CHAPTER 11 BACK TO SAINT CATHERINE’S
BACK TO SAINT CATHERINE’S
Saint Catherine’s Hospital had been abandoned for four years.
Broken windows stared over the river.
Vines covered the brick walls.
Elena entered through the emergency doors shortly before midnight.
She wore a recording device beneath her coat.
Marcus and federal agents waited three blocks away.
Nathaniel had insisted on coming despite his wound.
He remained inside an armored vehicle with a medical team.
Elena carried the black ledger in a canvas bag.
Her footsteps echoed through the empty corridor.
Old hospital signs still hung from the ceiling.
MATERNITY.
NEONATAL CARE.
SURGERY.
A child’s cry drifted from the second floor.
Elena ran toward it.
She found Lucas tied to a wheelchair inside the former maternity ward.
Vivienne stood behind him.
Senator Charles Vale waited near the window.
He was taller than Elena expected.
His silver hair and calm expression made him look like a respected statesman rather than a criminal.
“Give me the ledger,” Vale said.
“Release Lucas first.”
Vale smiled.
“You are in no position to negotiate.”
Vivienne rested a hand on Lucas’s shoulder.
The boy flinched.
Elena saw bruises around his wrist.
Anger steadied her fear.
“You hit him.”
“He would not stop calling for you,” Vivienne said.
“Because I am his mother.”
“You are an egg donor with delusions.”
Lucas lifted his head.
“She stayed when I was sick.”
His voice was weak.
“You always left.”
Vivienne’s face tightened.
Vale held out his hand.
“The ledger.”
Elena placed the bag on the floor.
“Why did you choose me?”
Vale glanced at Vivienne.
“She chose you.”
Vivienne walked around the wheelchair.
“Your medical file showed exceptional intelligence, perfect health, and a family connection to the Harts.”
“You knew Jonathan was my father.”
“I knew before Eleanor did.”
“You created Lucas from my father’s genetic material.”
Vivienne’s expression showed no remorse.
“I needed a child who would pass as a direct Hart descendant.”
“You made my son the product of incest.”
“I made him valuable.”
Elena lunged forward.
Vale drew a gun.
“Stop.”
Elena froze.
Vivienne picked up the canvas bag.
She opened it.
The ledger inside was a copy.
A small transmitter blinked beneath the cover.
Vivienne looked toward the ceiling.
“They are listening.”
Vale fired at Elena.
Lucas threw his body sideways.
The wheelchair crashed into Vale’s arm.
The bullet struck a metal cabinet.
Elena ran toward her son.
Vivienne grabbed her hair.
The two women fell against an old hospital bed.
Vale recovered his weapon.
Before he could fire again, Nathaniel stepped from the corridor.
Blood stained the bandage beneath his shirt.
He aimed a pistol at Vale.
“Move away from my family.”
Vale smiled.
“You still call them your family?”
Nathaniel’s eyes never left him.
“They are the only family I have.”
Sirens approached outside.
Vivienne pulled Elena upright and pressed a scalpel against her throat.
“Nathaniel, put down the gun.”
He hesitated.
Vivienne tightened her grip.
A thin line of blood appeared on Elena’s neck.
Lucas screamed.
Nathaniel lowered the pistol.
Vale raised his weapon.
Then Eleanor Hart’s voice came from the doorway.
“Charles.”
Vale turned.
Eleanor held the original black ledger in one hand.
May you like
In the other, she held a detonator.
“If anyone shoots,” she said, “this hospital burns with all of us inside.”
