Chapter 142 Family

• By the time they reached the cabin, the night mist was thick, encircling the treetops and the cabin like smoke. Darren parked the car, shut off the engine, and for a long moment none of them moved. The silence was heavy, broken only by the ticking of the cooling engine.
• Inside, the safehouse felt unchanged, yet different, as though the chaos of the night had carried in with them, lingering in the air. Darren dropped his keys on the counter, his shoulders sagging. For the first time in days, there was no immediate danger pressing in on them, and it left him strangely hollow.
• Nina guided her brother to the sofa, urging him to sit. Brad obeyed, his eyes roving the sparse room, still struggling to reconcile weeks of Horace’s manipulation with the reality he had just stepped into. Nina sat close beside him, holding his hand tightly, as if afraid he would vanish again.