Chapter 7 - THE DOCTOR’S VERSION
Dr. Collins walked toward Emily slowly.
He wore a charcoal suit beneath a white medical coat.
The combination looked absurd.
Part physician.
Part corporate executioner.
Emily remained near the elevator doors.
Her earpiece carried faint static.
Nora was listening.
That was the only reassurance she had.
Collins raised the syringe.
“This does not need to become painful.”
Emily looked at the clear liquid.
“What is it?”
“A sedative.”
“That is what you told my father?”
The doctor stopped.
His smile faded slightly.
“Your father was very ill.”
“You signed his death certificate.”
“Yes.”
“Did you also cause his death?”
Collins looked toward the security camera.
Emily followed his gaze.
The red light was on.
He wanted the recording.
He wanted her accusation.
He wanted her fear.
Everything could be edited later.
Emily lowered her voice.
“You need me to sound unstable.”
“I need you to cooperate.”
“That sounds more medical.”
“You are under severe emotional stress.”
“My husband forged my signature.”
“Paranoid interpretation.”
“You prepared my diagnosis before examining me.”
“Preventive documentation.”
“You planned to inject me at my wedding.”
“Emergency stabilization.”
Each answer was smooth.
Practiced.
He had spent years turning crimes into clinical language.
Emily stepped away from the elevator.
“Where is Vanessa?”
“She is safe.”
“I heard her scream.”
“Patients often resist treatment.”
“She is not your patient.”
Collins almost smiled.
“Everyone becomes my patient eventually.”
The words were quiet.
But the microphone caught them.
Emily hoped Nora heard.
She looked toward the treatment rooms.
Some doors were open.
Inside were restraints.
Medical chairs.
Locked cabinets.
The floor had been hidden inside her father’s building.
How many times had she visited Grayson Tower without knowing?
How many elevators had passed this level?
How many people had disappeared behind these walls?
Collins moved closer.
“Give me the transmitter.”
Emily did not react.
He smiled.
“Did you think we would not scan you?”
Her pulse quickened.
He pointed toward her collar.
“Remove it.”
Nora’s voice came through the earpiece.
“Do not comply.”
Collins tilted his head.
“Detective Vance.”
Emily’s stomach tightened.
He could hear the channel.
“Your police frequency is being mirrored,” he said.
Nora’s voice went silent.
Collins stepped closer.
“Now we are alone.”
Emily reached beneath the collar.
She removed the transmitter.
Then dropped it into a glass of water on a nearby medical cart.
Collins watched it sink.
“Good.”
Emily looked at the camera.
“You wanted me here.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“To correct the mistake Daniel made.”
“What mistake?”
“He allowed you to think you had a choice.”
Emily stared at him.
“Was my father your patient?”
“Occasionally.”
“Was Sophie?”
“Extensively.”
“You rewrote her memories.”
“I reduced trauma.”
“You gave her my identity.”
“I gave her functionality.”
“You made her believe Daniel loved her.”
Collins looked amused.
“Daniel did love her.”
Emily hated the small sting she felt.
He saw it.
“That bothers you.”
“No.”
“It should.”
“You’re trying to provoke me.”
“I am observing you.”
“You have been observing me for years.”
Collins nodded.
“Your father was proud of your emotional resilience.”
Emily felt anger rise.
“He discussed me with you?”
“He designed your assessments.”
The words hit harder than she expected.
“My father studied me?”
“He studied everyone.”
“He was trying to protect me.”
“From what?”
“From families like yours.”
Collins laughed softly.
“Your father invented the system that targeted you.”
Emily said nothing.
“He called it Project Mercy because he believed truth could be too painful for certain people.”
“He used memory suppression on children.”
“He used it first on himself.”
Emily stared.
“What?”
Collins placed the syringe on the medical cart.
The gesture was deliberate.
He wanted her attention elsewhere.
“Thomas Grayson suffered episodes.”
“What kind?”
“Violent ones.”
“You’re lying.”
“He attacked staff.”
“No.”
“He attacked Peter Mercer.”
Emily remembered Margaret’s accusation.
Your father was not the man you believed he was.
“What happened?”
Collins folded his hands.
“Your father discovered that Sophie had been used in an unauthorized trial.”
“By Peter?”
“By Margaret.”
Emily’s breath caught.
“He confronted them.”
“And?”
“Peter nearly died.”
“Was my father arrested?”
“No.”
“Why?”
“Because your father owned the police commissioner.”
Emily looked toward the camera.
Collins continued.
“Afterward, Thomas asked me to remove parts of his memory.”
“You did?”
“Yes.”
“Why would he ask that?”
“Because he could not live with what he had done.”
Emily studied his face.
“Or because you wanted him confused.”
Collins did not answer.
That was the first hesitation.
Emily stepped closer.
“What did my father remember before he died?”
Collins’ eyes changed.
Only slightly.
But she saw it.
“He remembered Sophie.”
“He always knew she was alive?”
“Not always.”
“When did he remember?”
“Three weeks before his death.”
The timing matched Bennett’s letter.
Someone had discovered Sophie was alive.
Emily’s voice hardened.
“And then you killed him.”
Collins picked up the syringe.
“You are becoming agitated.”
“There it is.”
“Paranoia.”
“There it is again.”
“Hostility.”
“You wrote the diagnosis first.”
“Because you were predictable.”
He moved toward her.
Emily backed away.
The treatment room door behind her opened.
Vanessa was inside.
She was strapped to a reclining chair.
A strip of tape covered her mouth.
Her eyes widened when she saw Emily.
Collins pointed the syringe toward Vanessa.
“One injection.”
Emily stopped.
“Into whom?”
“That depends on you.”
Vanessa shook her head violently.
Collins removed the tape from her mouth.
She gasped.
“Don’t listen to him.”
He pressed the needle against her neck.
Emily raised her hands.
“What do you want?”
“The blue key.”
“I don’t have it.”
“Sophie does.”
“Then you have the wrong hostage.”
Collins smiled.
“No.”
“I have the person Sophie loves.”
Emily looked at Vanessa.
Vanessa’s face changed.
Not surprise.
Recognition.
Emily understood.
Sophie had risked herself because of Vanessa.
Not because Vanessa was merely another victim.
They were connected.
Deeply.
Collins watched Emily process it.
“Vanessa gave Sophie the first real relationship she had ever known.”
Vanessa stared at him with hatred.
“You poisoned everything she trusted.”
“I documented attachment patterns.”
Emily moved closer.
“Let her go.”
“Call Sophie.”
“I cannot.”
Collins lifted a phone from the cart.
The screen showed the elevator interior.
Sophie was standing alone as it climbed toward floor seventy-two.
“She can hear us.”
He pressed a button.
“Sophie.”
Her face appeared on a wall monitor.
She looked toward the hidden camera.
“Vanessa?”
Collins turned the screen toward her.
Vanessa struggled against the restraints.
“I’m fine.”
“You’re not.”
“Go to the board.”
Collins smiled.
“Touching.”
Sophie looked at Emily.
“Get away from him.”
Emily kept her voice controlled.
“He wants the key.”
Sophie touched the necklace.
Collins pressed the syringe harder against Vanessa’s skin.
“Drop it into the elevator access slot.”
Sophie shook her head.
“No.”
Vanessa shouted.
“Do not give it to him.”
Collins pushed the plunger slightly.
A drop of liquid entered the line.
Vanessa gasped.
Sophie moved toward the elevator panel.
Emily spoke quickly.
“What is in the syringe?”
Collins looked at her.
“Enough.”
“To kill her?”
“To change her.”
Sophie froze.
Vanessa’s eyes filled with fear.
Emily understood before Collins explained.
“Memory suppression.”
He nodded.
“If Sophie refuses, Vanessa forgets her.”
Sophie stared at the screen.
Collins’ voice softened.
“She will wake up with no memory of your face.”
“No memory of your voice.”
“No memory of whatever promises you made in the dark.”
Sophie’s breathing became ragged.
Emily saw the choice forming.
The key.
The evidence.
Or the one person who remembered her as herself.
Collins knew exactly where to cut.
Sophie removed the blue key from her neck.
Emily stepped toward the camera.
“No.”
Sophie looked at her.
“You don’t understand.”
“Yes, I do.”
“No.”
“You had a father who loved you.”
Emily almost laughed.
“I had a father who lied to me for my entire life.”
“You had a name.”
“It was almost stolen.”
“You had a home.”
“They were preparing another woman to live in it.”
Sophie’s hand trembled around the key.
Emily continued.
“But Vanessa remembers you.”
Sophie stared at her.
“That matters.”
“Yes.”
“It matters so much that he knows he can use it.”
Collins’ smile faded.
Emily stepped closer to Vanessa.
“If you give him the key, he does not release her.”
Sophie looked at Collins.
“He will.”
“No.”
“He promised.”
Emily’s expression hardened.
“So did Daniel.”
Sophie froze.
The comparison landed.
Collins pressed the syringe again.
Vanessa cried out.
Sophie closed her eyes.
Emily saw movement reflected in the glass cabinet behind Collins.
A shadow in the corridor.
Someone was approaching.
She did not know whether it was police or security.
She needed time.
“Collins.”
He looked at her.
“What did my father promise you?”
The doctor’s expression shifted.
“Excuse me?”
“You helped him build Project Mercy.”
“Yes.”
“You signed his death certificate.”
“Yes.”
“You protected the Mercer family.”
His jaw tightened.
Emily continued.
“But you are still standing in someone else’s building.”
Collins looked toward the camera.
“You are still taking orders from Margaret.”
“I do not take orders.”
“You do.”
His eyes hardened.
Emily stepped closer.
“She treats you like hired staff.”
“She needs me.”
“No.”
“She needs your drugs.”
He raised the syringe away from Vanessa.
Just slightly.
Anger had moved his attention.
Emily continued.
“Peter controls the facilities.”
“Margaret controls the money.”
“Daniel controlled me.”
“What did you control?”
Collins’ voice became cold.
“The mind.”
“Then why are you afraid of Sophie remembering?”
He stared at her.
“Why are you afraid of Vanessa remembering?”
“I am not afraid.”
“Then let her keep her memories.”
His face changed.
The calm disappeared.
“You know nothing about what memory does to people.”
Emily saw the wound beneath the arrogance.
Something personal.
“Who did you erase?”
Collins gripped the syringe.
“Stop.”
“Your wife?”
His eyes flickered.
“Your child?”
He struck Emily across the face.
The blow sent her against the medical cart.
The syringe fell from his hand.
Vanessa kicked the cart with both feet.
It rolled into Collins.
The shadow in the corridor rushed forward.
It was Daniel.
He tackled Collins against the wall.
Emily stared.
Daniel had escaped custody.
Or been allowed to appear to.
Collins drove his elbow into Daniel’s ribs.
Daniel held on.
“Get Vanessa out.”
Emily moved toward the chair.
The restraints required a code.
Vanessa gasped.
“Four-seven-one-nine.”
Emily entered it.
The cuffs released.
Collins threw Daniel aside.
Then reached for a second syringe inside his coat.
Sophie’s voice screamed through the monitor.
“Behind you!”
Emily turned.
Collins lunged.
Vanessa stepped between them.
The syringe entered her shoulder.
She gasped.
Emily grabbed Collins’ wrist.
Daniel struck him from the side.
The syringe broke.
Collins fell.
Daniel pinned him to the floor.
Emily caught Vanessa as her knees buckled.
“What did he inject?”
Collins laughed from beneath Daniel.
“Ask her who Sophie is in ten minutes.”
Vanessa looked toward the screen.
Sophie’s face filled the monitor.
“Vanessa.”
Vanessa tried to focus.
“Sophie.”
“I’m here.”
Vanessa’s eyelids fluttered.
“I know.”
Emily held her tighter.
“You’re going to keep knowing.”
Vanessa looked at her.
“No.”
Her voice weakened.
“This dose is stronger.”
Sophie began crying silently.
Vanessa reached toward the screen.
“Don’t give them the key.”
“I don’t care about the key.”
“You have to.”
“I care about you.”
Vanessa smiled faintly.
“That was always the problem.”
Her hand fell.
The monitor flickered.
Then Margaret’s face replaced Sophie’s.
“Touching.”
Emily looked up.
Margaret stood in the boardroom.
The clock behind her showed four minutes remaining.
“Unfortunately, love has made every woman in this family stupid.”
Daniel looked toward the camera.
“Mother.”
Margaret’s expression hardened.
“You were supposed to control the doctor.”
“He is done.”
“No.”
“You are.”
Daniel stood over Collins.
Margaret smiled.
“Then come prove it.”
The treatment floor lights turned red.
A mechanical voice sounded.
FIRE SYSTEM ARMED.
Emily looked at Daniel.
“You said the boardroom was the target.”
He stared at the ceiling vents.
“She changed it.”
Steel shutters began closing over the treatment rooms.
Daniel ran toward the control panel.
Emily lifted Vanessa.
“She cannot walk.”
“I’ll carry her.”
“You’ll never reach the stairwell.”
He entered a code.
ACCESS DENIED.
Collins laughed from the floor.
“Margaret revoked you.”
Smoke began pouring into the corridor.
Sophie’s voice returned through the monitor.
“Emily.”
Emily looked up.
Sophie held the blue key.
“I can stop it from upstairs.”
“How?”
“The main terminal.”
“Then do it.”
“I need thirty seconds.”
“You have less.”
The boardroom feed appeared behind her.
Margaret was waiting beside the central table.
Peter Mercer stood near the controls.
Dr. Collins’ empty chair remained at the end.
Nine board members watched in terror.
Sophie stepped out of the elevator.
She wore Emily’s torn wedding gown.
Every face turned toward her.
Margaret smiled.
“There is my bride.”
Sophie looked directly into the camera.
May you like
Then she answered in Emily’s voice.
“You chose the wrong sister.”
