Chapter 6 - The Restricted Wing
Panic gripped my throat as I stared at the empty, sterile hospital bed in Maya's room.
"Where is she?" I screamed at the terrified facility director standing in the hallway.
The director trembled and pointed a shaking finger toward the basement stairs at the end of the hall.
"Lorraine took her down to the restricted medical wing ten minutes ago," he confessed weakly.
I did not wait for the armed troopers as I sprinted down the dark, concrete stairwell.
I knew Lorraine was desperate enough to do something completely irreversible to protect her wealth.
I reached the heavy metal door of the restricted wing and threw my entire body weight against it.
The door burst open, revealing a dimly lit room filled with outdated medical equipment.
Lorraine was standing over Maya, holding a terrifying medical syringe filled with a cloudy liquid.
Maya was strapped tightly to a heavy medical chair, crying softly with her eyes wide in pure terror.
"Step away from my daughter right now!" I roared, my voice echoing loudly off the concrete walls.
Lorraine jumped in surprise, nearly dropping the deadly syringe onto the filthy floor.
"You just don't know when to quit, do you, Nora?" Lorraine sneered bitterly.
She raised the needle, preparing to plunge it directly into Maya's exposed neck.
I grabbed a heavy metal IV pole from the corner of the room and swung it like a baseball bat.
The heavy steel struck Lorraine's wrist with a sickening and decisive crunch.
She shrieked in absolute pain as the syringe flew across the room and shattered against the brick wall.
I tackled her to the ground, pinning her down with all the fierce rage a mother could possess.
State troopers flooded into the room, pulling me off the wicked woman and placing her under arrest.
I rushed to Maya and frantically unbuckled the heavy leather straps binding her bruised wrists.
She collapsed into my arms, sobbing into my shoulder as I held her incredibly tightly.
"It is over, sweetie, they can never hurt you again," I whispered into her tangled hair.
We walked out of the dark basement together, surrounded by a protective wall of state troopers.
Marcus met us in the bright lobby with a grim and serious expression on his face.
"We have them in custody, but Ethan's high-powered lawyers are already filing legal injunctions," Marcus warned me.
He explained that unless we found the master financial ledger, they might escape the most serious federal charges.
Maya wiped her tears and looked up at me with a sudden spark of fierce determination.
"I know exactly where the master ledger is hidden," Maya announced firmly.
I looked at her in complete surprise, wondering how she could possibly know about their hidden financial secrets.
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"Before Ethan brought me here, I swapped his cell phone with my old one," Maya revealed.
She pulled Ethan's actual, unlocked smartphone from her hospital gown pocket.
