Chapter 20
CHAPTER 21: The Uninvited Guest
The peace we had found on our wooden deck lasted exactly four days.
It was a crisp Thursday evening when the perimeter lights of our driveway flickered, signaling a car pulling up. After everything we had been through, my muscles automatically tensed. I stood up from the dinner table, placing a hand on Sarah’s shoulder. She looked up at me, her dark eyes reflecting the same old cautious instinct.
I walked to the front door and peered through the peephole. Standing on our porch was not one of Eleanor’s old thugs, nor a federal agent. It was a young woman, barely twenty-four, wearing a crumpled trench coat and holding a weathered leather satchel. Her face was pale, and her eyes darted nervously toward the street.
I opened the door, keeping the security chain engaged. "Can I help you?"
The woman took a sharp breath, her voice trembling. "Are you Julian Sterling? The one who brought down Eleanor?"
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"I am," I said, my voice guarded.
"My name is Clara Pendelton," she whispered, leaning closer to the gap in the door. "I am Arthur Pendelton’s daughter. And I think my father is still alive. But the people who took him... they just found out about the foundation you built in his name, and they are coming to destroy it."
