Chapter 18 - Daniel’s Choice
The archive had made it as far as a relay station twelve miles north.
Then the line went dead.
Daniel knew the station.
“So does Mother,” he said.
Victoria was no longer in the library.
She had slipped out during the confusion.
Elena swore.
Another contraction hit.
Rosa grabbed her arm.
“You are not riding twelve miles.”
“Yes, I am.”
“You are in labor.”
“I am also tired of everyone making decisions because I am pregnant.”
Clara stepped forward. “This is not about pregnancy. This is about physics.”
Elena glared at both of them.
Daniel knelt in front of her.
“I’ll go.”
“No.”
“Elena.”
“You cut the reins.”
He flinched.
“You signed the petition.”
“Yes.”
“You married me under a contract.”
“Yes.”
“And every time something becomes dangerous, you ask me to trust you alone with it.”
He looked at the floor.
She continued.
“I don’t trust you enough for that.”
He nodded.
“Then come with me.”
Rosa threw up both hands. “Wonderful. The two idiots agree.”
They took an enclosed motorcar from the Ashcroft garage, one of William’s expensive new machines. Rosa drove because no one trusted Daniel’s hands or Elena’s contractions.
At the relay station, Halcyon men were already burning telegram strips.
Victoria stood beside them.
And Samuel Pike’s daughter, Lucy, was tied to a chair.
Pike made a sound like an animal.
A man in a gray coat stepped forward.
“Mr. Whitmore.”
Daniel recognized him.
“Charles Vale.”
Halcyon’s New York banker.
Vale smiled.
“Your mother tells me you have become emotional.”
Daniel raised his pistol.
“My mother says many things.”
Vale looked at Elena.
“Give us the deed, the decoy ledger, and Clara. We will let the child be born safely.”
Elena laughed.
“You tried to send me over a bridge.”
“That was Victoria’s improvisation.”
Victoria’s face tightened.
For the first time, Elena saw the truth clearly.
Victoria had been powerful inside the family.
Outside it, she was disposable.
Vale continued.
“Daniel, your family name can be restored. The Whitmore accounts in London will be reopened. Your father’s work can be completed.”
Daniel went still.
“You know where he is.”
Vale smiled.
“Yes.”
Elena looked at Daniel.
This was the choice that had been coming since the bridge.
His father or his wife.
His family name or the truth.
Daniel lowered his gun.
Victoria smiled.
Elena’s heart broke before she could stop it.
Then Daniel turned the gun and shot the telegraph switchboard.
Sparks exploded across the room.
Vale screamed.
Daniel grabbed the backup transmitter and threw it to Pike.
“Send everything by the south line!”
Gunfire erupted.
Rosa pulled Elena behind a desk.
Clara freed Lucy.
Victoria ran.
Vale fired at Daniel.
Daniel fell.
Elena screamed his name.
Blood spread across his shirt.
Then a second sound cut through the room.
Not gunfire.
A baby’s heartbeat monitor? No. There was no machine.
Elena’s water broke across the floor.
Rosa looked at her.
On the drive to the relay station, Elena asked Daniel the question she had avoided.
“If we survive, do you expect me to stay married to you?”
“No.”
The answer came too quickly to be strategic.
“Do you want me to?”
“Yes.”
Rosa muttered from the driver’s seat, “Could we schedule this for after the gunmen?”
Elena ignored her. “Why?”
“Because I love you. Because I also know love has been my excuse too many times.”
Elena looked out the window.
Daniel continued. “If you leave me, I will still testify. I will still sign away every Whitmore claim to the trust. I will still tell the court what I did on the bridge.”
That mattered. For the first time, his good action was not tied to getting her back.
“Then maybe,” Elena said, “you are finally making a choice that belongs to you.”
Daniel nodded.
Rosa sighed. “Wonderful. Personal growth. Now duck.”
A bullet shattered the rear window.
“Oh, hell.”
---
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