Chapter 7 - The Master of Deception

I stared at the empty foam cutout in absolute disbelief, my mind unable to process the horrifying reality of the missing medicine.
Before I could even speak, the heavy wooden door of the utility closet was violently kicked open from the outside, shattering the lock entirely.
Julian Vance stood in the doorway, completely dry and flanked by his two massive, heavily armed security guards.
He smiled wickedly and reached into the interior pocket of his freshly tailored jacket, slowly pulling out the glowing blue vial.
Julian laughed, revealing that he had anticipated my betrayal and casually swapped the vials while I was distracted by the sprinkler chaos.
He stepped into the small closet, his dark eyes gleaming with a level of pure, unadulterated malice that made my blood run cold.
Julian calmly explained that he was a master of the long game, and he had orchestrated this entire nightmare from the very beginning.
He revealed that Ethan's specific type of cancer was not a tragic accident of nature, but a genetically engineered trigger carefully designed in his own laboratories.
Julian had deliberately activated the dormant cancer gene in his own biological son just to force David out of hiding and exact his ultimate revenge.
I screamed at him, calling him a completely soulless monster for willingly torturing an innocent child just to settle an old score.
Julian shrugged casually, admitting that he never actually cared about saving his son or raising him as a loving father.
He only needed Ethan's genetic data to finalize his patent, and he had successfully extracted enough blood in the suite to complete his billion-dollar project.
Julian looked down at Ethan's frail, unconscious body with complete disgust, deciding that keeping the boy alive was now a massive, unnecessary liability.
He slowly pulled a suppressed, silver pistol from his waistband and aimed the deadly weapon directly at Ethan's chest.
"It is much easier to simply eliminate the loose ends than to continuously manage them," Julian stated with terrifying calmness.
Evelyn tried to step between them, but one of the massive guards immediately struck her with the butt of his rifle, sending her crashing to the floor.
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I threw my body over my son, closing my eyes and preparing to take the fatal bullet meant for the boy I loved so dearly.
Julian coldly cocked the hammer of the gun, and his finger began to slowly squeeze the heavy metal trigger.