Chapter 11 — The Choice Vanessa Made
Juliano looked at the gun.
Then at Vanessa.
Her hands were trembling badly.
“Put it down,” he said.
“I can’t.”
“Yes, you can.”
Adrian leaned against the worktable, breathing hard.
“Tell him, Vanessa.”
“Shut up.”
“You brought me here.”
“I thought you wanted evidence.”
“I wanted leverage.”
Vanessa’s eyes filled.
Juliano took one slow step toward her.
She raised the gun higher.
“Don’t.”
He stopped.
“Were you going to shoot me?”
“No.”
“You’re pointing a loaded gun at my chest.”
“I just need the drive.”
“Why?”
“Because if that information gets out, everything is gone.”
“Whose everything?”
Vanessa looked at Adrian.
Then back at Juliano.
“My mother’s.”
Juliano frowned.
Vanessa swallowed.
“My mother was one of your father’s patients.”
“My father wasn’t a doctor.”
“No. He was worse.”
Adrian laughed quietly.
Vanessa turned the gun toward him.
“I said shut up.”
Juliano kept his voice level.
“What happened to your mother?”
“She was part of a drug trial.”
The greenhouse seemed suddenly too warm.
“An illegal one,” Vanessa continued. “Your father financed it. Adrian ran it. Poor women were given experimental medication without consent.”
Juliano looked at Adrian.
The doctor did not deny it.
Vanessa’s breathing grew uneven.
“My mother developed seizures. She lost her memory. She died when I was eighteen.”
“And you planned to marry me?”
“At first, I wanted access.”
The answer came cleanly.
No excuse.
No attempt to soften it.
“I wanted documents. Accounts. Anything I could use to expose your family.”
Juliano stared at her.
“And then?”
“I fell in love with you.”
Adrian rolled his eyes.
Vanessa’s voice broke.
“I know how that sounds.”
“It sounds convenient.”
“It wasn’t.”
“You framed Clara.”
“Because Adrian told me she was working for someone else.”
“Who?”
Adrian answered.
“Elena.”
Juliano looked at his mother’s former doctor.
“Clara was searching for evidence on Elena’s behalf?”
“Not at first,” Adrian said. “At first, she was mine.”
Vanessa’s grip tightened on the gun.
Juliano looked at Clara’s enemy and his fiancée.
Both had used her.
Both had lied.
One had shot her.
The other had tried to imprison her.
Adrian held out the flash drive.
“Give this to the police and your name goes down with your father’s.”
Juliano reached for it.
Vanessa fired.
The gunshot shattered a glass panel.
Adrian jerked.
The flash drive fell into a tray of water.
Juliano tackled Vanessa before she could fire again.
The gun skidded beneath a table.
Vanessa fought him.
Not gracefully.
Not like a movie.
Her elbow caught his mouth.
His tooth cut his lip.
He pinned her wrist against the floor.
“Stop!”
She froze.
Both of them breathed hard.
Adrian collapsed beside the orchids.
The detective rushed in with two officers.
Juliano reached into the water and grabbed the flash drive.
Its casing had cracked.
The tiny light inside blinked once.
Then went dark.
Adrian laughed weakly from the floor.
“That was the only copy.”
Juliano looked at him.
Adrian smiled through bloodless lips.
“No evidence. Just stories.”
Then Juliano noticed the security camera above the greenhouse door.
Its red light was not blinking.
May you like
It was steady.
Someone had been watching live.
