Chapter 14: A Dangerous Game

The safe house was a modest, unassuming cabin hidden deep in the woods, far from the prying eyes of anyone who might be following them. The drive had been tense and silent, the weight of the revelations hanging heavily over Emma, Alexander, and Rachel. Emily, the woman whose betrayal still stung Emma’s heart, sat in the backseat, her eyes flicking nervously to the trees outside, as though she expected Eleanor’s agents to materialize from the shadows at any moment. When they arrived, Rachel quickly led them inside, securing the doors and windows with a practiced efficiency that spoke of many such encounters. The air inside the cabin was thick with the scent of pine and damp earth, the only sounds the distant rustling of leaves and the occasional hoot of an owl. Emma’s mind was racing. She had been blindsided by the truth about her parents, and the thought that Eleanor had orchestrated their deaths was almost too much to bear. The woman who had raised her—the one person she had trusted