?Chapter 1439:


    The doctor’s hands shook, his vision swimming as he forced his bleary eyes to focus on the image.


    That face — he would know it anywhere. It was the same unhinged woman who had just held him at gunpoint.


    “I’ve seen her — yes, I have,” he babbled, his head bobbing in frantic, jerky nods.


    “Tell me everything.” Kolton’smand sliced through the air, cold and absolute.


    The doctor didn’t dare hold back. Wincing through the stabbing pain in his stomach, he slowly raised his head and spilled it all — how Kiley had stormed in with a weapon drawn, demanding the patient’s location, and how he had told her the man had been taken away. “She asked where he went, I told her he’d been taken, and then she left,” he concluded, a fragile spark of hope lighting in his eyes. Surely this cooperation would earn him some mercy.


    Kolton offered none. His expression remained a mask of ice.


    A glint of brutality passed through his eyes. Kiley’s question had made the doctor an informed party — possibly even a liability. He never tolerated unnecessary witnesses.


    With a single wave of his hand, Kolton signaled.


    The operative at his side raised a silenced pistol and pressed it to the back of the doctor’s head. A muffled shot rang out. The doctor’s smile froze mid-expression. Shock overtook him as his body slumped, blood spreading slowly across the pristine floor. To hisst breath, he never understood why Kolton had killed him.


    Kolton didn’t spare the corpse a nce. His jaw was clenched, his features carved with cold anger. The detail from the doctor’s ount nagged at him — a team of armed men. udius had been moved? What had happened to his rescuers?


    His instincts red. Something was off. The emergency room showed no signs of a struggle — no bullet holes, no bloodstains. Those people had to be udius’s own.


    Kolton’s gaze swept across the operatives surrounding him, sharp as daggers. Who could have tipped udius off, enabling such a wless extraction? All the vi staff and security were dead. There was no way the information hade from them.


    The inescapable conclusion was that a mole had been nted within his own inner circle.


    A wave of distrust surged through him — and he crushed it beneath a wall of denial. It was unthinkable. These operatives had been trained from youth, loyal only to Thomas. Their loyalty ran deeper than blood. Even Kolton, as head of Cooper Group, did not hold fullmand over them. No matter how cunning udius was, he could not have swayed these emotionless killers. Not one.


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    The leak had to have another source — perhaps some sophisticated surveince device. For now, that question would be suppressed. Damage control came first.


    “Search everywhere!” Kolton’s voice rang through the hall. “Find Kiley. Alive or dead, I want her.”


    He paced, his leather shoes tapping ominously against the floor. His eyes swept thebyrinth of hallways before he issued crisp orders. “Split up. Team one locks down every exit andbs this building floor by floor — check everywhere, including the morgue. Team two searches South Lake Park. The terrain is rough, but it’s her only viable escape route.”


    “Yes, sir!” The operatives divided at once, flowing outward like a ck tide in two directions.


    Elsewhere, under the dark city night, the Nelson family vi zed with light.


    The gates creaked open, and Rosanna staggered inside. Her red dress hung in tatters, a man’s jacket she had picked up at the hospital draped over her shoulders. Her hairy matted across her face, the smell of blood and burnt flesh clinging to her.


    The maids tidying the living room froze, abandoned their work, and lined up to greet her. “Mrs. Nelson, you’re —” The words died on the leading maid’s lips.


    Rosanna lifted her head. Her face — swollen and grotesquely distorted — resembled something from a nightmare. The maid’s pupils dted with terror.


    “Oh no!” she screamed, stumbling backward and dropping the feather duster.


    Rosanna stopped. Her bloodshot eyes locked onto the screaming girl, venom radiating from her gaze.


    “Shut up,” she rasped, her voice hoarse and grating.


    The maid copsed to the floor, legs trembling, unable to lift her eyes. “I-I’m so sorry, Mrs. Nelson… I didn’t mean to…” she stammered, her voice quivering with fear.


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