbed a heavy brass candlestick.
“Stay back.”
He raised his empty hands.
“You’re not getting through the courtyard. There are officers outside.”
“You don’t understand.”
“I heard enough.”
In the church, Victor still held Raphael’s arm.
“Think before you destroy this family.”
Raphael looked down at his hand.
“Let go.”
“I raised you.”
“You managed me.”
“I kept you alive.”
“After my father died?”
Victor’s fingers tightened.
“Your father was going to hand our books to people who would have taken everything.”
Raphael didn’t move.
Behind him, the investigator went very still.
Victor looked around.
Realized who had heard.
“I meant financially,” he said.
Raphael’s voice barely carried.
“You told me he died because of a dispute over the docks.”
“There was a dispute.”
“And you picked the night.”
Victor stepped back.
“Careful.”
“No. You’ve used that word on me long enough.”
Brennan suddenly shoved the officer blocking his path.
He made it three steps.
A second officer caught him beside a pew.
Guests scrambled away as he was restrained.
The tray rattled near the altar.
Clara turned.
Her heart kicked hard.
Then seemed to lose its rhythm.
She reached for the end of a pew.
Missed.
Raphael caught her before she hit the floor.
“Clara.”
She tried to answer.
Air wouldn’t come.
“Milo!”
The priest was already calling for medical help.
Clara’s vision narrowed.
Through it, she saw Evelyn brought back into the church, one wrist secured, her face twisted with fury.
“This is what you want?” Evelyn shouted at Raphael. “A maid with a sick heart and somebody else’s child?”
Raphael never looked up.
He loosened Clara’s collar while the dispatcher’s instructions came through the priest’s phone.
“Stay with me.”
Clara caught his sleeve.
“Noel.”
“With Dora. Safe.”
“Promise.”
He bowed his head until she could hear him.
“I promise I’ll be there when she wakes up.”
Her fingers loosened.
The paramedics arrived through the doors she had struggled to reach minutes earlier.
They took over.
Raphael moved when they told him to.
For once, he gave no orders.
He followed their instructions.
At the ambulance, an investigator stopped beside him.
“We secured the bottle and the paperwork.”
Raphael looked through the open doors.
A medic was working over Clara.
The investigator kept talking.
May you like
Raphael heard none of it.
Because the monitor inside the ambulance had started alarming.
