flash
The red eye flight from Chicago to Miami felt less like a journey and more like a descent into a nightmare. Every hum of the jet engine echoed the nurse’s cryptic warning: There is something about Sarah’s medical history that you need to know. / Chapter 17 / 20

Chapter 17 - The Midnight Execution

To stop the purge, Sarah had to live. But the toxin was destroying her vascular system second by second.

I looked at the control panel beside the glass window. It required a two-factor authentication: a master biometric palm print and an administrative passcode.

I pulled out my phone and dialed the Milwaukee safehouse.

"Put Maya on the line," I commanded the nanny, my voice shaking. "Now!"

A second later, Maya’s small, sweet voice came through the speaker. "Daddy?"

"Maya, listen to Daddy very carefully," I said, tears streaming down my face as the timer ticked past seven minutes. "I need you to sing the song Mommy taught you at the sanctuary. The one about the stars."

Sarah looked up through the glass, her eyes flooding with tears as she heard her daughter's voice echoing through the subterranean bunker speaker.

"Why, Charles?" Sarah sobbed weakly, her heart rate spiking on the wall monitor. "Why are you doing this after all the lies I told you?"

"Because you did it all to protect me," I said softly, pressing my hand against the glass right where her hand was bound. "Because you swallowed three years of hell, let me hate you, and let me think our marriage failed, just to keep a gun away from my head. Maya’s DNA isn't mine on paper, Sarah... but she is my daughter in every way that matters."

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"Lock every gate, seal every exit, and cut the main grid to manual," I barked, my voice cutting through the heavy air of the ballroom like a razor.

"Lock every gate, seal every exit, and cut the main grid to manual," I b...

The silence in the ICU room was heavier than the lead aprons I wore in radiology. Dante’s words hung in the sterile air like poison: I had people watching you.

The silence in the ICU room was heavier than the lead aprons I wore in r...

The silence in the room was heavier than the snow piling against the windowpane. Declan sat motionless in the chair, his green eyes fixated on me as if I were a stranger who had spoken in a language he couldn't comprehend. Outside, the Seattle storm howled, but inside, the only sound was the soft, rhythmic breathing of our six-day-old son against my chest.

The silence in the room was heavier than the snow piling against the win...

Sarah’s heart rate stabilized as her emotional distress gave way to absolute resolve. The sudden spike in her adrenaline altered her blood chemistry just enough—the exact vascular response her biological mutation triggered.

"The code, Charles!" Sarah gasped, her eyes flashing with renewed strength. "The code is the date we signed the divorce papers! 0-5-1-9!"

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