Chapter 49
Chapter 49 Suspicions
The man was staying in a five-star hotel. For Natalie to have personally designed cufflinks for him, his status had to be extraordinary, and he certainly wasn’t short of money. How could Jensen possibly persuade such a man to give them up?
The thought left him restless and agitated.
Just then, security called.
“Mr. Luke, there’s a woman lying outside the Grand Pavilion. Her right arm is covered in blood. You should come take a look. I think it’s the same woman who tried to force her way in here the other day.” ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ
Jensen froze.
“Sharon? What happened to her?”
“Not sure. Looks like her right hand was smashed to pieces-bloody, a real mess. It’s terrifying.”
The words jolted Jensen upright so violently that the tablet on his lap clattered to the floor, forgotten.
“What did you just say?”
“Her right hand’s been shattered-blood everywhere. It’s gruesome.”
The security guard’s clearer explanation made Jensen’s heart pound.
Not long ago, Sharon had been the one who ordered Natalie’s right hand broken.
Back then, he had forced Natalie to swallow her pain, forbidding her to press charges.
Now Sharon lay mangled in the same way.
Could it be… Natalie was still alive?
The possibility made his pulse race.
“I’m coming right now. Call an ambulance!”
“Yes, Mr. Luke.”
He hung up and ran out the door.
He had to see Sharon’s injury with his own eyes.
If it mirrored Natalie’s, then it meant only one thing-Natalie might still be alive.
The thought filled him with wild hope.
If Natalie lived, he would find her. He had to.
hawand recognition
When Natalie’s hand had been destroyed, he hadn’t seen it before she went into surgery. The doctors had told him it was pulverized, that she would never hold a pen again. But now, seeing Sharon’s wrecked hand, his chest clenched painfully.
Had Natalie looked like this, too, when she was carried in?
His body trembled as he stood frozen, afraid to even touch Sharon, terrified his fingers might destroy what was left.
The ambulance arrived quickly.
He watched the medics lift Sharon inside and climbed in after her.
She was rushed into emergency surgery as soon as they reached the hospital.
Jensen’s face was like stone, shadowed and grim.
“Sharon was already hospitalized. Who attacked her? And who dumped her at the Grand Pavilion? I want the full surveillance footage-nothing missing.”
Hansel stiffened, then hurried off to check.
“Wait.”
Jensen stopped him suddenly.
“Find me the surveillance from when Natalie was admitted, too. I want to see the footage from before she was taken into the ER.”
Hansel hesitated, then asked carefully, “Mr. Luke, should we notify the police about Ms. Summers?”
“No. Lock this down. No one is to leak word that Sharon’s hand was smashed. If anyone asks, we’ll say she fell and broke it herself.
In his mind, the image of Natalie’s face came back-anguished, resentful, crushed beneath the weight of his command not to pursue charges.
Was it her? Natalie, was it you who returned?
Because I silenced you, forced you to endure that pain in silence-was this your revenge?
No.
It couldn’t be.
She had been too kind, too gentle, too soft-hearted. She could never have done something this brutal.
But that fire…
Two voices clashed inside him.
Part of him longed for it to be true, that Natalie was alive, avenging herself.
Another part recoiled, unable to accept that he had driven such a radiant woman to darkness.
While Sharon remained in surgery, Hansel returned with the recordings.
“Mr. Luke, this is the surveillance of Ms. Natalie’s arrival at the hospital. Ms. Summers’s is here too, but there was nothing
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suspicious caught on camera.”
He handed the files to Jensen.
Jensen went straight to Natalie’s footage first.
She was unconscious on the stretcher, blood dripping from her shattered hand in a trail across the floor.
Her hand dangled grotesquely, crushed and twisted, worse even than Sharon’s was now.
Jensen tugged at his collar, breathless.
Why hadn’t he looked? Why had he forced her to endure humiliation and silence without ever seeing her pain for himself?
On the screen, Natalie’s paper-white face wavered before his eyes.
His whole body shook.
She must have been in agony then.
The one who owed Sharon a debt had been him.
But he had made Natalie pay it.
He had wronged her.
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