Chapter 103

Chapter 103

Rain started falling again outside the window, droplets tapping against the glass in a steady rhythm.

Time crawled by. Diana kept her back to David, clearly done with the conversation.

David held out as long as he could, but finally cracked.

"Nicholas has never bent the knee to anyone. This time, to find you, he violated neighboring airspace and nearly got shot down by their defense systems. When he was standing guard here earlier, he'd been awake for over thirty hours straight."

Diana opened her eyes, staring at the rain streaking down the window.

"So what?"

David's brow furrowed.

"I'm not asking you to forgive him right away, but you should at least know—he does have feelings for you."

Diana slowly turned over.

The movement pulled at the gunshot wound in her right arm. Her face went a shade paler, but her gaze didn't waver an inch.

"If he gets rained on a few times, skips a few meals—does that bring back my baby? My mother?"

David's words stuck in his throat.

"I..."

"He can't sleep, so I'm supposed to feel sorry for him. Then who felt sorry for me when I was locked up in Phoenix Tower?"

Diana stared him down, her voice rising.

"I was on that operating table begging him to save our baby. Did he listen? My mother was waiting for that heart to survive. Did he give me a choice? Now that he's realized he can't let me go, you all come running to tell me how much he's suffering."

Diana's lips twisted into something bitter.

"His pain matters, but my life is just—what? Collateral damage?"

David fell completely silent.

He was a hard-liner, rarely changing his mind once it was made up. But every single word Diana said, he couldn't refute.

Footsteps suddenly echoed outside the hospital room.

The door swung open.

Nicholas stood in the doorway, rainwater still clinging to the shoulders of his tactical jacket. Behind him were Terry and two bodyguards, with a man in a white coat caught between them.

The man's hands were cuffed behind his back, his mask torn off, a scrape marking his cheekbone.

Nicholas had clearly heard what Diana just said.

His hand still rested on the door handle, knuckles slowly tightening.

After a few seconds, he looked away.

"Bring him in."

David stood up, his gaze landing on the man in the white coat.

"Where'd you grab him?"

"The nursing home where Lindsey's staying."

Terry tossed a clear evidence bag onto the table. Inside were syringes, ampules, and a forged medical ID badge.

"Half an hour ago, the nursing home's pharmacy caught fire. Someone took advantage of the chaos to cut the surveillance and posed as medical staff to enter Ms. Russell's room, planning to inject potassium chloride into her IV bag."

David's expression darkened.

"That phone call was a trap?"

Nicholas walked into the room and closed the door behind him.

"Someone knew that if Lindsey called me, I'd assume I had to rush to the nursing home. They wanted to draw security away from here—and use the fire to kill you."

Diana's heart skipped.

Nicholas... didn't go to the nursing home?

Terry continued, "Mr. Kennedy left the hospital through the back entrance and had a decoy drive to the nursing home. We sealed off the pharmacy and fire exits ahead of time, waiting for the assassin to show himself."

David walked up to the man and yanked up his sleeve.

On the inside of his wrist was a patch of discolored skin, like a tattoo that had been forcibly removed.

David rubbed his thumb over it twice, his face darkening completely.

"The Scavengers."

The man in the white coat lifted his eyes. He didn't deny it.

Diana remembered the gunman from the helicopter.

The same calm demeanor, the same fearlessness in front of Nicholas. So she asked, "The person who shot at me in the safe house—are they part of the same group as him?"

Nicholas turned his head slightly.

"I'm still investigating."

"Or you've already figured it out, and you're just not planning to tell me?"

Their eyes locked.

Nicholas didn't answer.

A woman's cry suddenly rang out from the hallway.

"Nicholas!"

The door was shoved open.

Lindsey appeared, wearing a hospital-issued coat, her hair disheveled, ash smeared across her face. Two bodyguards followed behind her, metal restraint cuffs still locked around her wrists.

When she saw Nicholas, her eyes lit up. She rushed toward him, sobbing.

"Nicholas, I knew you wouldn't abandon me! When the nursing home caught fire, I was so scared. They said someone wanted to kill me, and the first person I thought of was you..."

Nicholas sidestepped.

Lindsey stumbled into empty air, nearly falling.

She froze in place.

Nicholas looked down at her, his eyes devoid of warmth.

"Don't get the wrong idea. You were just bait."

The color drained from Lindsey's face instantly.

"What did you say?"

"From the moment you called, I knew someone would use that fire to silence you."

Nicholas's tone was flat.

"I had people keep you alive only because you can't die yet."

Lindsey's lips trembled.

"But you clearly said you'd come right away..."

"I said it for the killer to hear."

That short answer crushed every ounce of her wishful thinking.

Lindsey instinctively looked at Diana.

Diana leaned against the headboard, expression calm, showing not a flicker of emotion at this twist.

Nicholas walked to the bedside.

"Diana, that phone call—"

"No need to explain."

Diana cut him off.

Nicholas froze.

"I didn't leave because I was worried about Lindsey."

"I know."

Diana looked at him, her voice so flat it barely registered.

"Why you left doesn't matter to me anymore."

Nicholas's jaw tightened.

Diana continued, "Even if I misunderstood you this one time, it doesn't make up for the countless times you misunderstood me. Isabella died, and you decided I killed her. Your mother got hurt, and you decided my mother was involved. Every time Lindsey shed a tear, you assumed I was bullying her."

She met his gaze head-on.

"Now you get it right once, and you think that erases everything from before?"

Nicholas's outstretched hand stopped mid-air.

His fingertips hovered just inches from her left hand, but he couldn't close the distance.

The hospital room fell deathly silent.

The man posing as medical staff suddenly let out a laugh, jarring in the stillness.

David immediately felt insulted and grabbed him by the collar.

"Who sent you?"

"No one."

"Why were you trying to kill Lindsey?"

The man's lips were still stained with blood, but his tone remained steady.

"She found out something she shouldn't have."

Nicholas's eyes turned cold.

"What did she find out?"

The man's gaze slid past David and landed on Diana.

"A secret. About a child."

Nicholas's expression changed drastically.

"Shut up!"

He stepped forward and grabbed the man by the throat.

The man's breathing was cut off, but there was no fear on his face. Instead, he stared at Diana with an unsettling smile.

David sensed something wrong and immediately grabbed Nicholas's wrist.

"Keep him alive!"

Nicholas stared at the man for several seconds before abruptly letting go.

"Take him next door. Interrogate him now."

The bodyguards dragged the man out of the room.

The sound of handcuffs clinking mixed with Lindsey's muffled sobs, quickly fading beyond the door.

Diana hadn't missed Nicholas's reaction.

When the child was mentioned, he'd panicked.

Why?

She slowly sat up straighter, the pain from her wound causing cold sweat to bead on her temples.

"Nicholas."

The man kept his back to her, not turning around.

Diana stared at his rigid shoulders, asking each word carefully:

"That child—is it Holden?"