Chapter 16 - bitter tea
The quiet ticking of the grandfather clock in the foyer seemed to magnify until it sounded like iron boots marching across stone. Maya didn't flinch. Her hands remained buried inside her rain slicker pockets, her dark eyes fixed on Julian’s face with a terrifyingly calm intensity.
"You're thirty seconds too late, Julian," Maya said quietly.
Julian’s thumb rested on the hammer of the gun, his brows knitting together in a slight, irritated furrow. "What are you talking about?"
"When we entered the estate twenty minutes ago, Sarah didn't just unlock the garden door," Maya explained, her voice remarkably steady. "She uploaded the complete digital dossier of Lot 884-NEO—including the audio recording of Eleanor discussing the surrogate contract with Dr. Thorne—directly to the State Police internal crime portal."
Dr. Thorne’s hand froze mid-air, the syringe trembling slightly in his grip. He looked at Julian, his face draining of color. "Julian... you said the server at the clinic was air-gapped."
"It was," Sarah said from behind the desk, holding up a small black satellite hotspot that was blinking with a steady green light. "Until we bridged the connection using Eleanor's private terminal thirty seconds before you turned on the lights."
A sharp, deafening shatter echoed from the front driveway outside, followed immediately by the piercing, high-pitched scream of emergency sirens tearing through the quiet night fog. Red and blue police lights began to flash wildly across the high bay windows of the study, illuminating the panic that suddenly swept across Dr. Thorne’s face.
"You fool!" Dr. Thorne hissed, dropping his leather satchel onto the floorboards and lunging toward the rear terrace doors.
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"Stay where you are!" Julian roared, turning his pistol toward the terrace doors—but that fraction of a second was all I needed.
I lunged forward with all the weight in my body, driving my shoulder directly into Julian’s chest. The force knocked him backward against the heavy marble mantelpiece. His gun clattered onto the hardwood floor, spinning across the rug toward Maya, who instantly kicked it far under the massive oak desk.
