A shot rang out.
The gunman fell.
Standing in the smoke was Victor Harrow, holding a gun.
His suit was soaked with rain and blood.
Three men lay dead behind him.
He looked at Adrian.
“Do you understand now?”
Then more footsteps thundered up the stairwell.
Victor’s face filled with dread.
The doors burst open.
Damien Voss entered with armed men behind him.
Tall. Calm. Gray-eyed.
“You should have stayed hidden, Victor,” he said.
Elise stared at him.
So this was the man behind the shadows.
Voss looked at her with cold interest.
“The missing daughter finally remembers who she is.”
Adrian stepped in front of her.
Voss barely glanced at him.
“You lied to me,” Voss told Victor.
“She is my daughter,” Victor said.
“She copied files that could destroy us.”
Us.
The word made the hall feel smaller.
Voss smiled at Elise.
“You still don’t know, do you? Twenty-five years ago, your father was bankrupt. My organization financed Harrow Group.”
Elise looked at Victor.
“No…”
“In return,” Voss said, “his company washed our money. Banks. Shell companies. Foreign transfers. He was excellent at it.”
“I did it to protect my family!” Victor shouted.
Voss smiled.
“You did it because you loved power.”
Victor could not deny it.
Elise’s childhood seemed to rot before her eyes.
The beautiful home.
The parties.
The money.
All built on filth.
“You found the records,” Voss said to her. “Names. Politicians. Judges. Contracts. You were going to the authorities.”
Victor’s voice broke.
“I tried to save you.”
“You let my son think I was dead,” Elise cried.
“Because Voss ordered your execution!”
The word struck like a bell.
Execution.
Not an accident.
Murder.
Then Voss moved.
Fast.
He pulled a gun and aimed at Elise.
Victor shouted, “No!”
Gunfire exploded.
Adrian grabbed Elise and Oliver.
Rowan fired.
Agents charged.
Victor staggered.
A dark stain spread across his chest.
Elise screamed.
Her father dropped to his knees.
Voss cursed and vanished into the smoke as the lights died.
Darkness swallowed the hospital floor.
Red emergency lights flickered.
Elise fell beside her father.
“Dad!”
Victor struggled to breathe.
Adrian pressed towels to the wound, but there was too much blood.
Elise held Victor’s hand.
The hand that had taught her to write her name.
The hand that had signed away her life.
“Why?” she sobbed.
“I tried… to fix it.”
“You destroyed everything.”
“I know.”
Another explosion shook the building.
Victor grabbed Adrian’s sleeve.
“There’s no time. Voss has people everywhere. Judges. Police. Politicians.”
Rowan leaned closer.
“How deep?”
Victor gave a broken laugh.
“Deeper than you can imagine.”
He lifted trembling fingers toward his coat.
Adrian found a bloodstained key.
“Safe deposit account,” Victor whispered. “Everything is there. Names. Accounts. Evidence.”
“Where?” Rowan asked.
Victor looked only at Elise.
“The code is your birthday.”
She wept harder.
“The day you were born,” he whispered, “was the only time I was ever truly good.”
Oliver stepped forward, frightened and silent.
Victor looked at him.
“My grandson…”
He tried to reach for the boy.
His hand fell.
Elise leaned over him.
“Dad?”
Victor looked at her one final time.
“Run,” he whispered.
Then he was gone.
Elise broke against Oliver, holding her son as the alarms screamed around them.
Her father was not innocent.
Maybe he did not deserve forgiveness.
But he was still her father.
And now all he had left her was a warning.
Run.
A damaged monitor flickered back to life.
A red alert flashed across the screen.
PARKING GARAGE BREACH DETECTED.
Rowan went pale.
“They’re not escaping,” he said. “They’re coming back for Elise.”
Adrian’s face became calm in the worst possible way.
“Move.”
They hurried through a restricted surgical corridor. Smoke drifted through the vents. Doctors pushed patients toward exits. Agents secured every corner.
Elise held Oliver tight.
Then the lights died again.
Emergency red washed the hall.
At the far end stood a man in a rain-soaked overcoat.
Elise froze.
“Gabriel?”
Gabriel Stone stepped forward.
Years ago, before Adrian, he had been her fiancé.
Then he had vanished from her life.
Now his face was colder. Sharper.
“You need to come with me,” he said.
Adrian moved in front of her.
“Not happening.”
Rowan raised his weapon.
“Don’t move.”
Gabriel slowly reached into his coat.
Agents aimed.
He pulled out a badge.
“Special Agent Gabriel Stone,” he said. “I’ve been undercover inside Damien Voss’s organization for four years.”
Elise stared.
“No…”
“Your father contacted me after the hospital attack,” Gabriel said.
Adrian’s eyes narrowed.
“You expect us to trust you?”
“No,” Gabriel said. “But you’re out of options.”
Gunfire erupted nearby.
Gabriel’s voice sharpened.
“Voss has an extraction team coming through the parking structure. They are cutting power floor by floor.”
Rowan glared at him.
“How do you know?”
“Because I helped design the operation.”
Then Gabriel looked at Elise.
“Voss doesn’t just want the evidence. He wants you alive.”
“Why?” she whispered.