Chapter 412
[ 477 words ]
Chapter 412:
“Jarrod?” she choked out, stumbling forward, her hand reaching for him. “What did he say to you? What happened in there?”
He didn’t answer. Not directly. He pulled his phone from his pocket, his thumb moving with grim purpose across the screen.
The avoidance was a physical blow. She had just been shut out of a room where her husband and the man who claimed to be her father had held a conversation that clearly changed something. She could feel it in the air—a shift, a decision made without her.
The phone went to his ear. “K.C.,” he said, his voice low and controlled. It was the voice of a commander issuing an order on the battlefield. “Bring the files Donovan Sinclair asked for. The ones from the secure archive. And contact Dr. Foster. Tell him the surgery consent needs to be re-evaluated. There’s been a development.”
The words detonated in the quiet hallway. Caroline’s mind went white with confusion and fear.
“Re-evaluated?” she repeated, her voice rising. “Jarrod, he’s supposed to be in surgery right now. They were prepping him. What development? What did he tell you?”
Jarrod ended the call with a flick of his thumb. Before she could press him further, he closed the distance between them and took her by the shoulders—not with bruising force, but with a desperate, grounding grip. His eyes, when they met hers, were raw with an emotion she couldn’t name.
𝗨p𝗱a𝘵eѕ 𝖾vеr𝗒 𝘄𝘦ek 𝗼𝘯 𝘨а𝘭ո𝘰𝘃𝖾𝗹s.𝘤о𝘮
“Caroline, listen to me,” he said, his voice rough. “Donovan Sinclair is not who you think he is. And what he just told me in that room… it changes everything.”
“What are you talking about?” she demanded, her hands coming up to grip his forearms. “He’s a dying man who showed up on my doorstep claiming to be my father. That’s who he is.”
“No.” Jarrod’s jaw tightened. “He’s a dying man who just handed me proof that your mother’s death was not an accident. And he knows who ordered the hit.”
The world tilted. Caroline felt the blood drain from her face.
“That’s not possible,” she whispered. “My mother died in a car accident. A truck ran a red light. The police report—”
“The police report was falsified.” Jarrod’s voice was grim. “Donovan has been tracking this for years. He didn’t come back into your life just because he was dying. He came back because he finally had enough evidence to prove that Cornelia Romero paid to have your mother killed.”
The name hit Caroline like a physical blow. Cornelia. Jarrod’s stepmother. The woman who had tried to bribe her in that tea room, who had threatened her family, who had looked at her with such venomous contempt.
Her knees buckled. Jarrod caught her, pulling her against his chest, his arms wrapping around her as she struggled to breathe.
“Why didn’t he tell me?” she choked out. “Why did he wait until I wasn’t in the room?”
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