He leaned his head closer to mine, his eyes scanning the hallway.

“I was just the bagman,” Evan whispered, his voice dropping below the roar of the siren. “I took the cash to keep the kid weak.”

“But Julian,” Evan added, his eyes widening. “Julian has a different plan.”

“Where is the antidote?” Lorenzo stepped closer, ignoring the gun aimed at his heart.

“There is no antidote, Lorenzo,” Evan said. “There is only the patent.”

I stared at Evan’s profile, the realization hitting me like cold water.

“The experimental treatments,” I breathed.

“Exactly,” Evan said. “Julian didn’t just want the money.”

“He wants the medical glory,” I said.

Evan nodded quickly, his hand shaking slightly against my temple.

“He’s using Leo to prove his new synthetic drug works,” Evan said. “But first, he had to make the boy sick enough to need it.”

“You poisoned an infant for a research paper?” Lorenzo’s voice was a low, lethal purr.

“For a multi-billion-dollar pharmaceutical monopoly,” Evan corrected.

A sudden, heavy thud sounded from inside the nursery.

It was followed by the sharp, metallic scrape of a medical cart sliding across the floor.