Chapter 277 Secrets

Chapter 277 Secrets

The post had already hit eight million views, with over a hundred thousand shares. The comment section was on fire.

"This is supposed to be a top hospital? They took all that money and couldn't even save a child?"

"The surgeon is hiding and refusing to show up?"

"Demanding a full investigation! This hospital should have been shut down long ago!"

Lily's pupils contracted slightly.

She scrolled down quickly and found it wasn't just one trending topic.

\#Sunrise Hospital#, #Cordelia#, #Zola# —

all three were climbing the trending charts at the same time, their heat growing exponentially.

What made it even stranger was that all three had started surging at almost the exact same moment, like three fuses lit by the same hand.

Her fingers hovered over the screen as her mind raced.

Sunrise Hospital operated as a high-end private medical facility, catering to the wealthy and powerful.

A hospital like that had serious PR muscle. There was no way negative press would blow up this suddenly without any warning...

Lily's gut told her something was off. She switched to her Instagram account and quickly typed out a message.

She kept it short — no long post, just a few lines: "I'm Lily, Zola's friend. This matter is currently under investigation, and I'll do everything I can to find out the truth. If anyone has information, feel free to DM me."

She posted it without expecting much.

But this time, things moved faster than she could have imagined.

In just five minutes, the post had been shared nearly twenty thousand times.

Comments flooded in like a dam had burst — every time she refreshed, the number jumped higher.

"Go Lily! Get justice for Zola!"

"I gave birth at Sunrise Hospital. I always felt something was off about how they ran things. I support a full investigation!"

"Sharing this! Let more people see it!"

"Lily, check your DMs — I have a friend who's a nurse at Sunrise Hospital. She knows some inside information. I'm having her reach out to you!"

Lily's grip on her phone tightened slightly. She scrolled down and noticed her own name had started climbing the trending list.

\#Lily# had jumped from somewhere in the forties and was shooting upward — within half an hour, it had broken into the top twenty.

That wasn't normal growth.

Lily stared at the share count ticking higher and higher, her thumb running back and forth along the edge of her phone case.

She was just about to switch to another app when a dull thud came from behind her, followed by Gabriel's voice cracking into a sharp cry.

"Zola! Zola, what's wrong!"

Lily spun around, nearly dropping her phone. Zola had slipped off the sofa and was curled up on the cold tile floor, her face white as paper, her lips tinged an unnatural shade of blue-grey. Her eyes were half-open, pupils unfocused, her breathing rapid and shallow — like something was blocking her airway.

"Zola!" Lily crossed the room in three strides and dropped to her knees, pulling Zola's upper body up and cradling her against her chest. Zola felt impossibly light, like a bundle of dry wood with all the bones hollowed out. She trembled faintly in Lily's arms, her skin ice-cold, while a thin sheen of cold sweat had broken out across her forehead.

"She just went quiet all of a sudden, and then she fell back—" Gabriel crouched beside them, his voice shaking badly, his hands reaching out and then pulling back, unsure where to go.

Lily freed one hand and pressed two fingers to Zola's neck. A pulse — still there, but racing, like it was trying to pound its way out of her chest. Lily had a legal background, not medical, but she had seen enough people fall apart to know what she was looking at.

This was more than grief.

Especially given that she had only just—

"Get a doctor! Go get a doctor now!" Lily snapped at Gabriel, her voice leaving no room for argument.

Gabriel jolted into motion, stumbling to his feet and running toward the end of the hallway, shouting as he went: "Help! Someone help! My wife collapsed!"

Lily laid Zola flat on the floor and undid the buttons of her coat to keep her airway clear. Zola's fingers found Lily's sleeve without thinking and gripped it tight, her nails pressing through the fabric and into Lily's skin. It was an instinctive, desperate grip — the grip of someone drowning, clutching the last thing keeping them afloat.

"It's okay, Zola, it's okay, the doctor's coming." Lily held her hand with one of hers and gently patted her cheek with the other. "Can you hear me? Ruowei?"

Zola's eyelids fluttered. Her lips moved, forming a few broken, barely audible sounds. Lily leaned her ear close and just barely made out the words.

"Cordelia... Cordelia..."

She was calling her daughter's name.

Lily's eyes burned. She bit down hard on her lower lip and forced the feeling back down. She couldn't fall apart right now.

Hurried footsteps echoed from down the hall. Gabriel came running back with two nurses and an on-call doctor.

The doctor knelt down and quickly checked Zola's vitals, lifted her eyelids, then looked up at the nurses. "Blood pressure's very low, heart rate's elevated. Suspected postpartum complication combined with acute stress response. Transfer to the ER immediately — start an IV line and get OB and cardiology on consult."

The nurses moved fast and efficiently, lifting Zola onto a gurney and rushing her toward the emergency room at a near-run.

Gabriel walked alongside the gurney, holding Zola's hand, murmuring "it's okay, it's okay" over and over — but his voice sounded like it had been pulled from underwater, soaked through, on the verge of breaking apart.

Lily followed at the back. Her phone was buzzing nonstop in her pocket, but she couldn't bring herself to look at it.

Her eyes stayed fixed on the slight figure on the gurney ahead of her.

Then, without warning, a thought detonated in her mind.

What had Tobias said back in the conference room?

He said he knew what it was like to be a mother... but almost no one knew about that.

So how did he know?

Lily's steps slowed. The gurney and Gabriel's figure pulled further away. The fluorescent lights overhead made her head swim. The air smelled of antiseptic — sharp and clean, like a cold blade dragged across her sinuses.

She thought about the look on Tobias's face when he said it. He wasn't guessing. He knew.

But how? Didn't that mean he had to know something?