Chapter 13 - The Poisoned Ward
The tires of the armored town car screeched as Ethan arrived at the private hospital on the outskirts of Hartford. Flanked by two security guards, Ethan stormed through the glass doors of the intensive care pavilion, flashing his executive credentials at the bewildered reception desk.
"Where is the patient from room 402? Clara Wright!" Ethan demanded.
The floor nurse swallowed hard, glancing nervously toward the restricted elevator corridor. "Mr. Sterling? A private transport arrived twenty minutes ago. They had authorized transfer papers signed by the county commissioner."
"Who authorized the transfer?" Ethan roared, slamming his fist onto the reception desk.
"A... a legal representative from the Vance estate," the nurse stammered. "A woman named Evelyn Vance. She claimed to be the patient’s biological mother."
Ethan turned to Frank, his mind racing. "Julian’s mother is supposed to be in a secure nursing home in Vermont. Find out who signed those discharge papers right now!"
Frank pulled up the facility’s live security feeds on his handheld terminal. "Sir, look at the loading dock cameras."
On the small screen, a black medical van was seen pulling out of the ambulance bay. Stepping into the passenger seat was a woman with dyed platinum-blonde hair, sunglasses, and an elegant trench coat. Even through the grainy footage, Ethan recognized the deliberate, calculated posture.
It was Vanessa.
"She escaped custody," Ethan whispered in cold fury. "The gunshot wound was superficial. She paid off the hospital transport guard."
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"Why take Clara?" Frank asked, completely bewildered. "If Vanessa has lost the money and the foundation, what value does Clara have to her?"
"Bone marrow," Ethan realized with sickening clarity. "Vanessa doesn't just want the money. Vanessa has late-stage leukemia. The entire Sterling medical research trust in Switzerland was founded to develop an experimental gene therapy specifically tailored to Richard Sterling’s direct biological descendants. Clara is the only matching donor who can save Vanessa’s life—and Vanessa intends to harvest it by force."
