Chapter 3 - The Broken Seal
The emergency room doors slammed open, and Dr. Aris emerged, his lab coat stained and his composure shattered. Mark immediately lunged forward, catching the doctor’s lapels. “Tell me she’s alive! Tell me the baby is safe!”
Dr. Aris peeled Mark’s fingers off with solemn deliberation. “Elena is stabilized for now, Mr. Sterling. But we found something anomalous during the scan.”
Erica stepped into the conversation, eyes gleaming with triumph. “I knew it! The belly was padded, wasn't it? She fabricated the whole thing to entrap Mark!”
“No, Ms. Sterling,” Dr. Aris snapped, his voice ringing with chilling finality. “She is indeed heavily pregnant. However, beneath the muscular layer of her abdomen, resting millimeters from the uterine wall, is a surgical micro-capsule. It appears to be slowly leaking an untraceable neurotoxin.”
May you like
The hallway plummeted into dead silence. Mark stumbled back as if struck, his gaze pivoting toward Erica, whose smug expression instantly warped into defensive terror. “Don’t look at me! That’s insane!”
Before Mark could speak, a hospital security officer sprinted around the corner, holding up a secure evidence pouch found inside the visitor's restroom: a syringe identical to the capsule's delivery mechanism, bearing the Sterling family crest.
