I went to Apartment 4B ready to evict a woman who owed me three months of rent. Instead, a seven-year-old girl opened the door with blood on her fingertips, quietly sewing clothes while her seriously ill mother lay hidden inside. I thought I was there to collect money, but within minutes, that little girl forced me to remember the life I had spent years pretending I had escaped.

I knocked the mercenary unconscious with a single punch and rushed back to the bed.

There was absolutely no time to worry about my stolen company or my frozen bank accounts.

I scooped Sarah gently into my arms, incredibly surprised by how light and fragile she felt.

"Lily, grab my coat and hold onto my belt," I instructed the terrified little girl.

We escaped through the rusted fire escape window just as police sirens began wailing in the distance.

I stole a battered sedan from the dark alleyway by hotwiring the ignition in under ten seconds.

I drove recklessly through the rain-slicked streets, putting as much distance as possible between us and the apartment.

Sarah leaned her head against the passenger window, her breathing becoming dangerously shallow.

"Why does Elias want you dead?" I asked, keeping my eyes fixed firmly on the dark road ahead.

Sarah took a ragged breath and explained that she had been working as an undercover accountant at our corporate headquarters.

She had discovered that Elias was using our legitimate real estate properties to launder millions of dollars for a ruthless international cartel.

"I stole the master ledger containing all of his illegal transactions," she whispered weakly.

"I was going to give it to the authorities, but his men caught me in the parking garage."

She violently coughed, spitting a terrifying amount of dark black blood onto her pale hands.

I slammed on the brakes, pulling the stolen car into a deserted parking lot to check on her.

"Sarah, what did they do to you in that garage?" I demanded, panic rising in my chest.

She pulled back her sleeve, revealing a swollen, blackened puncture wound on her delicate wrist.

"Elias injected me with a slow-acting synthetic venom to ensure I would suffer before I died," she cried.

Her eyes rolled back into her head as she went completely limp in the passenger seat.

Lily began sobbing uncontrollably from the back seat, begging her mother to wake up.

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I realized I only knew one person in this city who could possibly identify and cure a synthetic cartel poison.

"Hold on, Lily, we are going to see a doctor," I promised, pushing the accelerator all the way to the floor.

Chapter 3 - The Venom Inside