Chapter 11 - The Brother Who Survived
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"Your father thought you were dead," Lena said, her gun steady on Lucas’s chest. "Charles Carter spent millions searching for answers after the fire."
"My father knew exactly where I was," Lucas spat, stopping at the bottom of the stairs, ten feet away from us. "Charles Carter sold me out to protect his company! The fire wasn't an electrical accident. It was set by Senator Victor Collins to destroy the research files your mother was keeping, Ava!"
My mind reeled. Senator Collins—the powerful politician who had been sitting in the front row of Ethan’s gala just hours ago, smiling and praising the hospital's expansion.
"My mother was an auditor," I stammered. "She... she wouldn't be involved in illegal research."
"She wasn't involved in it; she was trying to expose it!" Lucas yelled, his composure breaking for a fraction of a second. "This clinic wasn't saving children, Ava. They were testing experimental cardiovascular devices on low-income patients without consent! Your mother found the ledger. She hid it inside a silver paper heart and gave it to one of the boys that night."
A sudden, sharp flash of memory hit me like a physical blow.
Smoke filling a hallway. Red carpet burning. A young boy in a blue sweater grabbing my hand, shoving me through a small ground-floor laundry window while a heavy steel door slammed shut behind us.
"You..." I gasped, looking at Lucas. "You pushed me out of the window."
Lucas’s expression softened just a fraction. "I told you I'd keep you safe, little girl. I took the fall so you and Ethan could get out. But Andrew Vaughn’s father found me in the ruins. They kept me hidden in a private facility in Switzerland for fifteen years, using me as leverage to keep Charles Carter obedient."
Before I could ask another question, a loud, metallic ring echoed through the empty hallway.
It wasn't a cell phone.
It was an old, rotary landline telephone sitting on the dusty reception desk—a phone that shouldn't have had power or a working line for over two decades.
The ring echoed again, shrill and terrifyingly clear.
Ring. Ring.
May you like
Lucas turned his head slowly, staring at the black plastic telephone as if it were a venomous snake.
"Answer it, Ava," Lucas whispered, his voice suddenly laced with genuine fear. "She's been waiting for you."
