Chapter 23 - The Sirens at Blackwood Ridge
"Hold her!" I thrust Maya into Daniel’s good arm as he lay on the grass, breathing heavily. Maya clung to her father's neck, crying hysterically, her small nightgown stained with soot.
Two massive red tanker trucks from the Blackwood Volunteer Fire Department roared up the private lane, their headlights cutting through the blinding haze, followed immediately by Sheriff Samuel Vance’s cruiser.
Within seconds, firemen in full turnout gear were leaping from the trucks, dragging heavy canvas hoses toward the cottage and the roaring inferno of the pump house. Water hissed violently as high-pressure streams hit the blistering timber, drowning the fire in thick, blinding clouds of white steam.
Sheriff Vance stepped out of his patrol car, his hand resting instinctively on his utility belt. He took one look at Daniel on the ground, the shattered window, and Maya clutched in his arms, before turning his piercing gaze to me.
"Carmen," Samuel said, his voice deep and gravelly. "You hurt?"
"Cuts on my arms. Nothing that won't heal," I replied, pressing a handkerchief to my bleeding wrists. "Samuel, Vanessa set this fire. She locked Maya inside that cottage and fled down the back fire road toward Route 9 in a dark grey sedan."
Samuel turned to his deputy, who was already running toward the cruiser. "Call state police dispatch. Put an all-points bulletin on Vanessa Vance—pardon me, Vanessa Miller. Suspect is driving a grey rental sedan, heading south toward the state line. Wanted for aggravated arson, child endangerment, and attempted murder."
Daniel lowered his head until his forehead touched the damp earth. "Samuel... arrest me. I let her do this. I brought the fuel."
I looked down at my son. For months, I had felt only cold betrayal—the sting of his arrogant demands, his shameless entitlement, his eagerness to discard his own mother for Vanessa’s promises of luxury and status. But seeing him now, broken, bleeding, and trembling on the ground with his terrified daughter clinging to his chest, the raw truth was laid bare.
He was a fool. A weak, manipulated fool who had traded his birthright for poisoned honey. But he was not a monster.
"He tried to break the door down with his shoulder, Samuel," I said softly, the smoke burning the back of my throat. "His shoulder is separated. Get him in an ambulance with Maya. The questioning can wait until the girl is examined by doctors at County General."
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Daniel looked up at me, his eyes wide with disbelief and an agonizing debt of gratitude he knew he could never repay. "Mom... why?"
"Because your father didn't raise an animal, Daniel," I said evenly. "Even if you forgot that for a while."
