Chapter 3 - The Flight Through the Dark
The concrete stairwell echoed with the sound of Leah’s slippered feet. Every step down hurt her abdominal incision, but adrenaline surged through her veins, numbing the pain.
She reached the basement level. The air was cold, smelling of bleach, damp concrete, and diesel exhaust.
Behind her, high up in the stairwell, a door slammed open.
"Leah!" Nathan’s frantic voice echoed down the concrete shaft. "Leah, stop! You're sick! You don't know what you're doing! Bring the baby back!"
Leah didn't answer. She pushed through the double metal doors leading to the laundry bay.
Outside, the cool Ohio night air hit her face like a slap. Rain was falling in a thin, icy drizzle.
Parked beside a row of industrial linen carts was a beat-up silver sedan. The hazard lights flashed twice.
The rear door opened, and a burly man with a thick beard leaned out. "Leah? Mae sent me! Get in!"
Leah sprinted the remaining twenty yards, throwing herself into the backseat as Nathan burst through the laundry bay doors behind her.
"Leah! No!" Nathan screamed, reaching for the door handle just as the car accelerated sharply into the dark alleyway.
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Leah looked back through the rear window. In the bright glare of the streetlights, she saw Nathan standing in the rain, looking small, pathetic, and utterly cowardly, while Doreen stepped out behind him, her face twisted in pure, aristocratic fury.
Leah pulled her sleeping son tight against her neck, weeping tears of relief as the city lights blurred into the rain.
