Chapter 6 — The Clinic in the Woods
Daniel agreed to cooperate only after Detective Ruiz promised to inform prosecutors of his assistance.
A tracking device was hidden beneath his shirt.
He called Marcus.
“I have Olivia,” Daniel lied. “She escaped the police.”
Marcus was silent for several seconds.
Then he gave Daniel an address.
The abandoned clinic stood deep beyond the city limits, surrounded by dead trees and rusted fencing.
Daniel entered alone.
Police waited half a mile away.
Sophie remained with Olivia inside the command vehicle. Rachel, now under arrest, had provided floor plans from files Daniel once showed her.
Through Daniel’s hidden microphone, they heard a door open.
Marcus’s voice followed.
“You’ve made a mess.”
“I brought what you wanted.”
“Where is she?”
“Nearby.”
A sharp sound struck the microphone.
Daniel groaned.
Marcus had hit him.
“You think I don’t know she’s still at the hotel?”
The signal crackled.
Then Marcus said something no one expected.
“Your father was smarter than you.”
Daniel fell silent.
Olivia looked at Ruiz.
“His father?”
Daniel had always claimed his father died when he was a child.
Marcus continued.
“Richard Cross knew when to obey.”
Olivia’s breathing slowed.
Richard Cross had not died.
He had worked for Olivia’s father.
Brightwell Biotech’s founder had dismissed Richard twenty years earlier after discovering that he had stolen experimental drug data.
The conspiracy had begun long before Daniel met Olivia.
Marcus was not simply stealing Brightwell Biotech.
He believed the company owed him something.
Suddenly, Daniel shouted.
Police heard gunfire.
Ruiz ordered the raid.
Officers stormed the clinic and found Daniel wounded in the shoulder.
Marcus had escaped through an underground tunnel.
Evelyn was locked in a treatment room, alive but sedated.
Beside her was a locked metal case.
Inside were files dating back twenty-two years.
They contained evidence that Marcus Vale’s real name was Marcus Cross.
He was Daniel’s uncle.
And according to one document, Daniel’s father had not been fired for theft.
He had been imprisoned secretly inside a psychiatric facility after threatening to expose something hidden inside Brightwell Biotech.
Olivia stared at the final page.
May you like
It bore her father’s signature.
The man she had worshiped all her life had authorized the confinement.
