Chapter 4 - THE DOCTOR'S COATMy breath caught in my throat. I stared from the screen on my phone up to the doctor standing at the end of my bed.
Dr. Mercer was still holding my medical folder. His expression hadn't changed—it was still that same unreadable, cold certainty.
"Doctor..." I stammered, holding the phone out toward him. "Why... why is your name on my family’s trust?"
Dr. Mercer didn't panic. He slowly closed the chart folder, set it on the tray table, and stepped closer. "Nora, put the phone down. You're in shock."
"Answer me!" I screamed, the movement tearing a jagged line of pain across my fractured ribs. "Why are you listed as the sole trustee of the Vance estate?"
Detective Miller, who was still in the room reviewing her notes, looked up sharply. "What did you say?"
Before Dr. Mercer could answer, the glass window of the ER room suddenly shattered inward.
A heavy iron bar slammed through the pane, scattering glass across my bed and the floor. A man in a dark rain slicker reached through, unlocked the door from the outside, and kicked it wide open.
It was Richard Sterling, the lawyer. But he wasn't carrying a briefcase anymore. He had a silenced pistol pointed directly at Detective Miller.
THWIP. THWIP.
Two suppressed gunshots cut through the air. Detective Miller collapsed to the floor, clutching her shoulder as blood welled between her fingers.
"Get up, Evan!" Sterling shouted, yelling at Dr. Mercer. "The police have surrounded the rear entrance! We need to leave NOW!"
I stared in absolute horror. Dr. Evan Mercer—the man who had just stood up for me, the man who had ordered the scans that saved my life—pulled a small black flash drive from his lab coat pocket, tossed it onto my lap, and looked down at me with a look of genuine regret.
"I'm sorry, Nora," Mercer whispered. "I wasn't trying to save your life because I cared. I was trying to keep you alive long enough for the trust transfer to complete."
"You... you were working with her?" I gasped.
"Not with her," Mercer said, stepping over Detective Miller’s bleeding body toward the shattered door. "Against her. Judith killed my father twenty years ago to build her medical empire. I’ve spent two decades getting close enough to take everything she owned."
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He turned back one last time, his hand on the doorframe. "That flash drive on your lap? It contains the decryption keys to the Cayman accounts. If you survive tonight... it's yours. But if Sterling shoots you, it comes with me."
"Kill her and let's go!" Sterling snarled, raising his weapon toward my head.
