Chapter 4 - The Antidote
The cabin in the Catskill Mountains was invisible on any map, purchased under three layers of dummy corporations. It was Julian’s ultimate fail-safe.
By the time they arrived, Elena was slipping in and out of consciousness. The stress of the escape had accelerated her heart rate, pumping the residual toxins faster through her bloodstream.
An underground doctor, an older man named Dr. Vance—ironically, the father of the PI Elena had hired—was waiting for them.
"Get her on the bed," Dr. Vance ordered, hooking up IV bags of clear fluids before Julian had even fully set her down. "My son sent me the blood work. It’s a slow-acting thallium derivative. Nasty stuff. Used by the KGB back in the day."
"Can you save her?" Julian demanded, grabbing the doctor’s collar. "Can you save my baby?"
"Let go of me if you want me to work," the doctor snapped, unfazed by the billionaire’s wrath.
For the next forty-eight hours, Julian didn’t sleep. He sat in a wooden chair beside the bed, holding Elena’s hand while Dr. Vance flushed her system with Prussian Blue, the only known antidote for severe heavy metal poisoning.
During those agonizing hours, Julian read through the manila folder Elena had guarded with her life.
It was a masterclass in corporate evil. His father had orchestrated the fire that killed Elena’s parents, paying off the local fire chief to rule it an electrical fault. Beatrice had forged the property deeds to seize the land. They had built their entire multi-billion-dollar empire on the ashes of Elena’s family.
When Julian had coincidentally met and fallen in love with Elena years later, Beatrice must have run a background check. Realizing who she was, Beatrice had orchestrated a slow, untraceable murder, intending to frame it as a tragic pregnancy complication.
On the third morning, Elena’s fever broke.
She opened her eyes, blinking against the harsh mountain sunlight streaming through the cabin window. The horrific black bruises on her arms had stopped spreading, taking on a dull, healing yellow hue.
"Julian?" she rasped.
He fell to his knees beside the bed, pressing his face into her palms. "I’m here. You’re safe. The baby’s safe."
Elena took a deep, shuddering breath. "They won't stop, Julian. They have too much to lose."
Julian looked up, his eyes harder and sharper than diamonds. "Neither will I. They think they know how to play dirty. They’re about to learn that I am the monster they created."
May you like
He stood up, pulling out an encrypted satellite phone.
"Marcus," Julian said into the receiver. "It’s time to go on the offensive. Drain the Cayman accounts. Freeze Vanguard’s operating assets. Let’s starve them out."
