Chapter 2
Chapter 2: The Sister I Lost
I did not sleep that night.
The insurance policies remained spread across my desk until sunrise.
Marcus Kane wasn't simply an abusive drunk anymore.
He was a desperate man drowning in debt.
And desperate men killed.
Especially when money waited on the other side.
By dawn, the storm had finally passed.
I left the children protected by private security and began searching for Sarah.
Thirty-six hours later, the trail led me to a hospital in Portland.
Room 314.
I stood outside the door.
Seven years of anger dissolved into fear.
Then I walked in.
Sarah looked nothing like the sister I remembered.
Cancer had hollowed her out.
The vibrant woman from my memories had become a fragile shadow connected to machines.
She turned her head.
“Nate.”
The word barely escaped her lips.
I grabbed her hand.
“I’m here.”
Tears rolled down her cheeks.
“The kids?”
“They’re safe.”
A smile touched her face.
A real smile.
For the first time in years.
Then she told me everything.
Marcus.
The gambling debts.
The threats.
The insurance policies.
The plan.
“He looked at the twins when he talked about the payout,” she whispered.
Fear flashed through her eyes.
“Promise me, Nate.”
I squeezed her hand.
“He will never touch them.”
She closed her eyes.
Relieved.
At peace.
Then—
The hospital room door exploded open.
Marcus Kane stepped inside.
The smell of whiskey arrived before he did.
He locked the door.
Pulled out a hunting knife.
And smiled.
“Where are my kids, Doc?”
The room instantly became a battlefield.
Marcus grabbed Sarah’s oxygen line.
One hand held the knife.
The other threatened her life.
“Call your maid,” he snarled.
“Tell her to bring the kids here.”
I remained calm.
Not because I wasn't afraid.
Because panic kills.
And surgeons learn that early.
I slowly reached for my phone.
At the same time, my fingers brushed a medical tray.
A syringe.
Lorazepam.
A heavy sedative dose.
Marcus watched the phone.
For one second.
One mistake.
I moved.
My left hand snapped his knife wrist sideways.
Bone cracked.
The blade fell.
My right hand drove the syringe into his shoulder.
The plunger emptied.
Seconds later, Marcus collapsed.
Unconscious.
Finished.
I turned back toward Sarah.
Tears ran down her face.
“You always were quick with your hands,” she whispered.
I smiled.
Then she pointed weakly toward her bag.
Inside was a silver locket.
The one I had given her on her sixteenth birthday.
“Keep it safe,” she breathed.
“Tell Lily... Mommy won.”
The monitor beside her began slowing.
Then slowing again.
Then—
A single continuous tone filled the room.
Sarah was gone.
The police dragged Marcus away.
As they pulled him through the doorway, he looked back at me.
Hatred burned in his eyes.
“You think this is over, Doc?”
He laughed.
May you like
“The court will give them right back to me.”
And for the first time since finding the children, I feared he might be right.
