Chapter 8 - A False Truce
Adrian fired two suppressed rounds into the shadows as he pulled Emma down behind the heavy oak dresser. Wood splinters rained over them.
"Drop the weapon!" Adrian roared.
A cold, familiar laugh echoed from behind the bed. "Still quick on your feet, Adrian. Even after seven months of playing the invalid."
The silhouette stepped into the pool of lightning outside the balcony doors. The lightning flash revealed a tall, athletic man holding a silenced pistol. He wore tactical gloves and a dark coat.
"Dr. Robert Vance," Adrian growled, his eyes narrowing in sheer disbelief.
Emma gasped, her hand flying to her mouth. "Uncle Robert?"
The man smiled, a sickeningly calm expression on his face. Dr. Robert Vance was Emma’s estranged uncle—and the chief neurosurgeon who had overseen Adrian’s initial diagnosis after the car crash. He was the one who had declared Adrian’s paralysis permanent.
"Hello, little niece," Robert said casually, keeping his gun trained on Adrian. "I told Vanessa she was sloppy. Trying to push a man down the stairs in his own home? Utterly amateur. If she had just waited another week, the neuro-toxin I prescribed would have induced sudden cardiac arrest. Untraceable. Clean."
"You..." Emma breathed, trembling with shock and rage. "You used me! You recommended me as his primary caretaker!"
"Of course I did," Robert sneered. "Who better to deliver his daily medication than my sweet, innocent niece who would never suspect that the vitamins she was mixing into his juice were slowly turning his organs to stone? You were the perfect alibi, Emma."
The revelation hit Emma like a physical blow. She staggered backward, her face turning ghost-white. "I... I was poisoning him?"
"No," Adrian said instantly, without taking his eyes off Robert. "You weren't, Emma. I switched the powder two weeks into my stay. You never gave me a single drop of poison."
May you like
Robert’s smile faded, replaced by pure venom. "You clever bastard."
"I knew the chemistry didn't match the symptoms," Adrian said coldly. "And now, Robert, your two accomplices have already traded your name for a lighter sentence. You have nowhere left to run."
