Chapter 25 - The Walk into the Corridor
I unplugged my IV line.
A sharp spike of pain shot through my stitches, but I ignored it, pulling a dark hospital robe over my gown and stepping onto the cold linoleum floor with bare feet.
"Sarah, you can't walk," Liam begged, stepping in front of me, his eyes pleading. "You just gave birth eight hours ago. Your vitals haven't stabilized."
"If I stay in this bed, Noah dies," I said, looking him dead in the eye. "Arthur, take Noah into the private elevator behind the nurse's station the second I clear this threshold. Liam, get to the MRI control room. When I give the signal, hit the magnetic quench bypass."
I took the burner phone and pushed the heavy wooden door open.
The hallway was eerily empty. The fluorescent lights flickered under the cold hum of the ventilation shafts. At the end of the corridor, standing beneath the exit sign, Maya stood waiting, the red aerosol canister held tight against her chest.
When she saw me walking toward her, clutching my bleeding surgical wound with one hand, a cruel, mocking smile touched her lips beneath the mask.
"Look at the mighty heiress," Maya mocked, stepping forward. "Barely able to stand. Where is your army of lawyers now, Sarah?"
"They're where they belong," I replied, taking slow, deliberate steps toward the western corridor. "Reviewing the paperwork you asked for."
"I don't want paperwork anymore," Maya said, her eyes darkening. "Diane sent a message through her prison courier this morning. She told me what you did to her. How you stripped her of her jewelry, her cars, her pride, and left her to rot in a federal cell."
"Diane stole millions from sick children," I said, leading her step-by-step toward the heavy double doors marked ZONE IV: RESTRICTED MAGNETIC RESONANCE IMAGING. "She watched her own son bleed financially while she bought three-hundred-thousand-dollar racehorses."
"She was my mother's sister!" Maya screamed, raising the canister. "And you are an outsider who took everything!"
"I took what was mine," I said, stopping directly beneath the yellow caution line outside the MRI suite.
May you like
Maya took two aggressive strides toward me, crossing the threshold into the high-flux magnetic zone.
"Goodbye, Sarah." Her thumb bore down on the red valve.
