Chapter 17 - The Choice Clarissa Finally Made
Adrian took the top floor of St. Catherine’s private surgical wing at two seventeen in the morning.
He had three armed men, Rafael in a wheelchair, and six hospital employees trapped behind locked doors.
He did not ask for money.
He asked for Clarissa.
She stood in the emergency command room wearing borrowed scrubs under her funeral coat.
Emilio blocked the door.
“You are not going up there.”
“He’ll kill people.”
“He may kill you.”
“He’s my brother.”
“You met him six hours ago.”
“That doesn’t make his gun less real.”
Sloan interrupted. “Clarissa, we can use you on comms. You do not have to physically enter.”
Clarissa shook her head. “He wants to see me choose.”
Giovanni looked at her. “Choose what?”
“My father or him.”
Emilio stared. “Then choose neither.”
Clarissa looked at him.
For once, the answer was simple.
“That’s what I’m going to do.”
She went upstairs wearing a wire.
No weapon.
Emilio hated every second of it.
Adrian waited in a recovery room with Rafael beside him.
The older man looked barely conscious.
Adrian smiled when Clarissa entered.
“Little sister.”
“Stop calling me that.”
“You came.”
“For the hostages.”
“Not for Dad?”
Clarissa looked at Rafael. “For him too.”
Rafael’s swollen eye opened.
“Go,” he rasped.
Adrian laughed. “Touching.”
Clarissa stepped closer. “What do you want?”
“The archive.”
“FBI has it.”
“You stole my copy.”
“I stole Dad’s copy.”
Adrian’s smile thinned. “He stole it from me.”
Rafael managed a weak grin. “Family tradition.”
Adrian slapped him across the head.
Clarissa shouted, “Don’t!”
In the command room, Emilio flinched at the audio feed.
Giovanni put a hand on his shoulder.
“Trust her.”
Emilio looked at him. “You trust her?”
“No.”
“That’s helpful.”
“I trust what Helena saw in her.”
Upstairs, Clarissa moved closer to Adrian.
“You want me to understand you?”
“I want you to stop pretending these people love you.”
“They do.”
“Emilio will never forgive you.”
“Maybe not.”
“Giovanni will never trust you.”
“Probably not.”
“Rafael used you.”
“Yes.”
Adrian’s voice rose. “Then what exactly are you fighting for?”
Clarissa’s eyes filled.
“Myself.”
Adrian’s expression flickered.
That was not the answer he expected.
Clarissa continued. “Helena told me I decide who I am when choosing costs me something.”
She reached into her coat.
Adrian raised his gun.
Slowly, she removed the emerald ring from her finger.
The ring Emilio had once believed came from her grandmother.
It had actually been a gift from Rafael when he recruited her.
She placed it on the floor.
Then she stepped on it.
The stone cracked under her heel.
Rafael closed his eyes.
Adrian stared.
Clarissa said, “I’m done being a Sanz weapon.”
Adrian’s face twisted.
He grabbed her by the throat.
The wire went dead.
Emilio ran for the stairwell.
Sloan shouted, “Hold position!”
He ignored her.
Giovanni followed.
Upstairs, Adrian dragged Clarissa toward the window.
“You think you get to walk away from blood?”
Clarissa clawed at his wrist.
“No.”
She drove her knee into his stomach.
“But I get to decide what I do with it.”
He doubled over.
Rafael rolled his wheelchair into Adrian’s legs.
Adrian fell.
Clarissa ran to the door.
Adrian grabbed his gun from the floor.
Emilio burst in.
Adrian fired.
Rafael threw himself sideways from the wheelchair.
The bullet struck him in the back.
Clarissa screamed.
Emilio tackled Adrian into the wall.
They crashed through a glass partition.
Sloan’s agents entered seconds later.
Adrian reached for a shard of glass.
Giovanni kicked it away.
Sloan put him in handcuffs.
For the first time in years, Adrian Sanz had nowhere left to run.
Clarissa knelt beside Rafael.
His breathing was shallow.
“Dad.”
He looked at her.
“You chose.”
She sobbed. “Yes.”
A faint smile touched his mouth.
“Good girl.”
Then the monitors began to scream.
The next chapters are on the left side of your screen.
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