Chapter 82: No Discounts on the Truth
NYU Medical Center
"Your son is alive," Adam said, keeping his voice level and his eyes on John. "When he wakes up, ask him yourself. But you need to keep her here until that happens."
Better to press now than to lose the window entirely.
"Daddy, I'm scared," Esther said.
She was scared, actually. Not in the way the words were designed to communicate, but in the way that someone who has always relied on a specific advantage feels when that advantage stops working.
Esther's entire method depended on the gap between her appearance and her reality. She looked like a child. She was not a child. She was a woman in her thirties trapped in a body that had stopped developing due to a rare hormonal condition — a fact that every institution that had ever housed her had either not discovered or not believed.
The appearance had always been enough. Men like John, confronted with a small, tearful girl calling them "Daddy," simply could not override the instinct to protect. She'd tested this across multiple families, multiple countries.
Adam was not responding to the instinct.
She could see it in his face. He wasn't moved. He wasn't uncertain. He was waiting for her to make a mistake, and she was running out of space.
She still hadn't gotten what she came for. John hadn't answered the question that mattered to her — the question that had driven every terrible thing she'd done across two continents. She couldn't leave yet.
But the situation was deteriorating.
"John," she said, recalibrating, shifting from frightened child to something softer and more specific. "Can we go home?"
"She has to stay here," Adam said immediately.
"You have no authority—"
"Your son almost died tonight," Adam said. "Leonard and I both saw what happened in that room. Your wife has been telling you something was wrong for months. Your daughter Max has been trying to tell you. And every time you've looked at Esther, you've decided everyone else was wrong." He paused. "I'm not asking you to convict her. I'm asking you to wait until Danny can speak."
John's face was unreadable.
Esther watched it.
She could see the doubt forming. She could see Adam giving it space to grow. This was not how these conversations usually went.
"Leonard," Adam said, without turning. "Go to the front desk and call the police."
"Right — yes—"
Leonard left at something between a walk and a run.
Esther made her calculation.
She turned and moved for the exit.
Adam caught her.
He'd been expecting it. He had a speed stat of 160 and strength of 260 — neither superhuman, but enough. His hand closed around the back of her collar and he lifted her clear of the ground.
What came out of her was not the voice of a frightened child.
She fought with the specific fury of someone who had been stopped before and responded by escalating. Her hands went for his arm, her feet kicked backward, she turned her face and tried to bite.
John surged forward to pull her back.
Adam's free hand caught John's wrist and held him against the wall with enough force to communicate that this was not a negotiation.
"Let go of her!"
"John." Adam's voice was steady despite the chaos. "Look at her. Right now. Look at what she does when she doesn't get what she wants."
Leonard came back with two security guards and the front desk nurse, all of whom stopped at the edge of the hallway and took in the scene.
Adam. One hand gripping a small girl by the collar, holding her at arm's length while she screamed and clawed. Other hand flat against the chest of a grown man, holding him in place without visible effort.
The security guards looked at each other.
"Sir," one of them said carefully.
"I'm a volunteer here," Adam said, still steady. "I witnessed this child attempt to suffocate the patient in ICU room four approximately fifteen minutes ago. The patient coded. He's been resuscitated. This person attempted to flee when I asked her to remain for the police."
He looked at John.
"She's not eight years old," he said quietly. "Ask the orphanage for her medical history. Ask them what they actually know about where she came from."
John stared at him.
The girl in Adam's grip had gone still. Not calm — still. The kind of stillness that came from recalculating.
The security guards moved forward.
End of Chapter 82
[500 PS unlocks 1 Extra Chapter]
[10 Reviews unlock 1 Extra Chapter]
Thanks for reading—reviews are appreciated.
P1treon Soulforger has 20+advance chapters