Chapter 6 - The Hospital Secret
We returned to the hospital.
The building looked exactly as I remembered.
But I was different.
I wasn't the frightened nurse who had walked these halls two years earlier.
I was a woman carrying Gabriel Russo's child.
And someone wanted me dead.
Gabriel stayed beside me.
We found the old trauma room.
My father—Gabriel's father—had never been there.
But an old maintenance worker remembered something.
Years ago, Gabriel's father had visited the hospital privately.
He had donated equipment.
He had also requested a specific locker.
Locker 317.
The key opened it.
Inside was a small digital drive.
Gabriel stared at it.
“This is it.”
Marcus's men attacked before we could leave.
The hospital erupted into chaos.
Doctors screamed.
Patients ran.
Gabriel pushed me behind a concrete wall.
“Stay here.”
“No.”
“Clara.”
“You don't get to leave me alone anymore.”
His eyes softened.
Then he kissed my forehead.
“Stay behind me.”
Together, we escaped through the emergency tunnel.
Connor and Elena carried the drive.
But Marcus had one final card.
He called Gabriel.
“Your child or the ledger.”
Gabriel's face hardened.
“You don't touch them.”
“Then bring me the drive.”
Marcus gave him an address.
An abandoned church.
Gabriel went.
But instead of surrendering the ledger, he had copied it.
Marcus opened the drive.
It contained fake files.
Gabriel had anticipated the trap.
Meanwhile, Elena uploaded the real ledger to federal investigators.
Marcus realized too late.
His entire network began collapsing.
Politicians resigned.
Business partners fled.
Bank accounts froze.
And Daniel finally turned against him.
He gave investigators everything.
Including evidence of the attack on Clara.
Marcus was arrested before sunrise.
But Daniel surrendered willingly.
He confessed to everything.
Including the kidnapping.
The attempted murder.
The forged documents.
The money transfers.
Gabriel watched him being taken away.
“You betrayed me.”
Daniel lowered his head.
“I know.”
“You almost killed the woman I love.”
“I know.”
Gabriel's eyes became cold.
“I hope you spend the rest of your life remembering her face.”
Daniel nodded.
Then he said something unexpected.
“Protect your family better than your father protected you.”
May you like
Gabriel said nothing.
But the words stayed with him.
