Ethan stood frozen in the doorway, his breath catching in his throat as the heavy oak double doors slowly swung shut behind him. The air in the executive study was thick with the bitter smell of crushed pharmaceuticals and the metallic tang of fear. On the floor lay his life—shattered, scattered, and bleeding.

One of the tactical operatives grunted as a bullet hit his shoulder plate, but the men didn't flinch. They opened fire with suppressed submachine guns, chewing through the drywall, shattering the glass windows, and tearing the room to shreds.

"Ethan, surrender!" Julian shouted over the deafening noise, strolling casually into the ruined room while his men provided suppressing fire. "You were always the soft one, Ethan. Father’s precious little prince. While you were going to Ivy League schools and learning how to wear expensive suits, Mother was paying my mother to keep me hidden in the shadows like a dirty secret!"

"She used you, Julian!" Ethan yelled back, aiming through the space beneath the bed frame and firing at Julian’s leg.

Julian sidestepped with effortless military precision, the bullet embedding itself in the wooden floorboards. "She didn't use me—she gave me an offer! Half of the Vance fortune, plus complete control of Pendelton Holdings once Ava was erased! All I had to do was help her execute the plan."

"She’s a monster!" Ava yelled from behind the bed, her voice ringing with defiance despite her terror. "She murdered my father! She tried to kill me!"

Julian grinned, a dark, twisted expression under the red strobe lights. "Your father was weak, Ava. Just like Ethan. They both thought morality mattered in business. But power doesn't care about morality."

Julian signaled his men. Two of the mercenaries advanced, their boots heavy on the shattered glass.

"Get the girl," Julian ordered coldly. "Kill Ethan and the maid. Make it look like Ethan shot his wife and then turned the gun on himself out of guilt."

As the mercenary reached the edge of the bed, Lena suddenly screamed and lunged forward from her hiding spot. She grabbed a heavy, metal IV pole and swung it with all her strength, striking the mercenary across the side of his helmet.

"Argh!" the mercenary grunted, staggering backward.

"Now, Ethan!" Lena shrieked.

Ethan didn't hesitate. He stood up from cover and emptied the remaining four rounds of his magazine into the second mercenary’s chest, dropping him instantly.

"You bitch!" Julian snarled, raising his silver pistol and aiming directly at Lena’s forehead.

"NO!" Ava screamed.

With a surge of adrenaline that defied her two years of paralysis, Ava pushed off the floor with her legs. Her muscles, weak and starved, screamed in agony, but the sheer force of her willpower propelled her body forward. She slammed her crutch directly into Julian’s wrist just as he pulled the trigger.

BANG!

The bullet strayed, hitting the ceiling light fixture, sending sparks showering down on them.

Julian stumbled back, shocked that the crippled girl had hit him. Ethan seized the opening, lunging forward like a madman, tackling his half-brother through the broken doorway and into the hospital hallway.

The two men crashed onto the linoleum floor, rolling over shattered glass and blood. Ethan threw a wild punch that struck Julian in the jaw, but Julian was a trained mercenary. He recovered instantly, striking Ethan in the ribs with a brutal knee strike, turning Ethan over, and pinning him to the floor with a forearm pressed against his throat.

Ethan choked, grasping at Julian's arm as his vision began to spot with black dots.

"You were never a fighter, Ethan," Julian sneered, tightening his grip on Ethan’s windpipe. "You're just a boy living in a fairytale. And fairytales always end in tragedy."