"I tried to learn more about him afterward." Dr. Cole returned to his chair, lowering himself carefully. "But he disappeared before the conference ended. No one knew where he came from or where he went. The only thing I managed to learn was a name. And even that might have been an alias."Sophia moved toward him, her composure cracking just enough to reveal the desperation underneath. "What was the name?"Dr. Cole looked at Theodore lying motionless on the bed, then back at Sophia."Logan." The word came out quiet, carrying the weight of twelve years of wondering. "That's the only name anyone had for him. Just Logan."Sophia's brow furrowed. "Logan? Logan what?""That's all I know." Dr. Cole spread his hands. "No surname that I ever confirmed. No medical license I could trace. No institutional affiliation. No published research. No public reputation of any kind. He exists in my memory as a man who performed what I can only describe as a medical miracle, and then vanished.""That's not

"You were thinking it." Dr. Cole finally turned to face him. "And that's fine. I would think the same thing if someone told me this story. But I was in that room in Vienna. I watched him examine that woman with my own eyes. I watched her walk out of that building three days later when every specialist there had already written her obituary."He leaned forward in his chair, his voice dropping."I've spent fifty two years practicing medicine. I've seen thousands of patients, hundreds of unusual cases, and a handful of things I genuinely couldn't explain. But what I saw Logan do in that room was something beyond anything my training prepared me for. It wasn't luck. It wasn't guesswork. It was a level of understanding of the human body that I didn't know existed."Dr. Wells studied the old man's face for a long moment, searching for the tremor of exaggeration or the glaze of romantic memory. He found neither. What he found was the steady, unwavering certainty of a man stating something he

"Did the source say anything else?" Sophia leaned forward. "Did Victor mention where Logan lives? What he does? Anything we can use to find him?""No." Derek shook his head. "Just the name and the tone. But the source was very clear about one thing. Whatever Logan's connection to Victor Kane is, it's significant enough that Victor treated the name like it carried real weight."Sophia stood up straight, her posture shifting from exhausted to energized in the span of a single heartbeat. The tiredness that had been settling over her shoulders all morning burned away, replaced by the focused, electric determination that had made her the youngest operational leader in the Grant Group's history."Victor Kane." She repeated the name, tasting it, assessing it, turning it over in her mind the way a locksmith turns a key to feel whether it fits. "If anyone in this city knows how to find a man who doesn't want to be found, it would be someone who operates in the world where invisible people are

Victor's jaw shifted. "I know enough to tell you that looking for him the way you're looking for him, sending assistants to comb the city, calling hospitals, contacting event organizers, will never work. Logan exists in a space that your resources can't reach. Not because he's hiding. Because the world he operates in doesn't intersect with the world you're familiar with.""Then tell me how to reach him." Sophia pressed her palms flat against the table. "Mr. Kane, my grandfather has hours, not days. If you know something, anything, that could help me find this man, I am asking you directly."Victor looked at her for a long moment. The request was genuine. The desperation was real. And the woman sitting across from him carried the kind of composure under pressure that reminded him of someone."I can't make promises." Victor unfolded his hands and placed them flat on the table, mirroring her posture. "Logan decides what Logan does. But I'll make sure your request reaches the right place.

"Restricted?" Vivian's smile stiffened. "We've brought gifts. We're representatives of established business families. Surely there's some allowance for—""There isn't." The receptionist's voice was polite but immovable. "Ms. Grant personally approved the visitor list this morning. Your names are not on it. I cannot grant you access.""This is absurd." Brandon stepped forward, his jaw set. "The Holt family has been part of Creston City's business community for decades. We have every right to pay our respects to a fellow—""Sir, I understand." The receptionist maintained her composure with the practiced patience of someone who had been turning away important people all day. "But my instructions are clear. No exceptions.""Do you know who we are?" Ashley's voice climbed higher, the indignation bleeding through her carefully maintained exterior. "We didn't come here to be treated like strangers off the street. We came to show support for one of the city's most important families.""And th