Chapter 278: Connection

The moment Zola collapsed, neither Gabriel nor Lily had time to react.

She went down like a dry branch snapped by the wind — her knees buckled, and she fell toward the floor without a sound.

Gabriel lunged for her on instinct, calling out, "Zola! Zola!"

He threw himself forward, his hands trembling as he cradled her head.

Her face was paper-white, her lips an unnatural grayish-purple, her eyes shut tight, lashes perfectly still.

He kept calling her name, louder and more desperate with each second, like a drowning man clawing for the last piece of driftwood he could find.

The charge nurse was the first to snap into action. She rushed over and crouched down, pressing two fingers to Zola's neck.

Her brow furrowed. She spun toward the nurses' station and barked, "Get a gurney over here! Now!"

Lily stood frozen, watching the chaos unfold in front of her, her heart clenched in a tight fist.

Her eyes stayed fixed on Zola's bloodless face. She didn't know what she could do right now — but if she could reach Kai, she needed to ask whether any of this had something to do with him.

While she was still turning that thought over, Tobias had already stepped out from the conference room doorway.

He'd just wrapped up the meeting. Every word he'd said in there had made Lily's stomach turn.

The nurses came running with the gurney. They lifted Zola carefully and got her onto it. Gabriel stayed right beside her, one hand locked around hers the entire time, his knuckles white from the grip. As he passed Tobias, he looked up. There was no anger in his eyes, no accusation — just something that made Tobias instinctively step back half a pace.

It was what's left of a father who's been backed to the edge of a cliff — the very last thread of reason holding him together.

"Tobias." Gabriel's voice was low, almost swallowed by the noise around them. "You said the hospital would get to the bottom of this. I'm taking you at your word. But my child only has one life."

He said nothing more. He turned and followed the gurney.

The sound of the wheels rolling down the hallway faded into the distance. The people left behind drifted apart in twos and threes, their whispers spreading like damp fog after rain — sighs, slow headshakes, fragments of half-known information being traded back and forth as everyone tried to piece together what had really happened.

Tobias pinched the bridge of his nose and drew a long breath, then turned to Lily, who hadn't moved.

Lily was already looking at him.

Their eyes met — one measuring, one guarded.

"Lily, I know you've been following this closely, and I appreciate the time you've put in for Zola's sake. But you can see the situation now. What they need is rest and space. What the hospital needs is time and trust. I hope you won't let yourself get too wound up over this. Just focus on what you're supposed to be doing."

What she's supposed to be doing?

This was the second time this man had warned her.

Lily turned his words over carefully. Every sentence felt like a neatly wrapped trap.

She didn't respond right away. She gave a small nod — and then she looked straight at him.

"I really do hope none of you had anything to do with this. The least we can ask is that this hospital isn't the kind of place that costs people their lives."

The moment the words left her mouth, the hallway went quiet. Even the hum of the fluorescent lights seemed to sharpen.

Something shifted in Tobias's expression — like a predator who'd just felt a blade find the soft spot between his ribs. His first instinct wasn't to strike back. It was to figure out exactly how deep the knife had gone.

"Lily." His voice was quieter than before, and steadier. "I'm not sure I follow what you mean."

"Really?" Lily held his gaze. Her fingers curled at her side without her noticing. "My mother was treated at this hospital. She also developed acute liver failure and other complications after surgery. And as her family member, I couldn't even get a complete copy of her medical records. Tobias — if that had happened to you, what would you think?"

Tobias didn't answer right away.

"I'm not very familiar with your mother's case," he said, his eyes steady and unreadable. "But what I can tell you is that every patient's condition is complicated." He looked at Lily. "We can only do our best."

"Our best." Lily's tone was flat, unmoved. "Well, if that's true, I suppose that's something."

She was still deciding what to push on next when her phone rang.

She paused and glanced down at the screen.

David's name.

She hesitated for less than half a second, then turned away and answered.

"Lily..." David's voice came through the line carrying something she rarely heard from him — an odd, weighted quality she couldn't quite name. "I know where your dad's been hiding."

Her heart slammed against her chest.

She gripped the phone tighter. The last thing she wanted right now was for David to tell her that Kai was at Sunrise Hospital.

But his voice was too heavy for that.

She knew David well enough. He wasn't someone who chose his words carefully — unless what he was about to say couldn't be taken back once it was out.

"What is it?" she heard herself ask. Her voice came out steadier than she expected.

Silence on the other end.

She could almost picture David standing somewhere, the slight furrow between his brows.

"Lily, I need you to brace yourself. Your father's business dealings overseas have been extensive, and we're still pinpointing his exact location. But based on what I've found so far — he has ties to organized crime. Mafia connections."

The fingers holding her phone went rigid, the tips draining of color.

"What do you mean?"

She frowned. Kai, of all people, mixed up with the mafia?

"The family he's connected to has serious reach. They're into casinos, loan sharking, drugs, trafficking — all of it. The name shows up in Interpol's reporting system at a rate that matches exactly how dangerous they are. Multiple cross-border money laundering cases have been traced back to them, and the money trails keep pointing back to this family's shadow, one way or another."

Lily breathed in slowly, then again. She closed her eyes.

She should have seen it. Even as a kid, the signs were all there — the constant overseas trips, the wire transfers with no clear source, the phone calls he'd take in the middle of the night with his voice dropped to almost nothing. And the fact that he'd once had her kidnapped — she should have connected the dots long before now.

"Lily?" David's voice came again, careful, with a thread of concern just barely showing through.

She opened her eyes. Her voice dropped lower than before. "David. Just tell me straight. Is this about organ trafficking?"

She didn't really need him to answer.

She already knew.

The things Kai had done over the years — none of them were ever quite clean enough to be innocent.