Chapter 11 - Chaos Behind the Glass
Everything happened at once.
Lily started coughing harder.
A nurse pulled the tray away.
Another pressed the emergency call button.
Felix moved toward Lily.
“Daddy.”
It was the first time she had called him that.
He nearly broke.
“I’m here.”
The physician rushed in.
“Everyone back.”
Felix stepped away only because he was ordered to.
Sarah returned at the exact moment the room filled with staff.
She saw Lily.
Then the monitors.
Then the discarded tray.
“What happened?”
Felix caught her before she reached the bed.
“Someone sent food.”
“What food?”
“The same ingredient.”
Sarah stared at him.
“No.”
“I stopped her from eating it.”
“Then why is she reacting?”
“The tray was open for a few seconds.”
Sarah covered her mouth.
Inside the room, nurses worked quickly.
Lily’s breathing became strained.
Felix could hear Sarah whispering her name.
“Lily.”
“Lily.”
“Lily.”
Hospital security locked the pediatric floor.
The aide who had delivered the tray was found crying near the service elevator.
She insisted a man in hospital vendor clothing had handed it to her.
Security reviewed camera footage.
The man’s cap covered most of his face.
But one image caught him removing his visitor badge.
Felix zoomed in.
The badge did not show his name.
It showed the company that had arranged the delivery.
Arden Events Group.
Celeste’s private company.
Sarah stared at the screen.
“Call the police.”
Felix already had.
Twenty minutes later, officers entered the floor.
Felix gave them every document.
The school invoice.
The altered product code.
Briggs’s message.
Celeste’s texts.
The hospital delivery footage.
Sarah watched him speak.
There was no billionaire in his posture anymore.
No chief executive.
No heir.
Only a father.
A doctor finally emerged.
Sarah stood so quickly her chair fell backward.
“How is she?”
“She’s responding.”
Sarah almost collapsed.
Felix caught her.
“She’s stable.”
The doctor continued.
“But we’re moving her to intensive monitoring overnight.”
Sarah closed her eyes.
Felix looked through the glass.
His daughter lay beneath a tangle of tubes and wires.
Something inside him changed permanently.
His phone rang.
Odette.
He answered.
“Did you know?”
There was silence.
“Felix, what happened?”
“A second contaminated item was delivered to Lily.”
“What?”
“It came through Celeste’s company.”
Odette’s breath changed.
“That makes no sense.”
“It makes perfect sense.”
Felix’s voice shook.
“She wanted Sarah gone.”
“She wanted Lily to disappear from the succession problem.”
“And all of you taught her that people can be erased if they become inconvenient.”
Odette said nothing.
Felix looked at his daughter.
“If Lily dies, I will spend the rest of my life making sure every secret in Kingsley Hospitality becomes public.”
Odette whispered his name.
He disconnected.
Then he saw Sarah staring toward the end of the corridor.
Felix followed her gaze.
Celeste stood behind the security doors.
Police officers were speaking to her.
May you like
And she was not smiling anymore.
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