— the nurse started, but her voice failed her.
At that moment, the door burst open. Lily’s mother, Sarah, stood there, her face contorted with panic. She had clearly been searching the whole hospital. Seeing her daughter in the restricted room with the nurse and the patient, she froze.
— “Lily! What have you done?!” she hissed, rushing over to grab her daughter’s arm. “I told you! I told you to stay away—”
She stopped mid-sentence. Her eyes fell on the jar in the nurse’s hand. She saw the thing moving inside. Then she saw the nurse’s face. Then the monitors. Sarah went silent. Her grip on Lily’s arm loosened. She looked at her daughter with a mix of shock and dawning realization.
— “What… what is that?” she whispered.
Suddenly, the hallway erupted with noise. Fast, authoritative footsteps approached, along with the voice of the Chief of Medicine.
— “Is the duty nurse in there? What’s going on with these vitals? I saw a massive spike on the remote monitor!”
The doctor appeared in the doorway, followed by Leo’s father, whose eyes were bloodshot from lack of sleep but burning with a desperate hope.
— “What happened?” the father demanded. “Is he… is he better?”
They all crowded into the room. And they all saw it. The nurse standing like a statue with the plastic jar. The pale, tear-streaked girl in the simple dress. The janitor trying to shield her daughter. And Leo, breathing peacefully for the first time in weeks.
The Chief of Medicine stopped dead. His gaze darted from the nurse to the jar, from the jar to the monitors, and finally to Lily. His brilliant medical mind, which had been stumped for days, began to piece together the terrifying puzzle.
Leo’s father stepped closer. He wasn’t looking at his son yet. He was staring at the jar. At the repulsive, living thing inside.
— “That…” his voice was a low rasp. “That was inside my son?”
The nurse nodded, unable to find her voice. She simply held the jar out to him.
He took it. He held it up to the light. His hands, which usually signed multi-million dollar contracts with iron-clad confidence, were shaking. He watched the creature crawl along the bottom. His expression shifted from confusion to horror, and then to something cold and sharp. He realized his son hadn’t been dying of a “weakness.” He had been prey. And if that thing was inside him, it hadn’t gotten there by accident.
He looked up. First at the nurse.
— “Who? Who found this?” he asked quietly. The quietness was more intimidating than a shout.
The nurse shook her head. She had just done her job. But her eyes drifted, almost involuntarily, to the small figure hiding behind the cleaning woman. To Lily.
Everyone turned. The millionaire father. The Chief of Medicine. Sarah, who instinctively pulled Lily closer. An eight-year-old girl was the center of the room’s heavy, silent attention. She pressed into her mother’s side, wanting to disappear. She didn’t want the spotlight. She just wanted the boy to live. But the father’s gaze was demanding an answer.
Leo’s father took a step forward. He dropped to one knee so he was at her eye level. His face was stern, but his eyes were soft.
— “Young lady,” he said softly. He was still holding the jar. “Did you know?”
— “Yes.”
— “You knew this was in there?”
Lily nodded, a tiny, barely perceptible movement.
— “How?” he asked. The question hung in the air.
Lily finally looked him in the eye. Her gaze was full of a pain that no child should carry. It was the pain of six months of being ignored.
— “Because,” she whispered, and the room was so quiet you could hear the hum of the monitors, “it’s the same thing that took my dad.”
The words hit the room like a physical weight.
— “It’s the same thing that took my dad…”
Leo’s father didn’t look away. All his power and wealth felt insignificant in the face of this child’s truth. Seventeen specialists had been blind, but this girl had seen clearly.
He stood up slowly. He looked at the jar, then at the Chief of Medicine. His voice was now the voice of a man who was back in control, issuing a command that no one would dare disobey.
— “Seal this. I want a full genetic and toxicological workup sent to three independent labs. Under my personal security. No one in this hospital touches those samples. Am I clear?”
The doctor, usually the highest authority in the building, simply nodded. He was too stunned to do anything else.
— “And the girl,” the father added, looking back at Lily. “Her story about her father. That’s the key. This wasn’t a random illness. This was…” He didn’t finish the sentence, but everyone knew what he meant. This looked like foul play.
He walked over to Sarah. She tensed, expecting a reprimand for her daughter being in the room.
— “What is your name?” he asked gently.
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