She looked at her parents with the directness of someone delivering information they needed to hear and trust. "I know where Jeremy is going to be today. I am not guessing, I am not hoping - I know." She let that land before continuing. "There is a coffee shop - a specific one that carries particular significance for Jeremy in connection with Mia. It was the place where Mia first called him Papa. The first time she ever said that word, it happened in that coffee shop." Patricia's voice carried something complicated and layered as she spoke about this - the knowledge of it clearly coming from a place of genuine shared history rather than secondhand information. "Jeremy marks that day every single year without fail. He goes back to that specific coffee shop on that specific date, without exception, because that is who Jeremy is underneath all the stubbornness and all the walls he has built around himself. Whatever else he might be doing with his life, whatever women he might be takin

At that moment Kai looked afraid.“I am still expecting my apology.”The room went quiet.Voss blinked. “What?”“You threatened me. You sent men at me with blades. You called me a beggar and a quack and questioned whether I had the right to save a dying woman.” Kai turned now, slowly, and looked at Voss with the kind of calm that only comes from being completely sure of where you stand. “I am still expecting the apology for that.”Immediately Marcus let out a short, disbelieving laugh. “You cannot be serious.”“I am always serious.”Voss stared at him. His jaw had gone tight again, the muscle along the side of his face working visibly, and when he spoke his voice was low and controlled in the way voices are controlled when the person speaking them is deciding whether to break something.“You want an apology,” he said.“Yes.”“From me.”“Yes.”Celine stepped forward, her face flushed. “Do you have any idea who you are talking to? Do you understand what family you are standing in fron

Kai stood in the small office staring down at the nurse uniform laying across the chair like it was mocking him.“A nurse.”That was the position Director Cole agreed to give him. The starting point, he called it. Like Kai needed to prove himself from the bottom up.Kai wasn't happy about it. Not even close.Why would he start as a nurse when he just saved a woman's life with nothing but needles while every doctor in that operating room stood around like statues? It didn't make sense. None of it made sense.The other nurses in the room kept their distance from him, huddled together near the lockers on the far side like Kai was carrying some kind of disease. They whispered among themselves, their voices low but not low enough that Kai couldn't hear the tone behind them.They thought he was crazy.They'd heard the rumors already. Heard about what he said to Raymond Voss. Heard about how he claimed he saved Nadia with just acupuncture needles like it was some kind of miracle trick. Heard

The president stood there for a moment, his face softening just a little as he reached out and patted Kai on the shoulder like he was congratulating a soldier who just came back from the front lines. “You did well today,” he said, his voice warm and genuine. ” “I'm sure that if it wasn't for you, we would have been in a very tough position. Your presence changed a lot of things, and I'm very grateful for that.” Kai raised one finger in the air, stopping him right there. “Not that it wasn't for me,” Kai said sharply, his eyes cutting straight through the president's attempt at kindness. “Your doctors that you have here are very, very rude. Especially that Marcus of yours. That Marcus and all the rest of them, they're all very rude.” The president's hand froze Midair “And yet,” Kai continued, his voice rising just enough to make it clear he wasn't backing down, “it was me who did it. Me. Not them. Stop giving my praises to others.” The president's face tightened but Kai

Kai's phone started ringing.The sound cut through the silence of the office like a knife, sharp and unexpected.Kai froze for a moment, his eyes shifting down to his pocket. Nobody called this line. Nobody had called this line in a very long time. The only person who even had the number to this phone was someone he trusted to do a job for him—his friend.Kai reached into his pocket and pulled out an old phone, the kind that was popular ten years ago, the kind most people threw away the moment something newer came out. The screen lit up with a name.Damian.Kai stared at it for a second, then answered."Damian."The voice on the other end exploded with excitement."Wow! Thank goodness you actually picked!" Damian said, his words coming out fast and breathless. "I got your message earlier and I was surprised. I thought you were just pulling pranks. I thought you were playing games with me. I never knew you were actually serious about it!"Kai's face stayed calm, unbothered."Yeah, I am