Chapter 7 - The Hidden Ward
Vanessa's finger curled tightly around the trigger, her eyes completely devoid of any human empathy.
Mark knew he had less than a fraction of a second before the lethal bullet ended his desperate mission entirely.
With a sudden, explosive burst of adrenaline, Mark hurled the heavy steel crowbar directly at her face.
Vanessa flinched aggressively, firing the pistol wildly as she dodged the flying piece of heavy metal.
The suppressed bullet shattered the thick glass mirror on the wall, missing Mark's head by mere inches.
Mark lunged fiercely across the small room, tackling Vanessa violently to the hard linoleum floor.
The pistol slid across the slick surface, completely out of reach for both of them in the chaotic struggle.
Vanessa clawed wildly at his face, her perfectly manicured nails drawing deep, bloody scratches down his cheek.
Mark managed to pin her wrists to the ground, absolutely furious at the woman who had tried to destroy his child.
"I will ask you one last time," Mark growled dangerously close to her face.
"Where is the private airstrip?"
Vanessa merely spat in his face, a defiant, psychotic smirk permanently plastered on her lips.
"You are already too late, Mark; the plane leaves in twenty minutes," she laughed cruelly.
Knowing he could not waste another precious second interrogating a madwoman, Mark grabbed a heavy medical restraint from the bed.
He expertly bound Vanessa's hands and feet to the metal bed frame, tightly gagging her with a piece of sterile gauze.
"Jax, I neutralized Vanessa, but I am completely locked inside this room," Mark whispered urgently into his earpiece.
"Stand back, I am triggering the facility's emergency fire protocol to universally unlock all the magnetic doors," Jax responded instantly.
A loud, piercing alarm suddenly echoed throughout the entire massive hospital as the heavy steel door clicked open.
Mark sprinted out into the chaotic hallway, where panicked staff and guards were desperately trying to locate the phantom fire.
"Jax, guide me to the basement ward right now," Mark demanded as he navigated the crowded stairwell.
He remembered the horrific revelation about his supposedly dead wife, and he absolutely could not leave this building without knowing the truth.
Mark fought his way through the panicked crowd, finally reaching a heavy, reinforced vault door marked strictly as 'Restricted Basement Access.'
Using a stolen security keycard from a distracted guard, Mark successfully unlocked the massive, intimidating door.
He descended into a dark, damp subterranean corridor that looked more like a medieval dungeon than a modern hospital.
There was only one occupied cell at the very end of the horrifying, silent hallway.
Mark approached the thick glass viewing window of the cell, his hands trembling violently with overwhelming anticipation.
Sitting quietly on a small, miserable cot in the corner was a frail, beautiful woman staring blankly at the wall.
She turned her head slowly toward the glass, her tired, sorrowful eyes locking completely onto Mark's stunned face.
Mark fell to his knees in absolute shock, pressing his trembling hands desperately against the cold, thick glass.
She looked exactly like his late wife, Elena, sharing the very same hauntingly beautiful facial features and piercing green eyes.
Tears streamed down Mark's face as he finally found the love of his life after five agonizing years of mourning.
But the woman did not smile or cry in recognition; instead, she looked at him with profound, utter confusion.
"Who are you?" the woman asked softly through the intercom system.
"And why are you looking at me like you actually know me?"
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Mark's entire world shattered all over again as a horrifying realization finally dawned on him.
This woman was not his beloved wife Elena; she was someone entirely different who just shared her exact face.
