Chapter 10 - THE BULLET THAT CHANGED SIDES
Victor pulled the trigger.
Lucien moved before he heard the shot.
He threw himself toward Ava.
The gun exploded.
Ava screamed.
Lucien hit the floor hard, wrapping both arms around her.
For half a second, he waited for pain.
Nothing.
Then somebody behind him gasped.
Lucien looked up.
His mother was standing between Victor and Ava.
A dark stain spread across her shoulder.
“Mom!”
She dropped to one knee.
Victor’s face changed instantly.
“Evelyn.”
For the first time, the cold confidence disappeared.
Lucien stared at him.
“You shot her.”
Victor lowered the gun.
“I wasn’t aiming at her.”
“You fired at my daughter!”
“Our daughter.”
Lucien went still.
Victor realized his mistake too late.
Ava looked between them.
Her small face was wet with tears.
“What does that mean?”
Nobody answered.
Lucien slowly rose.
His voice became frighteningly calm.
“Don’t say that again.”
Victor tightened his grip on the weapon.
“You can hate me all you want, but blood doesn’t change because you’re angry.”
Lucien handed Ava to Adrian.
“Take her.”
“Lucien—”
“Take her now.”
Adrian pulled Ava behind a steel support beam.
Lucien walked toward Victor.
Victor raised the gun again.
“Stop.”
Lucien didn’t.
“I said stop.”
“You already fired once.”
Another step.
“You think I’m afraid of the second one?”
Victor’s jaw tightened.
“You have no idea why I came back.”
“I don’t care.”
“You should.”
Victor glanced at Charles bleeding on the floor.
“This man stole everything from me.”
Charles coughed.
Even wounded, he managed to speak.
“You gave it away.”
Victor’s face twisted.
“You shut your mouth.”
Charles smiled through the pain.
“There he is.”
Victor pointed the gun at him.
“The man who bought judges. Threatened doctors. Changed records.”
Charles’s eyes moved to Lucien.
“I changed one record.”
Lucien stared.
“What?”
Victor laughed.
“One?”
His voice filled the laboratory.
“You built an entire family out of lies.”
Evelyn pressed a hand against her bleeding shoulder.
“Victor, stop.”
“No.”
He turned toward her.
“You don’t get to tell me to stop.”
Something old passed between them.
Pain.
Betrayal.
History.
Lucien saw it.
“What happened between you two?”
Evelyn looked away.
Victor answered for her.
“She loved me.”
Charles tried to stand.
“And then she learned what you were.”
Victor swung the gun toward him.
“You think you were better?”
Charles said nothing.
Victor looked at Lucien.
“Your mother and I were together before she went back to Charles.”
Lucien’s stomach tightened.
Ava was crying silently now.
Lucien wanted to cover her ears.
To pull her out of this place.
To somehow give her back the world she had this morning.
Before adults turned her life into evidence.
“What does any of that have to do with Ava?” Lucien demanded.
Victor stared at him.
“Everything.”
Adrian suddenly spoke.
“No. It doesn’t.”
Everyone turned.
Adrian stepped out from behind the support beam.
“There’s one problem with your story, Victor.”
Victor’s eyes narrowed.
“What?”
“The dates don’t match.”
Silence.
Adrian pointed toward the medical files still glowing on the wall monitor.
“You said Ava was your daughter.”
“She is.”
“Then explain why the genetic report is dated six months before she was born.”
Victor froze.
Lucien looked at the screen.
Adrian was right.
The report date was impossible.
Lucien walked toward the monitor.
His heartbeat quickened.
“What the hell is this?”
Evelyn looked at Charles.
Charles looked back.
And Lucien saw something he had seen too many times tonight.
Fear.
“You knew,” Lucien said.
Charles didn’t answer.
“You knew that report was fake.”
Victor suddenly raised the gun.
“Step away from the screen.”
Lucien turned.
That confirmed everything.
“You lied.”
Victor’s breathing changed.
“I said step away.”
“You’re not Ava’s father.”
Victor said nothing.
Lucien took another step toward him.
“You’re not her father.”
Victor’s face hardened.
“I am the reason she exists.”
“That isn’t what I said.”
Ava peeked from behind Adrian.
“Daddy?”
Lucien looked at her.
And suddenly the only thing that mattered was getting her out.
“Ava, stay with Uncle Adrian.”
Victor snapped.
“Don’t call him that.”
Lucien’s eyes returned to Victor.
There it was again.
Not anger.
Possession.
“You don’t love her,” Lucien said.
Victor laughed once.
“You know nothing about me.”
“I know enough.”
Lucien pointed at Ava.
“She’s terrified, and you’re still trying to prove she belongs to you.”
Victor’s expression went cold.
Lucien continued.
“That isn’t love.”
A beat.
“That’s ownership.”
Victor fired.
Lucien dove sideways.
The bullet smashed into the monitor.
Glass exploded.
Adrian pulled Ava down.
Lucien rolled, came up fast, and drove his shoulder into Victor’s chest.
They crashed into a metal table.
The gun flew across the floor.
Victor struck Lucien across the jaw.
Lucien answered with a hard punch to the ribs.
Victor staggered.
Lucien hit him again.
Years of anger came out in every strike.
His childhood.
His mother.
Ava.
Every lie.
Victor caught Lucien’s arm and slammed him into the wall.
“You think Charles made you strong?”
He drove an elbow into Lucien’s stomach.
“I taught him how.”
Lucien dropped to one knee.
Victor grabbed him by the hair.
“I designed the program that trained you.”
Lucien looked up.
Blood touched the corner of his mouth.
Then he smiled.
Victor frowned.
“Why are you smiling?”
“Because you trained a kid.”
Lucien drove his forehead into Victor’s face.
Victor stumbled backward.
Lucien rose.
“You never met the man.”
He hit Victor again.
Victor crashed through a glass partition.
Across the room, Charles reached for the fallen gun.
Lucien saw him.
So did Victor.
Both men moved.
Charles got there first.
He raised the weapon.
Victor stopped.
Charles’s hand trembled.
“You should’ve stayed dead.”
Victor smiled through the blood.
“You first.”
Charles fired.
Click.
Empty.
Victor laughed.
Then a low mechanical alarm sounded.
Adrian looked toward the ceiling.
“What did you do?”
Victor wiped blood from his lip.
“I didn’t come here to win.”
Red warning lights began flashing.
A digital timer appeared on every wall screen.
04:59.
04:58.
04:57.
Evelyn went pale.
“Victor.”
He smiled.
“I came here to erase the building.”
Lucien looked at Ava.
Then at the countdown.
May you like
Four minutes and fifty seconds.
And the exit doors slammed shut.
