Chapter 6 - The Trap is Set
By Thursday afternoon, the rumor mill was spinning. With Marcus’s help, we leaked a false medical update to the press and the Harrington family: Emma Hale remains in a deep, irreversible coma with minimal brain activity. Doctors predict she will not survive the night.
It was the bait Darren and Marianne needed.
I stood in the hospital security room, watching the feed from the cameras we had installed in Emma’s private ICU room. Marcus stood beside me, his hand resting on his service weapon.
“You sure about this, Nate?” Marcus asked. “If Darren suspects anything, he might not show.”
“He has to show,” I said, keeping my eyes on the monitors. “His loan sharks are threatening his life. If Emma dies in a coma, the insurance policy still pays out, and the family trust reverts entirely to Marianne. It’s his only way out.”
At 8:14 PM, a figure in a blue hospital scrub uniform and a surgical mask walked down the hallway. He didn't check in at the nurse’s station. He used a stolen keycard to bypass the security lock on Emma’s ward.
It was Darren.
He slipped into Emma’s darkened room. The monitors were hummed softly. On the bed, a dummy covered in blankets and a brunette wig lay still under the sheets, hooked up to a fake ventilator.
Darren walked slowly to the bedside. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a syringe filled with a clear, lethal dose of potassium chloride—designed to cause a fatal, untraceable heart attack.
“Sorry, sis,” Darren muttered, raising the syringe toward the IV line. “But you always were the favorite.”
“I wouldn't do that if I were you, Darren,” a voice spoke from the corner of the dark room.
May you like
Darren spun around, his eyes wide with terror.
The lights slammed on.
