Chapter 10 - The Ultimate ConfrontationDetective Miller and three tactical officers filed into the room, their weapons lowered but ready. The room was suffocatingly tense, punctuated only by the sound of the thunder rattling the glass panes behind Ethan.
"Ethan, it's over," Miller said, her voice measured. "Vanessa is in custody. Your offshore accounts have been frozen by the federal government. You have nowhere to go. If you hurt that boy, there is no deal, no trial—you will face federal execution."
"I don't care about the money anymore," Ethan spat, a wild, manic gleam finally replacing his calculated coldness. "I care about winning. I spent five years building a perfect reputation, a perfect career, and she ruined it by surviving that dinner! I won't let a weak, pathetic woman and a useless child ruin my legacy!"
"Your legacy is a lie, Ethan," I said, stepping past the officers, placing myself directly in his line of sight. "Look at me. Look at the woman you thought was too weak to fight back."
He glared at me, his grip tightening on Ryan, who was sobbing silently, his eyes locked onto mine. Trust me, baby, I tried to convey with my eyes. Just trust Mommy.
"You think you're a genius, Ethan," I continued, taking a slow, deliberate step forward, drawing his attention entirely to me. "But you made one fatal mistake. You used your own cousin's research. Marcus hated you. He always knew you were taking credit for his formulas. He gave us everything. He gave us the antidote before we even left the hospital."
"That's a lie!" Ethan shouted, his eyes flashing with sudden doubt. "Marcus wouldn't dare!"
"He did," I lied smoothly, keeping my voice absolute, authoritative. "The injector you’re holding? It’s useless. We swapped your laboratory stock hours ago when we realized you were tracking the bear."
For a fraction of a second, Ethan’s eyes flickered down to the air-injector in his hand, his brilliant scientific mind instinctively trying to calculate if he had been outsmarted.
That fraction of a second was all I needed.
I lunged forward, throwing my entire body weight into his waist, knocking him backward against the heavy glass window. The glass shattered under our combined impact, and we both tumbled out onto the wooden balcony outside, into the pouring rain.
The air-injector flew from his hand, skittering across the deck. Ryan scrambled backward into the room, safely caught in Detective Miller’s arms.
Ethan roared in fury, pinning me against the wet wooden floor of the balcony, his hands wrapping around my throat. "I should have killed you the day I met you!" he screamed, squeezing the air from my lungs.
Darkness started to creep into my vision again—the same darkness from that terrible dinner. But this time, I wasn't paralyzed. I reached out blindly through the rain, my fingers closing around a sharp, jagged piece of the broken window glass lying on the deck.
With a final, desperate burst of strength, I drove the glass shard into his shoulder.
May you like
He shrieked, his grip loosening as he stumbled backward, losing his footing on the slick, rain-drenched edge of the balcony. He flailed wildly, trying to catch the railing, but the wood gave way.
With a final cry of terror, Ethan plummeted over the side, crashing twenty feet down onto the stone terrace below.
