CHAPTER 4 — The Woman Everyone Thought Was Dead Remembered Everything
The attempted attack inside the ICU changed everything.
Police officers were stationed outside Emilia's room twenty-four hours a day. Every visitor was screened. Every nurse carried identification that was checked twice.
But the greatest danger was no longer outside.
It was inside Emilia's own memory.
For nearly a week, she drifted in and out of consciousness. Sometimes she recognized Daniel instantly. Other times she stared at him as though they had never met.
Then, on the eighth morning, everything came rushing back.
She remembered the vitamins.
She remembered feeling dizzy after taking them.
She remembered collapsing in the kitchen.
But there was something else.
Something she had never told anyone.
Two weeks before she became ill, Emilia had secretly visited the law office handling her grandfather's estate. There she learned the trust had been altered shortly before her grandfather's death.
Millions of dollars had disappeared.
Someone inside the hospital board had worked with the family's financial adviser for years, laundering money through fake medical research grants.
Emilia had copied every document onto a small encrypted flash drive.
She never took it home.
She hid it.
"Where is it?" Daniel asked carefully.
Emilia closed her eyes.
"The nursery..."
Police immediately searched the house.
Nothing.
The baby's room had already been cleaned after the funeral arrangements. Furniture had been moved. Boxes had been opened.
The flash drive was gone.
Someone had searched the house before the family returned.
Hours later Marcus received another call.
A neighbor's security camera had captured a black SUV parked outside Daniel's home the very night Emilia was declared dead.
Three people entered.
Only two came out carrying a cardboard box.
The footage was blurry.
But Marcus recognized one face.
The hospital chairman's personal attorney.
Whoever had taken the flash drive believed Emilia would never wake up.
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Now they knew they had failed.
And that made Emilia more dangerous alive than she had ever been dead.
