?Chapter 1458:


    Just then, the nurse who had left earlier reappeared, struggling under the weight of several bags of blood sma, sweat beading along her forehead. When she spotted Cade, relief shed across her face. “You’re a soldier too, aren’t you?” she asked quickly. “Could you help me for a moment? I can’t carry all of this by myself, and I still need to get the medication. I’mpletely overwhelmed.”


    Cade put his phone away and nodded without hesitation. “Of course.” He took the heavy container from her and followed a step behind as they moved through the corridor.


    The hallway buzzed with ovepping footsteps and colliding voices, the urgency unrelenting. Yet Cade’s mind was elsewhere. That figure. That presence.


    He stopped abruptly. The thought he had been avoiding surfaced again — impossible to ignore any longer. Or perhaps it wasn’t certainty he clung to, but hope. He hoped his assumption was right. He hoped Maia was safe.


    “There’s something I’d like to ask,” he said, his voice roughened by tension. “Who is the doctor in the operating room?”


    Without slowing, the nurse answered, “Dr. Walsh. Carsen Walsh. Our hospital’s best surgeon and the director.”


    Cade exhaled quietly. Was he reading too much into things? Coincidences rarely unfolded so neatly.


    Then, as though recalling something trivial, the nurse added in passing, “Oh, and Dr. Watson is in there as well. She assisted Dr. Walsh earlier when we brought in the elderly patient — her skills are exceptional. Even Dr. Walsh speaks highly of her. She’s the one attending to your colleague right now.”


    The world tilted. Cade’s eyes widened, his heartbeat stuttering violently.


    “Dr. Watson,” he echoed, the name trembling on his tongue. He turned sharply, his gaze snapping toward the tightly sealed doors of the operating room at the far end of the corridor.


    “Could it really be… Maia?” The thought slipped from his lips in a hushed murmur, disbelief tangled with an emotion he struggled to contain.


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    “Huh?” The nurse paused and nced at him, curiosity flickering across her face. “You know Dr. Watson?” A note of admiration crept into her voice. “She really is something, you know. Even with a mask on, her eyes are absolutely unforgettable.”


    Boom.


    The realization struck Cade like a thunderp, exploding through his mind without warning. In that instant, every scattered detail copsed together — the familiar cadence of the woman’s voice, the resemnce in her posture, the surname Watson, that unmistakable presence. It was not coincidence. It was her. Everything aligned with chilling, undeniable rity.


    “I’m sorry, but I need to speak with Dr. Watson.” Cade shoved the medical container back into the nurse’s hands and was already turning away. “Wait here — I’ll send another soldier to help you.”


    The nurse stared after him, head tilted, utterly perplexed.


    Cade barely noticed. His pulse thundered as he broke into a run, each stride fueled by urgency and disbelief, his heart pounding so hard it felt ready to tear free from his chest.


    As he sprinted toward Dominic’s hospital room, the words came out in a breathless murmur. “General Watson, you have to hold on. The one who just pulled you back from the edge is Maia Watson — your own flesh and blood, the granddaughter you have searched for all these years.”


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