Chapter 195
"I know who you are. You're Isabella's lover. She missed you so much when she was with me, so I decided to bring her to see you. But then we got into a car accident on the way. Oh, God, I knew I shouldn't have come down the mountain. Nothing good ever happens when I do."
The air in the hospital room seemed to freeze.
Eva's words, delivered with an innocent smile but completely illogical, exploded like an absurd bomb in everyone's ears, leaving a lingering buzz and an unbelievable silence.
Vitale, the mafia boss who rarely flinched even in the face of gunfire or explosions, couldn't hide a flicker of surprise in his blue eyes at that moment.
He tilted his head slightly, his gaze landing on Eva's face, truly looking at this young woman he had only seen as bait for the first time.
Amboni's mouth hung open, his jaw practically hitting the floor. He glanced at Eva, then at the clueless nurse, and finally turned his eyes to Jerry, who stood in the corner with his hands in the pockets of his white coat. He muttered under his breath, "What the hell did you do?"
Even the young nurse, who had just been freed from being held hostage and was still trembling, momentarily forgot her fear and stared wide-eyed.
Everyone's eyes were now fixed on Jerry.
Their looks were filled with questions, shock, and a trace of unspoken fear of the unknown.
They all knew Jerry was a brilliant doctor with extraordinary skills, adept at handling all kinds of special injuries and situations.
But what was happening right now went far beyond the realm of medical treatment.
It was as if someone's very soul had been swapped out.
Under the weight of everyone's stares, Jerry, for once, didn't maintain his usual doctor-like calm.
He adjusted the gold-rimmed glasses on his nose, his movement even showing a hint of subtle stiffness.
He raised his hands in a gesture of innocence and defended himself in a slightly hurried tone, "Guys! Don't look at me like I'm some kind of monster. I swear, this has nothing to do with me."
"I'm not God. I don't have the power to change someone's personality or implant fake memories out of nowhere. Every drug I gave her—sedatives, nerve nutrients, recovery aids—was within standard medical guidelines. The dosages were precisely calculated, and everything is documented for anyone to check."
Jerry pointed at the tablet on the floor, which recorded Eva's vital signs and treatment plans, and then at the tangled but still functioning monitoring equipment connected to Eva, trying to prove his innocence.
However, the more he explained, the deeper the doubt seemed to grow in everyone's eyes.
Because Eva's behavior right now was just too strange, too different from who she had been before.
At that moment, Eva seemed to snap out of her jumbled logic and remembered what mattered most to her.
Ignoring Jerry, she turned to Vitale, her deep green eyes filled with pure concern, "Mr. Luca, where's Isabella? How is she? Is she hurt? I want to see her."
Eva's tone was so natural, so familiar, as if Vitale really was the dependable boyfriend of her close friend, and she was just a caring sister worried about her bestie.
Vitale quickly hid the surprise in his eyes. Facing Eva's sudden trust and questions based on her mistaken beliefs, he reacted swiftly, almost instinctively playing along, "Isabella's fine, just a few scrapes and a bit shaken up." He lied without batting an eye. "Last night, she stayed up waiting for your surgery to finish and didn't get much rest. She was exhausted, so I sent her home to sleep."
"You need to focus on recovering and follow the doctor's orders. Once she's rested and feeling better, I'll bring her to see you, okay?"
His explanation made perfect sense and fit seamlessly into the distorted reality in Eva's mind.
Sure enough, after hearing this, Eva's face showed relief and even a hint of guilt.
"It's all my fault for insisting on bringing her down the mountain," she mumbled softly, then nodded obediently, "okay, I'll listen to you. I'll cooperate with the treatment. Please tell Isabella I'm fine and not to worry."
She tossed the medical scissors aside, then weakly leaned back onto the hospital bed and closed her eyes, seemingly ready to rest and recover.
Her submissive, almost dependent demeanor was a chilling contrast to the cold, ruthless, and aggressive female assassin she had been before.
Vitale gave Jerry a look, signaling him to handle the situation with Eva and clean up the scene, then tilted his head slightly at Amboni and turned to leave the eerie hospital room.
Amboni followed right behind.
At Jerry's gesture, the nurse, suppressing her fear and confusion, began tidying up the room and preparing to restart Eva's IV drip now that she had calmed down.
Vitale and Amboni headed straight to Jerry's private office in the medical base.
The office was simple and professional, filled with the smell of disinfectant, paper, and electronic devices.
Vitale locked the heavy soundproof door behind him, shutting out the outside world for the moment.
He didn't sit down right away but walked over to the large floor-to-ceiling window.
Amboni paced back and forth in the office, clearly restless.
A few minutes later, the door swung open, and Jerry hurried in, his face still showing the frustration of being interrupted during treatment, along with a lingering trace of confusion.
He locked the door behind him as well.
The three of them stood in the office, the atmosphere even heavier and more serious than it had been in the hospital room.
Vitale turned around. He didn't look at the anxious Amboni or the helpless Jerry. Instead, he walked over to Jerry's large wooden desk, his fingers tapping rhythmically on the smooth surface without much thought.
His gaze seemed fixed on some invisible point in the air, as if he was organizing his thoughts.
After a moment, he spoke slowly, his voice low but carrying an undeniable weight, "Jerry." Vitale looked at him, his blue eyes not accusing but sharp, almost scrutinizing. "I need an explanation for what just happened. That was beyond strange."
He paused, his fingers stopping their tapping as he leaned forward slightly, locking eyes with Jerry, "Do you realize how weird that was? A professional killer who nearly took me out and held my woman hostage wakes up with no memory, thinking I'm her best friend's lover, and even her personality seems completely different."
"From a cold, hard rock to a lively, friend-worrying piece of cake. Do you get what I'm saying?"
Vitale's metaphor carried a touch of dark humor, but there was no trace of amusement in his tone.
"Your drugs seem to have changed the core of who she is, Jerry. That doesn't sound like medicine. It sounds like witchcraft." His voice held a subtle tension. "Do you see what she's like now?"
Under Vitale's intense stare, Jerry, for once, lost the calm confidence he usually carried.
He took a deep breath and walked over to his computer, quickly entering his password to pull up Eva's full electronic medical records and treatment history. The cold light of the screen reflected on his face, making his expression look even more serious.
"Vitale, I swear on my professional reputation and the years we've known each other," Jerry said, his voice tinged with urgency and sincerity after being questioned, "I didn't use any known drug that could directly cause a personality change or implant fake memories."
"All the medication records are right here. You can have any pharmacologist you trust review them."
"The type and dosage of sedatives were to control her post-traumatic agitation and possible self-harm tendencies. The nerve-support drugs were to repair potential microscopic brain damage from the explosion's impact and oxygen deprivation. Everything else was standard supportive care."
Jerry scrolled quickly through the data charts and medication lists on the screen, trying to prove his innocence.
"As for how she's acting now," Jerry paused, leaning back in his chair. He took off his gold-rimmed glasses and rubbed his temples hard, his face showing deep confusion and a hint of defeat, "it's definitely very strange and beyond anything I expected."
"Based on the intel we had and our brief interactions, she was an extremely cold, focused, ruthless killer who harbored a deep hatred for the mafia. But now..."
Jerry put his glasses back on and looked at Vitale and Amboni, "She's showing an almost naive, illogical confusion. She sees Isabella as a close friend and trusts you, Vitale—the mafia boss she should theoretically hate the most—as a dependable boyfriend of her friend."
"If this kind of change was caused by drugs, it would be a groundbreaking miracle in neuropharmacology."
"Or a disaster. But my rational and professional judgment tells me the chances of that are extremely low."
Jerry hesitated, his tone growing more uncertain, "I'm more inclined to think this change is an extreme defense mechanism and reconstruction of her subconscious in response to trauma."
"The intense explosion, near-death experience, and the reality of being captured might have destroyed or severely disrupted her original memory structure. In that chaos, some subtle feelings from her time with Isabella..."
"Maybe it was Isabella's toughness or a certain level of understanding she showed. Or maybe it's a deep, hidden desire for normal friendship or protection."
"These fragments, in her damaged brain, got twisted, amplified, and reorganized into a false memory narrative centered on protecting Isabella, while harmlessly rewriting the relationships of the people around her."
Jerry's explanation was full of psychological theories. It sounded reasonable, but it still couldn't fully erase the eerie feeling.
Amboni, listening to Jerry's analysis, couldn't help but interrupt, "Jerry, we've always admired your medical skills. Calling you the top special doctor in Arcturus wouldn't be an overstatement."
"But I've got to say, in all the years I've been with Vitale, I've seen all kinds of crazy stuff, but I've never seen a cold-blooded killer turned into a naive best friend. This is scarier than a mafia shootout."
He looked at Vitale, then at Jerry, the unease in his eyes still not completely gone.