?Chapter 1239:


    The search results appeared quickly.


    NE Research Institute—Zupren’s premier pharmaceutical research facility. Or rather, it had been. The institute had shut down 17 years ago after a reported leak of some kind. Seventeen years ago?


    The same year the Hudson family had plunged into turmoil.


    Sadie’s chest tightened as the pieces began to stir.


    Her mother’s mysterious work, the research institute, and the sudden downfall of the Hudsons…


    It couldn’t be coincidence. But Noah came first. Everything else—answers, suspicions, the past—would have to wait.


    She steadied herself, gentlyid the tablet aside, and took a deep breath to smooth over the cracks in herposure.


    Then she stepped into the hospital room.


    Noah was already fast asleep, his breathing calm and even, his face finally at rest.


    Sadie lingered by the doorway, watching him quietly. Only after a long moment did she turn and slip out, closing the door softly behind her.


    Morning came swiftly.


    At precisely ten o’clock, Hurst finally arrived—disheveled, yawning, with shadows beneath his eyes that hinted at a sleepless night.


    Sadie’s brows knitted together the moment she saw him.


    Had he been up to no goodst night?


    Tina’s warning from the day before echoed in her mind, rekindling the unease she’d tried so hard to silence.


    Hurst, catching the wary look she gave him, stretchedzily, his joints popping with a chorus of soft cracks.


    “Don’t worry,” he said with a crooked grin, his voiceced with a cocky, almost mischievous calm. “I’m ready.”


    There was something unsettling in that smile—a blend of self-assurance and roguishness that felt out of ce on a day like this.


    Still, Sadie had no other choice.


    Get thetest gα?ησν???s


    She steadied herself, burying her doubts beneath a brittle calm, and met his gaze with quiet resolve. “I’m counting on you.”


    The grin slipped from Hurst’s face. For once, he didn’t offer a clever retort.


    He gave a solemn nod, then turned toward the operating room. The heavy door swung shut behind him with a slow, echoing thud.


    Sadie’s breath caught.


    A crushing weight settled on her chest, tightening with every passing second.


    Three years ago, Noah had been sent to Zupren’s Rosewood Hospital by his own mother.


    It had taken everything Sadie had to bring him home.


    And now, was she about to lose Noah again?


    .


    .


    .