Chapter 279 Hidden in the Dark

Chapter 279 Hidden in the Dark

Lily gripped her phone tight. She kept seeing it — Zola collapsing, and that baby, little Cordelia, who hadn't even learned to cry yet, hadn't learned to smile — just like that, gone.

How could this just be an accident?

Her chest heaved hard.

"Today. Just now." Her voice dropped so low only David on the other end could hear it, but every word was shaking, like a string pulled to its breaking point. "My friend's baby didn't make it at Sunrise Hospital. The surgeon was... Conrad..."

She bit down on her lip and tasted blood, metallic and sharp.

"I have reason to believe this wasn't straightforward. David, something is wrong here."

Her knuckles had gone white.

"What?" David was too sharp not to catch her meaning — though a hospital that size shouldn't be brazen enough to pull something like this.

"Lily, Conrad..." David finally spoke, his voice flat as if he were reading off a chart. "He's one of the top names in the field, domestically and internationally. Won best physician last year. Fifteen years, zero incidents."

"Zero incidents?" Lily almost laughed. "So what does today count as?"

"So you think..." David pressed, "that a fifteen-year, zero-incident specialist just... slipped up during a cardiac surgery. Not a technical failure. Something else?"

Lily opened her mouth and found her throat had closed up.

She wasn't a doctor. She didn't know how to hold a scalpel, how to close a wound, what the odds were for that kind of surgery.

But she knew those eyes — bright and clear, overflowing with a joy that hadn't had time to become anything else.

"I don't care what kind of specialist he is." Lily's voice steadied, hard and tight as a fist around a blade. "David, I also think my mother didn't die of natural causes. And Kai — what did you find after he left the hospital that day?"

Silence on the other end.

A different kind of silence this time. Before, David had been thinking. Now, he was choosing his words.

"You think he came after me just over a personal grudge?" Lily pushed. "He's running. Won't go home, won't show his face. Help me find where he's staying. I need to ask him to his face —"

"Lily." David cut her off.

His tone had shifted.

"After he left the hospital that day," David said, "he never surfaced again."

Lily's breath caught.

"So your instinct wasn't off." David took a few slow breaths. "Imogen and I both pulled the surveillance. He left through the hospital's back entrance, got into a black SUV. I ran the plates — they were cloned. After that, his phone signal showed up one last time on the north expressway, heading toward the airport. But there's no record of him at the airport. No departures. Nothing."

Lily's palms had started to sweat.

"So what you're saying is..."

The thought hit her like cold water flooding down her spine, all the way up to the back of her skull.

"Your instinct might be right. Kai never left the hospital."

The moment those words landed, something seized her breath and wouldn't let go.

She'd assumed he came in from outside.

But what if he'd never left at all?

Lily dropped suddenly, knees hitting the hallway tile hard. The pain shot through her, sharp enough to yank her back from the edge of suffocation.

She gulped air, like a fish thrown onto shore. Something burned behind her eyes but didn't fall.

"Lily? Lily, can you hear me?" David's voice finally broke through, sharp and clear.

"I... I'm here." Her voice came out rough, barely her own.

"Listen to me." There was something in David's tone she almost never heard — firm, almost pressing. "I'm not trying to scare you. I'm telling you something you need to understand. If Kai is still in that hospital, it means he has nowhere left to go. It also means he's not planning to run. A man who isn't running either thinks he doesn't need to, or thinks he can't. If this were just about what he did to you, I don't think he'd feel cornered."

Lily bit her lip again. The metallic taste came back.

"Which one is he?"

"Could be either," David said. "But either way, you're a loose end he needs to deal with. You're looking into Cordelia's death, and your mother's — that puts pressure on him. Lily, even setting aside your own safety, Chase is in danger too."

The mention of Chase hit her like a fist.

She closed her eyes and tried to think.

"I already talked to Olivia," David said.

Lily paused. "What?"

David moved on, already planning. "I told her what's going on. She said letting you stay alone would be insane. For now, you two stay together — she comes to yours, or you go to hers, doesn't matter. Not alone. As for Chase, I'll bring him back to the house. You can come whenever you want. Me and anyone else in the Jones family, we'll stay out of your way."

Lily opened her mouth. She wanted to say it wasn't necessary. That she didn't want to drag Olivia into this. That she could take care of herself.

But the words dissolved before they reached her lips.

Because she realized she was scared. Really scared.

Not the kind of fear that makes you flinch from danger — but the kind that comes from not knowing where Kai was hiding inside that hospital, not knowing when he'd reappear, not knowing what he'd do next time.

Having someone with her meant that when she closed her eyes, there'd still be someone watching.

"...Okay," Lily finally said.

"One more thing." David paused. "Leave Sunrise Hospital."

"What?"

"Even for your friend's sake — Lily, you cannot stay at Sunrise Hospital."

She went quiet. She knew that. Of course she knew. But right now she was somehow thinking about how to face Zola — because if Kai really had something to do with it, then she herself was part of the problem somehow...

"I know what you're thinking..." David said, like he could see straight through her. "But think about it. If Kai is still in that hospital, he's in the shadows. You're in the open. You being at Sunrise Hospital is the same as sending him your location. Lily, about your mother —"

David stopped.

Lily's pupils shrank.

Her voice went very small, almost like she was talking to herself. "When my mom had that surgery, I thought something felt off too. But same as now — no proof."