"He was wearing patient clothes," Emma continued, seemingly unaware of her mother's sudden tension. "You know, like the hospital gown thing. He seemed nice. He talked to me for a little bit."Alexander, Sophia thought, ice flooding her veins. It has to be Alexander. He's been here. In Emma's room. Talking to my daughter without my permission."What did he say to you?" Sophia asked, her voice tight.Emma's brow furrowed as she tried to remember. "He said everything had been taken care of. That I didn't need to worry anymore. I didn't really understand what he meant.""Everything had been taken care of," Sophia repeated slowly. Her mind raced, connecting dots she didn't want to connect. The surgery paid for by an anonymous benefactor. The bone marrow donor who appeared at exactly the right time. The mysterious circumstances around all of Emma's care.It was him, she realized with absolute certainty. Alexander paid for everything. The surgery, the treatment, all of it. And now he's visit

"You're not at liberty." Sophia placed both hands flat on the desk and leaned forward. "My four year old daughter had bone marrow put inside her body from someone I've never met, paid for by someone I've never spoken to, and you're telling me you're not at liberty?""The arrangement was made through proper channels. Everything was verified, tested, and approved. I assure you the donor was a match and the procedure followed every protocol.""I'm not asking about protocol. I'm asking for a name."The doctor's gaze flickered, just barely, toward the hallway behind her. It was a small thing, involuntary, the kind of glance a person makes when they're thinking about someone who isn't in the room but whose presence looms over the conversation anyway."I genuinely cannot help you with that, Mrs. Mitchell. I'm sorry."Richard stepped into the doorway. "Doctor, is there any medical reason the donor's identity should be hidden? Any complication, any risk we should know about?""None whatsoever.

"Because Gerrick wants a second check. He's being careful. Whatever this is about, it's not small." The shorter one lowered his voice. "You should have seen him today. I passed him in the east corridor and he was practically speed walking to the private elevator. The man looked like he was trying to disappear.""Gerrick? Speed walking?" The tall one laughed. "That guy moves like he owns time itself. What could possibly make him rush?""That's what I'm saying. Someone important was here. Someone who makes even Gerrick nervous."Sophia's fingers curled into fists behind the cabinet. She could feel her heartbeat in her throat."Nervous how?" the tall one asked."Respectful. Like, deeply respectful. You know how Gerrick talks to the board members? Like they're beneath him? This was the opposite. He was polite. Almost careful with his words.""Who the hell makes Gerrick careful?"The shorter one glanced at the door, then back. "I don't know exactly. But when I was near Gerrick's office this

The younger one turned back to the keyboard and started typing.The room fell into a brief silence filled only with the hum of hard drives and the soft clicking of keys.Then something clattered in the far corner of the room.Both men froze.It was a sharp sound, metallic, like a piece of equipment sliding off a shelf and hitting the floor.It echoed off the walls of the small space and died quickly, but the silence that followed was worse than the noise itself.The older technician straightened slowly. "Did you hear that?""Yeah." The younger one was already on his feet, squinting toward the back of the room where the shadows were thickest. "Hey. Is someone there?"No response."Hello?" The older one took a step toward the corner, pulling out his phone and turning on the flashlight. The beam cut through the dim space, sweeping across shelves of spare monitors, coiled ethernet cables, and stacked hard drives. "If someone's back there, you need to come out now. This is a restricted are

They reached the control room door. Sophia checked the corridor in both directions, found it empty, and slipped back inside.The monitors were still cycling through their feeds, the room exactly as they had left it. She sat down at the terminal and started typing.Richard closed the door behind them and stood watch, though his attention kept drifting back to the screen. "Even if you can recover it, what do you expect to find? A clear shot of his face? A name tag? People who go through the trouble of deleting surveillance footage don't usually stand in front of the camera and wave.""They don't have to wave. They just have to exist. The deletion was targeted to one camera during one time window. That means whoever ordered it knew exactly when and where the visit happened. But they might not have checked every angle. There are secondary cameras in the adjacent corridor, and there's an overhead camera in the elevator bank that covers part of the ward entrance. If the backup data is still