“Mr. Garvey, what are you doing here?”Holding onto Martin’s arm, Isla’s gaze never left his face.“Don’t tell me what I’m thinking is true—that you were following them… those devil worshippers?”Isla glanced toward the end of the hedge maze ahead.“Mr. Garvey, you’re a doctor.”She shook his arm slightly, as if trying to wake him up and make him realize how wrong his actions were.But Martin only smiled.“Miss Horner, forgive me. Of course that’s not true,” Martin replied calmly, showing no sign of deception—despite deliberately lying.“I thought those people were heading to your place, so I followed them.”Still, Isla’s words made him pause.“But if I may ask,” Martin added casually, “why do you refer to them that way?”He was curious—did this woman know something about that group?“Shh!”Isla pressed her index finger to her lips.“We shouldn’t talk about them. It’s better if we leave now.”She immediately started walking again, this time holding firmly onto Martin’s arm, as if afra

Roaaar!The sound came from the corner of the room—cold, suffocating, and dimly lit.As Martin scanned his surroundings, he realized that the room itself was immaculately maintained.The walls were clean. The furniture neatly arranged.But just like outside, the same thing applied here.Every window was sealed with tape, completely blocking out the sunlight.The only source of light came from a small bedside lamp left on atop a table beside the bed.And in the corner—A middle-aged woman with disheveled hair lay on the bed.Her eyes were tightly shut, but her mouth hung wide open.Roar!That was the sound coming from her throat.So this is why Miss Robinson warned me not to be afraid, Martin thought.Anyone who heard such a sound coming from behind closed doors would have their hair stand on end.“Mr. Garvey… I’m certain my mother is possessed by an evil spirit.”Isla could no longer hide the sorrow on her face.“Father forbade her from approaching those paintings, but she insisted. A

“This one.”Isla pointed at a surreal painting of a kidney, slightly wider than half a meter and nearly a full meter in length.“This is the last painting I saw my mother touch before she became like this.”Martin studied the painting carefully.“This… is the left kidney, isn’t it?” he murmured.It was the organ most commonly donated.“Yes. It’s the kidney someone donated to me,” Isla said with a bright smile.Martin nodded, then examined the painting more closely.At first glance, nothing seemed unusual—except that it wasn’t perfectly straight.An ordinary person might not notice it, but Martin had undergone intensive training that required him to detect even the slightest tilt in an object.He put on gloves to avoid contaminating the artwork, then gently pushed the lower edge of the ornate frame.Scrrk!Sure enough, when the painting was tilted about fifteen degrees, a steel box became visible behind it.When Martin lifted the painting away from the wall, everyone could clearly see

“Why? Why do I have to do that?”Isla stared intently at her brother.“Just do it,” Thomas replied calmly.“You’ll see that everything I said is true afterward.”Isla didn’t want to believe her brother’s words.But deep down, curiosity and fear gnawed at her heart—what if it was true?She took the cloth from Thomas’s hand and brought it to her mother’s room.“Mom…” she called out, her voice trembling as one hand stretched out from behind her back, revealing the cloth.That single call caused her mother’s bulging eyes to snap toward her.“Roaaar!”With a feral roar, Mrs. Horner opened her mouth and lunged toward her daughter.But the moment she saw the cloth in Isla’s hand, she abruptly retreated, no longer daring to approach.Isla flung the door open and ran out of the room.“Oh my God! You were right!”Her body trembled violently as she threw her arms around her brother.She had never seen a person suddenly turn into someone else before.At that moment, she had no choice but to belie

“Miss Horner, I need to leave now,” Martin said.Glancing at his watch, the auction was set to begin in less than fifteen minutes.“I’m coming with you.”Wiping the tears from her face, Isla stood up from the sofa.After Martin explained what had really been happening in the house—and what had happened to her brother—she felt she had to find out who her brother had truly been working for.And the only way to do that was to go to this so-called auction, even if she didn’t know what was being sold or how it worked.“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Martin said.“Everything here is already resolved. Mrs. Horner’s condition will gradually improve as long as she gets enough sunlight every day. There’s nothing more you need to do now.”But Isla stared straight at him.“You can say that because you haven’t lost anyone,” she replied sharply.“I lost my brother. And I don’t want my ignorance to cause harm to anyone else again. I have to do something.”Her voice rose slightly, releasing the a