Chapter 3 - Twenty-Four HoursWe reached Mount Sinai in eleven minutes.
Adrian’s driver ignored every traffic light that mattered.
I sat in the back seat beside Adrian, gripping my hands together so tightly my fingernails hurt.
“He’s alive,” Adrian said.
“I know.”
“You’re shaking.”
“I know.”
“You can stop pretending you’re not afraid.”
I looked at him.
“Easy for you to say.”
“No.”
He looked out the window.
“It isn’t.”
Something in his voice made me turn.
For the first time, I wondered what kind of man Adrian Duca really was.
Not the billionaire.
Not the gangster people whispered about.
Just the man beneath it all.
Then we arrived.
Security flooded the entrance before we stepped inside.
Hospital staff stared at Adrian.
They knew him.
Or they knew what his money could do.
A doctor approached.
“Mr. Duca?”
Adrian ignored him.
“Where is Toby Jenkins?”
“ICU.”
We moved quickly.
My brother lay beneath fluorescent lights, pale but awake.
The moment he saw me, tears filled his eyes.
“Cara.”
I rushed to him.
I held his hand.
“I’m here.”
“You shouldn’t have come.”
“What?”
He glanced toward Adrian.
Then back at me.
“I saw her.”
My chest tightened.
“Who?”
“The red-haired woman.”
Adrian stepped closer.
“What did she do?”
Toby swallowed.
“She came into the room.”
“When?”
“After midnight.”
“Why didn’t the nurses stop her?”
“She had an ID.”
Adrian’s gaze sharpened.
“What name?”
Toby looked at me.
“She said her name was Elena Vale.”
Adrian froze.
I saw it.
The tiniest crack in his armor.
“You know her,” I whispered.
He didn’t answer.
“Adrian.”
“She died.”
Toby blinked.
“What?”
Adrian stepped away.
“Three years ago.”
I followed him into the hallway.
“You didn’t tell me.”
“You never asked.”
“She attacked my brother.”
“I need to know why.”
Adrian stopped outside the ICU.
“Elena was the last person Vincent trusted.”
“And you thought she was dead.”
“Yes.”
“Then someone is pretending to be her.”
He looked at me.
“Or she never died.”
A nurse rushed past.
Adrian caught her attention.
“Excuse me.”
She stopped.
“We need to see the security footage from tonight.”
“I’m sorry, only administration can release—”
Adrian placed a card on the desk.
The nurse glanced at it.
Her face changed.
Five minutes later, we watched the footage.
A woman entered Toby’s room.
Red hair.
Gray coat.
Exactly as I remembered.
She stood beside his bed.
Leaning close.
Then she looked directly into the security camera.
And smiled.
The footage froze.
Adrian stared at the screen.
“Zoom in.”
The technician enlarged her face.
I gasped.
There was a tiny scar beneath her left eye.
Adrian whispered something I could barely hear.
“Impossible.”
“What?”
He touched the screen.
“That scar belongs to Elena.”
Then the hospital lights went out.
Every hallway plunged into darkness.
May you like
A gunshot echoed from the ICU.
I screamed Toby’s name.
