Chapter 15 - The Poison in the Veins
Arthur’s heart stopped. The world narrowed to a pinprick. "What did you say?"
Julian casually glanced over his shoulder at Leo and the baby. "Eleanor was a blunt instrument, Arthur. Useful, vicious, easily manipulated by her greed. But she had a fatal flaw—she enjoyed the spectacle. Chasing a toddler with a candlestick? Unnecessary theater. Crude."
Julian looked back at Arthur, his gaze hollow and venomous. "I, on the other hand, prefer biochemistry. Eleanor thought she was working for herself. She didn't know that every bottle of milk she gave baby Lily for the past six months was laced with a synthetic organophosphorus isotope developed by the Vance Pharmaceuticals division."
Leo let out a strangled cry, pulling Lily even tighter against his chest. "Dad! He’s lying! Lily is fine, she's—"
"She’s fine *now*, Leo," Julian interrupted smoothly. "Because the isotope is dormant until an activating enzyme is introduced. Without the counter-agent, her kidneys will completely shut down within forty-eight hours. Right around the stroke of midnight on Leo’s twelfth birthday."
Arthur's finger trembled on the trigger. Every instinct he possessed screamed at him to blow Julian’s head off his shoulders, to paint the concrete wall with the lawyer’s brains. But the cold logic of a father fighting for his children held his finger back by a millimeter.
"What do you want, Julian?" Arthur rasped.
"The terminal shares," Julian replied instantly. "All sixty percent of the Vance Maritime holdings. Signed over to my offshore shell corporation before the market opens tomorrow. Once the wire transfer clears the Cayman banks, I will personally hand you the synthetic antidote. Lily lives. You and Leo take your pathetic, broken lives and disappear to South America. You never return to the United States."
"And Eleanor?" Arthur asked, his voice shaking with suppressed fury.
Julian’s smile widened, revealing bleached-white teeth. "Eleanor served her purpose. She drew all your attention. She made you believe Sarah's death was a crime of domestic jealousy. She kept you so blind, Arthur, that you didn't even notice the real war being waged beneath your feet."
Suddenly, baby Lily let out a sharp, piercing scream.
Arthur looked down. The toddler was clutching her stomach, her tiny legs kicking wildly against the concrete floor. Her lips were turning a faint, terrifying shade of lavender, and a thin line of foamy saliva bubbled from the corner of her mouth.
"Lily!" Arthur dropped his guard for a split second, lunging toward his daughter.
Julian moved with blinding, inhuman speed. He produced a concealed stun baton from beneath his trench coat, driving fifty thousand volts directly into Arthur’s wounded ribs.
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Arthur convulsed violently, his vision exploding into white agony as his body slammed against the concrete floor, the shotgun skittering out of his reach.
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