Chapter 5 - THE DOCTOR’S TRUE FACEI lowered the barrel of the shotgun by a fraction of an inch, my brain refusing to reconcile the image of the calm, compassionate ER doctor from St. Catherine’s Medical Center with the lethal operative standing before me holding a combat knife.
"Dr. Bennett?" I breathed, the barrel shaking slightly in my grip. "What... what the hell are you doing here?"
Avery didn't look scared. She didn't even look out of breath. A cold, sardonic smile touched her lips as she wiped a smudge of black soot from her cheek.
"Put the gun down, Lucas," Avery said, her voice entirely devoid of the clinical bedside manner she had used in the hospital room just an hour ago. "Unless you want to blow a hole through the only person who can keep your ex-wife and your unborn child breathing for the next twenty-four hours."
Marco groaned, pulling himself up from the shattered glass, clutching his shoulder. "Boss, don't listen to her. She’s part of the hit team. She was inside the hospital!"
"I was inside the hospital," Avery corrected smoothly, stepping over a piece of broken drywall. "And if I hadn't switched out that contaminated IV bag with a saline drip just in time, Elena and your baby would have been dead before you even reached the third-floor corridor."
I stared at her, my mind spinning through a labyrinth of lies, half-truths, and double-crosses. "Explain. Now. Or I swear to God I will pull this trigger."
Avery let out a sharp sigh, tossing her combat knife onto the bed. She pulled a encrypted flash drive from her tactical vest pocket and held it up between two fingers.
"Your father didn't tell you the whole story, did he?" Avery said, her eyes flashing with a sudden, bitter intensity. "Arthur told you Elena was a Russian plant sent to steal your fortune. Did he happen to mention why the Russian syndicate wanted you targeted in the first place?"
I didn't answer. I couldn't.
"Thirteen years ago," Avery continued, taking a step closer, "before you took over the Mercer empire, your father made a deal with the Vorona Syndicate to launder three hundred million dollars of blood money through our medical research firm. My father was the chief scientist on that project. When the feds started closing in, Arthur didn't just abandon the project—he framed my father for treason, embezzlement, and murder. My father died in a federal penitentiary while your family bought their Tribeca penthouses."
The room went dead silent, save for the distant wailing of police sirens far below on the West Side Highway.
"Elena Ross isn't a syndicate spy, Lucas," Avery said, her voice dropping to a low, venomous hiss. "She’s my younger sister. Her real name is Elena Bennett. When she found out what your family did to our father, she planned to get close to you for revenge. But then... she actually fell in love with you."
My knees felt weak. The shotgun felt like it weighed a thousand pounds.
"She married me out of revenge?" I whispered.
"She tried to," Avery replied coldly. "Until she realized you were just as much a prisoner of Arthur’s sick empire as anyone else. That’s why you divorced her—because Arthur threatened to kill her if you didn't push her away. You thought you were protecting her by breaking her heart. But all you did was leave her defenseless against the monster who raised you."
Before I could absorb the crushing weight of her confession, the reinforced steel door of the master suite shuddered under a massive, metallic impact.
Boom.
A heavy hydraulic battering ram was slamming against the frame. The deadbolt cracked, spraying wood chips across the bedroom floor.
"They’re through the outer lock," Marco yelled, retrieving his dropped pistol and checking the magazine. "Boss, we have thirty seconds before they breach this room!"
Avery looked toward the door, then turned back to me with urgent, blazing eyes.
"Your father didn't hide in the panic room to save himself, Lucas," Avery said rapidly. "He went down there to activate the self-destruct protocol on the Mercer Foundation’s main server—erasing every financial record, every offshore account, and every piece of evidence linking him to the syndicate. If he wipes that server, your family's crimes vanish forever, and Elena and I will never get justice."
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She stepped right up to the barrel of my shotgun, pressing her chest gently against the steel.
"You want to save your child?" Avery asked fiercely. "Then stop playing the grieving ex-husband. Give me your hand."
