MORNING VISIT
After the night of the attack, an incident the media was already spinning as an "alleged car accident", the sterile, pre-dawn silence of the Asan Severance Hospital felt suffocating.
At precisely 05:07 AM, the main entrance slid open. The atmosphere of the ground floor, previously a quiet hum of night-shift nurses, instantly crackled with energy. Amelia FortunaandCarlisle Fortuna, Aurie'sparents, swept in. They were not mere visitors; they were a conquering force, flanked by five bodyguards in sharp, dark suits and four servants trailing behind with overnight cases.
One of the bodyguards, a man built like a vault, leaned in close to the family matriarch.
Bodyguard 01:"Madame Amelia, your limousine is now parked~"
Amelia cut him off with a flick of her wrist. Her voice was a sharpandalmost whispering tone, but it carried the lethal edge of a razor.
Amelia:"Hush, hush, the reason why I commanded the owner of this hospital to minimize the incoming patients today so no one would know that we're here."
Aredface madness, a visible flush of controlled, absolute rage, colored her cheeks. She was not just a grieving mother; she is a general securing a perimeter.
Bodyguard 01:"Apologies, your highness." He bowed his head, suitably chastened.
Her husband, Carlisle, ever the calm counter-balance, just smiled at his beautiful, terrifying wife, placing a supportive hand on her back. "That's a perfect move, my love!" he said, his voice brimming with admiration for her ruthless efficiency.
They moved toward the private elevator, their entourage forming a moving wall of security.
Amelia:"How about Gabriela and Lucy? I emailed them instructions? I hope they followed."
Carlisle:"What's that, love?"
Amelia:"I don't want to see them with my Aurie. Especially, not today! They need to mind what I instructed~" Her tone was final, the "instructions" clearly a royal decree.
Carlisle sighed, attempting to mediate even in this moment of crisis. "My love, please, not today. Gabriela and Lucy wants to see their sister too."
Amelia's glare silenced him. The elevator doors opened to the VIP floor. They were now both in Aurie's big room, a private suite that looked more like a five-star hotel than a hospital ward.
They stopped dead. They caught their breaths simultaneously when they saw Aurie lying in the center of the bed, pale and still. The only sound was the rhythmic, electronic sigh of the machines, singing the steady, haunting song of artificial life.
Bodyguard 02:"We'll wait you outside, madame and sir Carlisle." The door clicked shut, leaving them alone.
The only room inside was now filled with the sound of crying parents. The powerful matriarch broke. Amelia couldn't believe what she was seeing, the sight of her vibrant, powerful daughter so utterly broken. She cried her loudest, a raw, wounded sound. Carlisle immediately moved to hug her from her right, pulling her close.
But grief, for a Fortuna, quickly forged itself back into a plan. Amelia pulled back, wiping her tears with a furious gesture.
Amelia:"Honey, we need to keep her safe!"
Carlisle:"Of course... of course... I know."
Amelia:"Is Aurie's sacred apartment ready?"
HEY HUGH!
Miles below the VIP suite, Hugh Adler was cramped in the back of his own expensive car, a half-open window his only connection to the oppressive morning air of the hospital's parking lot. He'd been hiding here ever since he'd fled the ER, the "No Number" text message burned into his memory.
He was startled from a restless, paranoid doze by a sudden, bizarre intrusion.
Hugh's bare feet were suddenly pulled from the window, woke up rapidly in shock, lurching forward with a muffled yell.
Hugh:"What the~"
The guy laughed, a deep, familiar sound, "Hey Hugh! What's up?"
Hugh's face was a mask of mix emotion; shock, fear, and a sudden, unwelcome rush of relief. Hugh opened the car door behind the driver's seat, sliding into the spacious back cabin.
Hugh:"Why you here?"
The guy:"Well... Let me seat first!"
The guy sat beside him, and Hugh instinctively moved more inward inside his car. The man is now sitting beside him, exuding an effortless, almost dangerous, calm.
The guy:"Did you do that to uh..."
Hugh:"Jesus! Really Henry? Asking me that? We're not criminals, we're rich!" The words burst out of him, a hysterical, perfect definition of his moral code.
Henry:"Nothing! Just asking, man."
Then Henry hugged Hugh, unexpectedly. A firm, brotherly embrace. Hugh, who had been holding his breath since the gunshot, finally exhaled. He leaned into the hug, the terror of the last twelve hours bubbling in his throat.
Hugh:"I didn't do it, man." His voice was small.
Henry:"Stop it, you know I was just joking."
Hugh controlled his tears, pushing them back down. When Henry pulled back, the mood was reset. The crisis was, for a moment, compartmentalized.
Henry:"Hugh, you owe me 24 pieces of pancakes this morning! And I'm driving!!!"
Both laughed, a short, sharp sound of shared history. It was a plan to heal their hearts, or at least numb them, at the morning restaurant they loved since they were kids.
Henry drove Hugh's car out of the parking lot. But as Hugh watched the hospital disappear in the rearview mirror, his mind was racing. That text message. The "No Number." His phone felt like a bomb in his pocket.
Hugh's mind was asking, "Am I sharing location to Henry?" Was his brother's sudden appearance a coincidence, or was he, too, a part of the game?
CHANGE OF PLAN?
At06:55 AM, Gabriela and Lucy Fortuna came back to Aurie's VIP suite, their arms full of paper bags emitting the warm, fragrant smell of a healthy breakfast. They had been "preparing" all night, and now they were ready to stand guard.
They pushed open the door, all smiles and sisterly concern.
The smiles vanished.
The room was empty. The bed was stripped. The machines were unplugged.
Both widen eyes, looked at each other and screamed.
Lucy:"Where's Aurie?"
Gabriela:"It's Mom!!!" The accusation was instant, absolute.
Lucy:"Always, right?" Her voice was dripping with a familiar, acidic resentment.
Gabriela:"Always taking care of her favorite!!!"
Gabriela and Lucy banged their food on the glass table in a synchronized fit of rage, their arms crossing over their chests. This wasn't grief; it was thwarted ambition.
Gabriela:"What should we do?"
Lucy:"If Mom took care of Aurie, then I really have an idea on where Mom put her."
Gabriela:"Really? And you'll get her?"
Lucy stood and walked to the sliding window, staring out at the early morning traffic, the cars passing by on the skyway. Her face was an all red mad face, a mirror of her mother's. She grabbed an apple on the paper bag and took a vicious bite, the crunch echoing in the silent, empty room.
She turned back to her sister, a cold, terrible smirk on her face.
"Mom, let Aurie go and we will be happy!"
The attack were just the prelude. Now, the real war begins, but it's being fought on hidden fronts.
Aurie Fortuna Adler is gone. Her body, whisked away to a secret, sacred apartment by the one person whose authority even Hugh Adler dares not challenge: Amelia Fortuna.
But confinement is exactly what Aurie's spirit needs. As her body rests, her consciousness finds itself free—no longer tethered to a hospital bed, but to the memory of her son, Adiel. The first whisper was only a vibration; the next will be a command.
Meanwhile, Hugh is trapped in a panic, hunted by a mysterious 'No Number' assailant and forced into a complicated alliance with his estranged brother, Henry.
In the sacred silence of the apartment, the Fortuna matriarchs play their game, Hugh scrambles for control. Can a mother's ghost teach her son how to fight his father?