Chapter 18 - The Poison in the Veins
Julian didn't raise his hands.
Instead, a hideous, broken grin spread across his face. He reached into his vest pocket, not for a gun, but for a tiny digital remote control with a flashing yellow LED.
"You think you won, Ethan?" Julian laughed—a dry, rattling sound that turned Ethan’s blood to ice. "You think you saved her? Check your watch. It’s 2:15 PM."
Ethan’s heart dropped into his stomach. "What did you do?"
"Lily’s locket," Julian whispered, his teeth bared in triumphant malice. "The locket Clara gave her. You think Clara was the only one who opened it? When Evelyn pushed Lily over that balcony into the pool, it wasn't to drown her, Ethan. It was a distraction. Evelyn swapped the silver chain for one coated in micro-encapsulated dimethyl sulfoxide and ricin."
Ethan lunged across the table, grabbing Julian by the throat and slamming him violently against the floor-to-ceiling glass window. The glass webbed with stress fractures behind Julian’s skull. The federal marshals drew their weapons, shouting for Ethan to stand down, but Ethan didn't hear them.
"Where is the antidote?!" Ethan roared, his fingers digging into Julian’s windpipe until the man choked for oxygen. "WHERE IS IT?!"
"The poison... absorbs through... the skin over forty-eight hours..." Julian gasped, his face turning purple under Ethan’s grip. "The pool water slowed the absorption rate... but it’s done. She has... two hours before respiratory collapse. The only dose of the monoclonal antitoxin... is in my private safe... at the island estate."
Julian tapped the remote in his hand. "And the island safe is set on a thermite charge. If I don't enter the abort code in person before 4:00 PM... the safe incinerates everything inside."
Sarah Vance stepped forward, her voice shaking. "Ethan, we just got a call from the safehouse. Lily just collapsed. She’s running a 105-degree fever. Her pulse is failing."
Ethan stared into Julian’s eyes—the eyes of the man who had grown up in his house, slept under the same roof, and plotted to butcher his family for pieces of paper.
Ethan didn't throw Julian to the marshals.
He gripped Julian by the lapels, dragged him away from the fractured window, and shoved him toward the private executive elevator.
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"Call the helicopter," Ethan ordered Sarah, his voice flat, hollow, and terrifying. "We’re going to the island."
***
