Chapter 5 - The Hidden Medical File
Marcus stared down the barrel of my gun, his chest heaving, sweat glistening on his forehead. Yet, an arrogant, twisted smile crept back onto his lips.
"Shoot me, Julian," Marcus taunted, leaning slightly closer to the sights. "Go ahead. Pull the trigger. But if my heart rate monitor stops, the automated protocol at the Hale Foundation triggers immediately. Lily will be loaded onto a private transport plane to South America within fifteen minutes, and you will never see her face again."
My grip on the steel frame tightened until my knuckles turned white.
"You think you're the only one who knows how to play protocols, Uncle?" I asked smoothly.
I clicked a button on my wrist comms unit.
A secondary screen on the wall flickered to life, showing a live video feed from the Hale Medical Foundation eight miles away.
On the screen was Grace, wearing her nurse scrubs again, standing inside the high-security pediatric isolation ward alongside six of my elite tactical operatives who had already breached the perimeter wall while Marcus was distracted in the boardroom.
Grace was holding a tiny, five-year-old girl with dark curly hair in her arms. The little girl was wrapped in a blue cashmere blanket with knitted stars, rubbing her eyes sleepily.
Marcus's jaw dropped. "What... how did you bypass the vault doors?"
"Grace worked there for three years, Marcus," I said, a dark smile spreading across my face. "She knew the facility's emergency medical override codes better than your paid guards did."
On the screen, Grace looked directly into the camera lens and smiled, holding up a clear glass vial of saline. "She's safe, Julian. Her vitals are stable. We're coming home."
Tears pricked the corners of my eyes as I watched my daughter stretch her tiny arms around Grace's neck on the monitor screen. She was alive. She was real. My Lily was coming back to me.
I looked back at Marcus, whose entire body was now trembling with absolute defeat.
"You took two years of my daughter's life," I said, lowering my weapon just an inch. "You forced her to grow up in a sterile room, thinking her father didn't come for her."
"Julian... please," Marcus whimpered, dropping to his knees on the marble floor, his arrogance evaporating into pathetic pleas. "We're blood! Family!"
"Family doesn't lock children in cages," I spat.
I nodded to Marco. "Take him to the sub-basement holding facility in Queens. Hand over all his offshore financial records to the federal prosecutor's office by noon. Strip him of every asset, every dollar, and every title associated with the Hale name."
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"No! Julian!" Marcus screamed as Marco and two guards dragged him backward out of the boardroom, his fingernails scraping uselessly against the polished floor. "You can't do this to me!"
The doors slammed shut, cutting off his shrieks forever.
