chapter 3
chapter 3
The masked man moved without hesitation.
His shoes made almost no sound against the hospital floor.
Only the blinking red emergency lights reflected off the black suppressor attached to his pistol.
Detective Lena Morales saw him first.
“Gun!”
The shout echoed through the hallway.
The intruder fired.
Pfft!
The silenced shot shattered a glass panel beside the nurses' station.
Patients screamed.
Doctors dove behind desks.
Chaos exploded through the emergency ward.
Inside Isabella's room, Alexander reacted on instinct.
He threw himself over Mateo and Isabella just as another bullet punched through the hospital door.
Wood splintered across the room.
“Stay down!” Alexander shouted.
Mateo clung to his mother's arm, crying uncontrollably.
“I don't want her to die!”
“You won't lose her,” Alexander promised.
Not again.
Outside, Detective Morales exchanged fire with the assassin.
The masked figure disappeared into the smoke from a damaged oxygen cart.
“He's heading toward the stairwell!”
Two officers chased after him.
By the time they reached the exit...
The door was swinging open.
Empty.
The killer had vanished.
Minutes later, the hospital entered full lockdown.
SWAT officers secured every entrance.
No one could leave.
Captain Roberts stormed into Isabella's room.
“This wasn't random.”
“No,” Detective Morales agreed.
“He came here to finish what someone started.”
Alexander looked at Isabella.
“Who are they?”
Her face turned pale.
“I don't know their names.”
“But I know one voice.”
She squeezed Mateo's hand.
“For years they kept me inside different warehouses.”
“They moved me every few months.”
“They never let me see their faces.”
“They always wore masks.”
“But every order came from one man.”
“What did he sound like?” Morales asked.
Isabella closed her eyes.
“Calm.”
“Educated.”
“He spoke like someone who never had to raise his voice.”
“He always called me... the investment.”
Alexander frowned.
“Investment?”
She nodded weakly.
“He kept saying I was worth more alive than dead.”
“Until yesterday.”
“What changed?” Morales asked.
“They received a phone call.”
“Someone said... Alexander Vargas has started asking questions again.”
Alexander froze.
“I hadn't even known you were alive.”
“I know,” Isabella whispered.
“But someone believed you were getting close.”
Detective Morales immediately ordered Alexander's phone records, emails, and business files to be reviewed.
“Someone inside your company may be feeding information.”
Alexander's jaw tightened.
“There are thousands of employees.”
“Then we start with the people closest to you.”
While officers searched the building, a nurse quietly entered Isabella's room carrying fresh medication.
She wore a mask.
Blue scrubs.
Late twenties.
Nothing unusual.
She smiled politely.
“Time for another pain injection.”
She reached for Isabella's IV line.
Mateo suddenly stood up.
“No!”
Everyone turned.
The little boy pointed at the nurse.
“That isn't the lady who was helping Mommy before.”
The nurse froze.
Only for half a second.
But Alexander saw it.
Her eyes.
No surprise.
No confusion.
Only calculation.
Detective Morales reached for her badge.
“Show me your hospital ID.”
Instead...
The nurse ripped the IV stand toward the detectives, knocking them aside.
She sprinted toward the window.
“Stop!”
She smashed the emergency glass with a fire extinguisher and jumped onto the narrow maintenance platform outside.
Officers rushed after her.
By the time they reached the ledge...
She had disappeared onto the neighboring rooftop.
Morales returned carrying something the fake nurse had dropped.
A plastic employee badge.
The photo had been scratched away.
Only one thing remained readable.
A barcode.
The hospital traced it within minutes.
The badge belonged to a nurse who had died in a car accident...
Three years earlier.
Someone had been preparing this infiltration for a very long time.
And whoever they were...
They had people everywhere.
That evening, Isabella finally fell asleep.
Mateo curled beside her hospital bed.
Alexander remained standing near the window.
Detective Morales approached quietly.
“We searched the fake nurse's escape route.”
“Did you find anything?”
She handed him a small evidence bag.
Inside was a silver cufflink engraved with one elegant letter.
V.
Alexander's blood ran cold.
He owned an entire luxury clothing line.
Every executive in his company received identical cufflinks.
Someone from inside Vargas Holdings...
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Had just tried to murder Isabella.
End of Chapter 3
