Chapter 7 - The Prison Beneath the Abandoned Hospital
The hospital had been closed for twenty years.
Broken windows.
Overgrown weeds.
Rusting emergency signs.
From the road, it looked dead.
Inside, it wasn't.
Ethan's team entered through three separate points.
Finn disabled the cameras.
Mateo secured the east wing.
Daniel stayed behind with two men.
Norah waited inside the armored vehicle.
Sam slept beside her.
She couldn't stop thinking about Samuel.
The father of her child.
The man she had loved.
The man she had believed abandoned her.
She had spent two years hating herself for still loving him.
Now she knew he might have been fighting to survive.
Ethan opened the vehicle door.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
“This is dangerous.”
“So is waiting.”
He stared at her.
Then handed her a bulletproof vest.
“Put this on.”
She did.
Together, they entered.
The lower level was hidden behind a false wall.
A stairway descended.
The smell changed.
Concrete.
Bleach.
Blood.
Ethan's jaw tightened.
At the bottom, they found six locked rooms.
Five empty.
One occupied.
A man sat on the floor.
His hair was long.
His face bruised.
A scar ran above his eyebrow.
Norah stopped.
“Samuel.”
The man lifted his head.
For a second, he looked like he didn't recognize her.
Then his expression shattered.
“Norah?”
She ran.
Ethan caught her arm.
“Wait.”
Samuel stumbled toward the glass.
“Norah.”
“You're alive.”
“I thought you were dead.”
“I thought you left me.”
“No.”
Samuel pressed his hand against the glass.
“I tried to come back.”
Norah cried.
“You never came.”
“They drugged me.”
“Who?”
“The Black Circle.”
Ethan moved toward the control panel.
“Can you open it?”
Samuel looked at him.
“Ethan.”
Both men stared.
“You know me.”
“I knew who you were before I ever met Norah.”
Ethan felt the strange weight of the moment.
His brother was alive.
And his sister loved his brother.
Their family had been broken by a conspiracy before any of them could understand it.
Ethan forced the door open.
Samuel collapsed into Norah's arms.
He was shaking.
“I have a son?”
“Yes.”
“Sam?”
Norah nodded.
Samuel cried.
“Is he okay?”
“He's with us.”
When Samuel saw his son, he broke down completely.
The reunion lasted less than five minutes.
Then footsteps echoed down the hall.
“Company.”
Finn raised his weapon.
The lights came on.
A man stepped from the shadows.
He was older.
Elegant.
Calm.
He wore a gray suit.
Ethan recognized him.
Grant Mercer.
The attorney who had represented Victor Hayes for thirty years.
“You.”
Grant smiled.
“I was wondering when you would figure it out.”
Ethan pointed a gun.
“You ran the Black Circle.”
Grant laughed.
“No.”
“Then who?”
Grant looked at Daniel.
“Your uncle knows.”
Daniel entered behind them.
Grant's smile disappeared.
“You survived.”
“So did Samuel.”
Grant sighed.
“Then this has become inconvenient.”
Norah moved closer to Ethan.
Grant looked at her.
“You caused all this.”
“I?”
“Your existence was the problem.”
Ethan's eyes narrowed.
“Explain.”
“Victor wanted to protect you.”
“He wanted to protect both children.”
“Exactly.”
Grant continued.
“He planned to expose the Circle.”
“Your mother stopped him.”
Norah whispered:
“My mother?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because we had Ethan.”
Ethan's face hardened.
“They threatened me.”
“They threatened to kill you.”
Grant nodded.
“She chose survival.”
“And then?”
“She gave birth to Norah.”
Grant looked almost amused.
“Which created another problem.”
Daniel stepped forward.
“You don't have to keep lying.”
Grant's expression changed.
“You think you've won?”
“No,” Ethan said.
“I think you're trapped.”
Sirens sounded in the distance.
Grant looked toward the windows.
“Police?”
Ethan smiled coldly.
“Federal task force.”
Grant stared.
“How?”
Ethan held up a small recorder.
“You talked too much.”
Grant lunged.
Gunfire erupted.
The room filled with smoke.
When it cleared, Grant was on the floor, wounded but alive.
Finn cuffed him.
For the first time in years, Ethan felt the walls closing around the people who had destroyed his family.
But Grant was smiling.
“You haven't found the real secret.”
“What secret?”
Grant coughed.
“The money.”
“What money?”
“The five million.”
Norah's face went pale.
Grant looked at her.
“Your mother didn't receive it.”
“Then who did?”
Grant smiled.
“You did.”
Norah froze.
“What?”
“The money was transferred into an account in your name.”
Ethan stared at the documents.
The five million dollars had never disappeared.
It had been waiting.
May you like
For Norah.
All these years.
