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Chapter_218
Lyra nodded quickly and slipped out of the room, her footsteps echoing faintly down the corridor. Elaine stood alone, gripping the medical file with white-knuckled fingers. Her breath was even, her expression serene—but inside, her thoughts surged like a current beneath cracked ice.
That nurse. There was something off about her.
Elaine’s gaze drifted to the door. The woman’s eyes had lingered too long, her presence too deliberate. And when their eyes met, there had been a flicker of recognition—or suspicion. A knowing. Who was she? And why had she been near the transplant files?
Elaine’s heart thudded faster, but she controlled it. She always did. She had built this life through careful calculation and ruthless execution. She would not let it fall apart because of one meddling nurse.
Still, her mind returned to the report—the one she had doctored to bury the truth about Natalie’s transplant. Was someone digging again?
A soft knock broke her concentration.
Lyra stepped in with Dr. Horatio in tow. Elaine’s demeanor shifted instantly. She smiled, sweet and composed, as she set the file down with deliberate ease.
“Dr. Horatio,” she greeted, her voice velvet over steel. “I’m concerned. One of the nurses was behaving oddly. I think we should review the transplant records again—just to be safe.”
Dr. Horatio hesitated, adjusting his glasses. “Of course, Elaine. I’ll personally go through them again. There’s no need to be alarmed.”
Elaine gave him a gracious nod, but her thoughts remained elsewhere. Something had shifted. A threat was stirring—and it wasn’t one she had accounted for.
Meanwhile, in the men’s restroom on the lower floor, Tiana steadied herself against the sink. Her chest rose and fell in shallow breaths as Parker loomed just feet away, a shadow from a past she hadn’t expected to confront today.
He was exactly as she remembered: slick, unreadable, dangerous.
“Didn’t expect to see you here,” she said, her voice recovering from the shock, edged with defiance.
Parker chuckled, the sound low and unsettling. His hand slowly dropped from where it had silenced her moments ago. Tiana stepped back instinctively, eyes wary.
“I could say the same,” he replied, folding his arms. “But lucky me. Seems I’ve stumbled onto something far more interesting than a routine visit.”
She didn’t answer, her silence an unspoken challenge.
“You’re looking into the kidney transplants, aren’t you?” he asked, his tone smooth but pointed. “Digging into who donated. Who benefited.”
Tiana’s pulse jumped, but she kept her expression neutral. “That’s none of your concern.”
“Oh, but it is,” Parker said, stepping closer. “You’re not as subtle as you think. And frankly, if I figured it out, someone else will too. Someone… less tolerant.”
Her stomach twisted, but she held her ground. “What are you doing here, Parker?”
He smiled thinly, cold as marble. “Let’s just say I’m protecting my interests. And right now, your investigation could help me—or blow everything up.”
He leaned in slightly, voice dropping to a murmur. “So let me be clear. I’m not stopping you. Not yet. But if you get careless, if you bring heat to the wrong people, I won’t hesitate to shut it down. And I promise, you won’t like how I do it.”
Tiana’s jaw clenched. “And if I don’t care what you like?”
Parker’s smile widened, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Then you’ll learn the hard way. But I have a feeling you’re smarter than that.”
Without another word, he turned and walked out, leaving the scent of cologne and menace in his wake.
Tiana remained still, hands trembling slightly. She had come prepared for danger—but not him. Now she had another variable in a plan that was already teetering on the edge.
She couldn’t trust Parker.
But she might need him.
At Skyfaith Headquarters, Ludwik sat behind his desk, Felix’s report open before him, though the words barely registered. His knuckles were white around a tumbler of untouched whiskey. The knot in his chest hadn’t loosened since that morning.
The image of Whitney with Bryce haunted him. Her laugh. The way she used to look at him. Was it really all gone? Or had Bryce manipulated her, filled the void Ludwik had left with carefully timed affection?
He hated how easily he could imagine it.
But then came the harder thought—the one he had shoved down for weeks.
Was Whitney really free to choose? Or had she been cornered, just like him?
The baby. The engagement. The silence between them.
His phone buzzed.
A message from Elaine lit up the screen: Confirming our appointment at the bridal boutique. My mother is ecstatic. Don’t forget—we’re being watched. Let’s play the part well.
Ludwik stared at the message, his lips curling into something between a smirk and a grimace.
Play the part.
That’s all this was now.
He rose and walked to the window, gazing out at the city. Lights blinked in clusters. Roads wound like arteries, pulsing with a life that didn’t care about broken hearts or buried truths.
This engagement, this future with Elaine—it was all performance.
But performances could be rewritten. And as long as Whitney still occupied his thoughts, some part of him believed it might not be too late to rewrite his.
Not yet.
