Lucian Had Planned Everything

Julian didn’t seem surprised.

He picked up the bracelet and gave a cold little laugh.

“Idiot. Anything to do with her, and you’ll follow wherever you’re led.”

Did he mean me?

Had he known Lucian would come?

Known he would leave the bracelet here?

I understood less and less.

Julian looked at the woman in the bed with the indifference of someone studying a dead object.

“You’re no use anymore.”

He took a handkerchief from his pocket and pressed it hard over her nose and mouth.

Her heart rate shot up.

“Julian! You bastard, stop!”

Tears sprang into my eyes.

I couldn’t stop him.

The girl was almost suffocating when footsteps sounded outside.

Julian frowned.

He had to let go.

By the time the door opened, he was the devoted, desperate husband again.

“Stella, please wake up. If I lose you, what do I have left to live for?”

He wiped away imaginary tears and looked back.

When he saw who had entered, he faltered.

“Felix? What are you doing here?”

Felix Sinclair stood in the doorway with several men and the hospital director.

He gave Julian a distinctly unfriendly look.

“Lucian just paid two point eight million for these blessed prayer beads. The Beauty’s Bone bracelet. That one beside Stella’s pillow. Don’t touch it.”

He spoke with his usual casual bluntness.

“He’s leaving it here temporarily to pray for Stella. It’s valuable, so I came to put in a few cameras. You don’t mind, do you?”

I remembered that the Sinclairs were major shareholders in this hospital.

And everyone knew Lucian had bought the bracelet tonight.

Julian could hardly object.

He was even the one who had told Lucian the beads could bring a blessing.

He thought he could lead Lucian around by the nose.

Instead, Lucian had him cornered.

The room was barely two hundred square feet.

Felix installed six cameras.

Four pointed toward the bed.

Twenty-four-hour coverage. No blind spots.

For a patient who couldn’t move, it was protection from every direction.

Felix clapped his hands in satisfaction.

“Hospital security can access these feeds. So can I. So can Lucian. Any time, day or night. A mosquito won’t get past me. I’ve got perfect vision.”

I had thought we were out of options.

Now everything had turned around.

Felix hadn’t come up with this on his own.

Lucian had arranged it all.

Julian forced a smile.

“That’s very thoughtful of you.”

He was probably grinding his teeth behind it.

I could see a thread of hope again.

If this girl survived, she knew the truth now.

Even if she couldn’t speak, perhaps one day she could write.

As long as she lived, there had to be some way to tell the police who the real killers were.

The moment Julian stepped out of the room, his smile vanished.

He went downstairs and returned to his car.

For a while, he sat with a dark expression, thinking.

Then he dialed a number.

Nobody answered.

He slammed a hand against the steering wheel.

His mood couldn’t have been worse.

He drove home fast, keeping his foot hard on the accelerator.

At the entrance, a guard recognized his car and tried to stop him.

“Mr. Whitmore!”

The man clearly had something to say.

Julian had no patience for a security guard.

He acted as though he hadn’t seen him and drove straight past.

He parked in the front courtyard, got out, and walked onto the porch.

He was opening the door when someone rushed out of the shadows.

Five skeletal fingers clamped around him.