Chapter 13 - I Went Back to the Emergency Department for a Different Kind of Fight

At 11:20 p.m., St. Catherine’s evacuated the old chapel wing.

The emergency department remained open.

It had to.

Ambulances do not stop because one man cannot accept rejection.

That fact made me furious.

Ethan’s violence had already disrupted my apartment, my job, my friends, federal agents, hospital staff, and strangers who needed care.

Abuse always pretended to be private while making everyone else pay.

Shaw wanted me removed from the building.

I agreed.

Then a trauma alert came over the hospital speakers.

Multiple-vehicle collision.

Six incoming.

One pediatric.

Every part of my body reacted before my mind did.

“I can help.”

“No,” Shaw said.

“I’m a trauma nurse.”

“You’re also the target.”

“The emergency department is two secured floors away.”

Maya looked at me.

“She’s right. We’re short.”

Shaw stared at us both as if nurses were a species she regretted discovering.

Adrian said nothing.

Good.

This decision was mine.

Security placed an agent at each entrance.

I changed into scrubs.

The fabric felt like returning to my own skin.

For the next hour, Ethan disappeared from my mind.

A twelve-year-old boy had a fractured femur.

A driver arrived hypotensive.

A pregnant woman needed imaging and reassurance.

I moved through tasks I knew.

IV.

Pressure.

Medication check.

Call respiratory.

Find blood.

For one hour, my hands belonged to me completely.

Then the lights flickered.

Backup power activated.

The emergency doors locked automatically.

Maya looked at me.

“No.”

A security alert sounded.

System intrusion.

Adrian appeared beyond the trauma bay doors with two federal agents.

“Ethan used a contractor credential,” he said.

“Where?”

“Inside.”

Shaw ordered a lockdown.

Cameras began failing one by one.

Someone knew the hospital network.

Of course Ethan did.

He had spent months studying it.

I finished stabilizing my patient before leaving the bay.

That choice felt important too.

Ethan did not get to interrupt everything.

The command post moved to radiology.

Security traced the breach to the old service corridors behind the chapel.

A camera briefly returned.

Ethan crossed the frame wearing hospital maintenance clothes.

He carried a pistol.

My pulse quickened.

Then another camera showed him pushing a cart.

On the cart sat a gasoline container.

“He’s going to burn the records,” Marcus said.

“No,” I replied.

Everyone looked at me.

“He knows the records are copied.”

“Then what?”

I thought like Ethan.

Not strategically.

Emotionally.

He wanted a scene.

He wanted me to understand something.

“He wants the chapel.”

Adrian’s expression sharpened.

“Because Luca hid the safe there.”

“And because Dad sat on the ethics board. Both roads meet there.”

Shaw dispatched agents.

Before they reached the corridor, the fire alarm activated.

Smoke filled the chapel camera.

Sprinklers started.

Then my phone rang.

Unknown number.

I answered on speaker.

“Claire.”

Ethan.

“You’re late.”

“What do you want?”

“You.”

“No.”

A pause.

“You still think saying that word changes anything?”

“Yes.”

He laughed softly.

“I made you.”

“No.”

“I found you when you were alone. I helped you after your father died.”

“You targeted me after my father died.”

“I stayed.”

“You surveilled me.”

“I loved you.”

“No.”

That word again.

Cleaner now.

He inhaled sharply.

“Come to the chapel or I start shooting.”

Shaw muted the phone.

“Stall.”

The line returned.

“You won’t.”

“You don’t know me anymore.”

“I never did.”

Silence.

That hit him.

Good.

Then a gunshot cracked through the phone.

Somewhere in the hospital, people screamed.

Shaw’s face changed.

“Who did you shoot?”

“No one yet.”

A warning shot.

“I have three maintenance workers locked in the chapel vestibule.”

My stomach dropped.

“Let them go.”

“Come here.”

Adrian stepped closer to Shaw.

“I go.”

I shook my head.

Ethan heard him through the phone.

“Vale. Of course.”

His voice changed.

“This is your fault too.”

Adrian answered calmly.

“Yes.”

Everyone looked at him.

Ethan went silent.

Adrian continued.

“I stopped the car line. I stood between you and Claire. If you need someone to blame, blame me.”

I understood what he was doing.

Redirecting.

Buying time.

Ethan laughed.

“You think you saved her.”

“No.”

Adrian looked at me.

“She saved herself. I just stopped the car.”

My throat tightened.

Ethan hated that answer.

“You come alone.”

Adrian looked at Shaw.

She nodded once.

A tactical team moved into position.

Adrian removed his jacket.

Then his gun.

He handed it to Marcus.

I grabbed his wrist.

“Don’t become Luca.”

His eyes met mine.

“I won’t.”

“Promise me you come back.”

He hesitated.

I almost withdrew the request.

Then he said, “I will do everything I can.”

Not a lie.

Not a promise no one could guarantee.

Enough.

Adrian walked toward the chapel.

Five minutes later, the cameras went dark.

Then Ethan sent me a photograph.

Adrian on his knees.

Hands behind his head.

Ethan’s gun against his temple.

May you like

[COMPLETED] “GET YOUR HANDS OFF MY DRESS! YOU’RE NOTHING BUT AN OLD SEAM...

[COMPLETED] At the Mafia Boss's Engagement Party, I Served His Hungry So...

[COMPLETED] The Mafia Boss’s Fiancée Tried to Dismiss His Father’s Loyal...

Text beneath it:

NOW COME FINISH WHAT YOU STARTED.