Her words carried an ambiguous undertone, but Amara chose not to respond. She fell silent and closed her eyes, resting quietly.

Meanwhile, Hogan hurried to the dessert shop where the group had recently eaten cake. By the time he arrived, their table had already been cleared. A staff member was cleaning another table nearby, so Hogan approached and asked urgently, “The leftover cake from that table—where did you throw it away?”

The employee pointed to a trash can and replied, “I personally cleared that table. There were a few pieces of half-eaten cake and an empty coffee cup, and I threw them all away. Is there a problem?”

Hogan, who was accompanied by two bodyguards, nodded calmly. “Nothing, thank you.” Then, he immediately signaled to his bodyguards to search through the trash.

To the shock of everyone nearby, the two bodyguards quickly retrieved the leftover cake from the trash and, under Hogan’s orders, took it for testing.

Hogan happened to know people at both a food laboratory and a pharmaceutical facility. He brought the cake samples to both places for analysis, and the results from each lab confirmed the same thing: there was something wrong with the piece of cake Amara had eaten.

That particular piece contained several kinds of herbal extracts-safe for the average person, but for a pregnant woman, these could easily induce uterine contractions, causing abdominal pain and, in severe cases, even miscarriage. When Hogan received the lab reports, he broke out in a cold sweat.

If this had happened before, it wouldn’t have mattered much—the Everly family hadn’t been involved with Amara’s pregnancy. But now that he knew the baby she was carrying was Finnian’s, responsibility weighed heavily on him. If Amara had miscarried while she was with them, he would never be able to answer for it.

Without delay, Hogan took the cake remnants and the lab results back to the dessert shop. He marched up to the owner, slammed both pieces of evidence down on the counter, and demanded coldly, “Tell me who put you up to this?”

The owner recoiled at the sight of the cake remains on the counter, his hands trembling as he looked down. “Sir, I-I don’t know what you mean. I really don’t understand…”

With a sharp bang, Hogan struck the counter with his hand.

He kept his eyes fixed on the owner’s face and saw the flicker of panic in his gaze.

Without hesitation, Hogan grabbed the owner by the collar, leaning in menacingly: “Don’t play games with me your shop has securi cameras, and this cake came from here. Here’s the lab report showing the cake had been tampered with.”

“After eating that cake, a pregnant woman nearly miscarried. Do you understand how serious this is?”

A look of disbelief widened the owner’s eyes. A pregnant woman, almost miscarried?

Hogan’s voice turned icy. “Speak up! Did someone tell you to put something in the cake?”

“If it wasn’t a customer, then it was you. What, were you trying to kill someone for profit?”

The accusation made the owner’s

legs grow weak with fear. He blurted out, wasnt me! It wasn because someone told med

did

“I had no idea it would have such severe consequences. That person gave me a syringe with a mixture of herbs instructed me to inject it into the cake

“I even checked—those herbal extracts were supposed to be harmless. I would never have done it otherwise…”

By now, the owner was visibly terrified. His legs were shaking, and sweat was breaking out across his forehead.