Sofía thought she was seeing a ghost. The young woman had the same face as her missing cousin.

Sofía slumped against the cliff face, gasping for air, her throat burning where Julian’s fingers had dug in.

Maya dropped the bloody stone. She fell to her knees at the edge of the trail, peering down into the boiling cauldron of white foam and black rocks below.

Through the darkness and the driving rain, there was nothing to see. The ferocious undertow of Devil’s Leap had already swallowed him. No swimmer, no matter how strong, could survive being pounded against those granite reefs during a November gale.

Sofía crawled over, wrapping an arm around the trembling girl. "Maya. Look at me. Don't look down there. Look at me."

Maya turned her face, her eyes wide, glassy with shock. "Is he... is he dead?"

"The sea took him," Sofía whispered, her voice hoarse and raw. "Just like he wanted everyone to believe it took your mother. It’s over, Maya. It’s over."

"Victoria," Maya suddenly gasped, looking back up the cliff path. "We have to help Victoria!"

They scrambled back up the slippery shale trail to the wooden platform. Victoria was slumped against the retaining wall, her face paper-pale, her hand pressed hard against the bullet wound in her shoulder. Blood seeped between her fingers, washing pink in the relentless downpour.

"Victoria," Sofía knelt beside her, peeling off her own woolen scarf to fashion a tight pressure bandage around the wound. "Hold still. We’re going to get you to an ambulance."

Victoria coughed, wincing in agony, but her eyes locked onto Maya’s face. "Did he...?"

"He fell," Sofía said softly. "He’s gone, Victoria."

A strange, shuddering sigh escaped Victoria’s lips—a mix of profound grief and immense, twenty-year-old relief. "God forgive us all," she whispered.

"You told us where Elena is," Maya pleaded, leaning in close, the rain dripping from her chin onto Victoria’s coat. "You said St. Jude’s Cottage. The lighthouse road. Victoria, please, is she alive? Is my mother really alive?"

Victoria nodded weakly, her eyelids fluttering with exhaustion. "When I shot Julian that night... I smuggled Elena out in the trunk of my car. Her mind was fractured by what he did to her in that room. She was terrified of him. She thought if Julian ever found out she survived, he would tear the country apart until he found Clara and the baby."

Victoria reached up with her uninjured hand, gently touching Maya’s cheek.

"She has lived for twenty years in the old keeper’s cottage behind St. Jude’s Light," Victoria whispered. "Four miles south of here, across the cove. She never left the grounds. She believed that as long as the world thought she was dead, her daughter would be safe. Go to her, Maya. Go before the police arrive. Give her her life back."

Sofía looked up toward the clifftop. The distant wail of sirens cut through the roar of the wind. Red and blue emergency lights were beginning to paint the smoky clouds above Highwood Manor.

"The police and paramedics are at the front gates," Sofía told Victoria. "I’m going to carry you to the mouth of the tunnel so they find you first. Then I’m taking Maya."

"No," Victoria said, grimacing as she pushed Sofía away. "Leave me on the platform. The tunnel leads straight to the cellar; the firefighters will see me immediately. Take my car keys from my coat pocket. My Mercedes is parked at the service turnaround by the South Gate. Go. Now!"

Sofía reached into Victoria’s pocket and pulled out the electronic key fob. She looked into her aunt's tired, sorrowful eyes. "Thank you, Victoria."

"Don't thank me," Victoria whispered, closing her eyes against the rain. "Just bring Elena home."

Sofía grabbed Maya’s hand once more. Together, they raced through the southern perimeter trail, cutting through the weeping pine woods away from the burning mansion.

Ten minutes later, soaking wet, bruised, and covered in soot, they reached the secluded turnaround. Victoria’s silver Mercedes stood parked beneath the dripping hemlocks.

Sofía unlocked the car, shoved Maya into the passenger seat with the safe's envelope and the journal, and threw the vehicle into drive.