A Caged Songbird's Escape: Into the Arms of a Predator novel Chapter 573

Hearing this, Rowan's expression hardened. "Let's go. We're heading to the hospital now."

Hearing the commotion, Evan immediately headed to the garage to start the car.

Once they were in the backseat, Rowan reached over to help Elissa with her seatbelt, but she had already composed herself enough to buckle it on her own.

Rowan was mildly surprised by how quickly she had managed to suppress her emotions. Then, he heard her speak in a hollow, distant voice. "Do you know what my biggest fear has been all these years?"

Rowan lowered his eyes, reaching out to envelop her trembling fingertips in his warm grasp. His voice was deep and steady. "What is it?"

"I've been terrified of something happening to Mr. Blaine or Jacqueline."

Elissa's tone was incredibly flat, but her fingers were shaking harder than before.

She was utterly terrified, yet years of relying solely on herself had conditioned her to feign complete composure on instinct.

She could fake her way through anything else perfectly, not showing a single ripple of emotion.

But when it came to her mentor and his wife... she just couldn't do it.

Over the years, Jacqueline had arguably shown her even more maternal affection than her mentor had.

The couple had treated her like their own daughter. In her heart, they practically were her parents.

Cliff was an excellent doctor; his skills easily surpassed most classically trained medical professionals.

Yet even he had panicked and rushed Jacqueline to the hospital.

Elissa's instincts screamed that this was bad.

Rowan squeezed her hand tighter. "You won't know for sure until you examine her yourself. It might just be a false alarm."

Elissa took a silent, shaky breath. "Right."

He was right.

She needed to trust her own medical expertise. And if all else failed, Mr. Blaine was still there.

Her mentor had flown out to the UK yesterday afternoon for a medical symposium. Cliff had already called him, but the earliest he could land back in Vistapeak City was tomorrow.

Until he returned, it was entirely up to her to keep Jacqueline alive.

When they arrived at the hospital, Elissa and Rowan rushed straight to the emergency department. Cliff was pacing anxiously near the entrance.

Elissa hurried over. "What's her condition?"

"I don't know yet. They just took her into the resuscitation room."

Cliff was visibly distressed. "Her pulse was chaotic. I didn't dare risk a misdiagnosis, so I brought her straight here."

Elissa still trusted his medical judgment. "She was perfectly fine. How could she have been poisoned?"

"I don't know."

Cliff rubbed his temples hard. "My dad asked me to drop off some calligraphy for Mr. Blaine. When I walked in, I found her collapsed on the floor."

"I thought it might be low blood sugar at first, but when I checked her pulse, it was incredibly weak and soft, yet racing and completely erratic..."

"I'm going in."

Elissa's expression darkened, her forced calm instantly shattering.

Rowan frowned, but he didn't try to stop her. Instead, he signaled Director Fischer to accompany her inside. Before she pushed the doors open, he firmly told her, "No matter how bad it looks, don't be afraid. I'll be right out here. I've got your back."

Her frantic, chaotic panic found a fleeting moment of peace in his steady gaze. She nodded firmly.

Then, she stepped into the emergency room.

Elissa watched the medical staff standing grimly around the bed. Jacqueline lay there, her face ghastly pale and her lips a horrifying shade of purple. Elissa's heart instantly tightened to its breaking point.

A doctor was just about to shout at the 'family member' for trespassing when he noticed the hospital director trailing behind her. He paused in surprise. "Director Fischer..."

"Yes, right away!"

Director Fischer immediately spun around and ordered a nurse to fetch them.

A few minutes later, Elissa took the needles. Her hands moved in a fluid, precise blur as she inserted them into several specific pressure points on Jacqueline's body.

Director Fischer, a man firmly rooted in Western medicine, watched with intense curiosity. "What exactly does this do?"

"It forces open the meridians that the toxin sealed off, allowing her circulation to resume."

Once she finished the procedure, Elissa sanitized her hands and stepped out of the room.

Rowan immediately noticed how pale she looked. "Is it complicated?"

"Yeah."

Having studied under Mr. Blaine since childhood, she had rarely encountered an illness or condition she couldn't cure in her professional career.

Elissa had always believed she was skilled enough to protect everyone she loved, but right now, she felt completely out of her depth.

She pressed her lips together. "It's a complex, compound toxin. It's incredibly difficult to neutralize."

These kinds of poisons were usually formulated from multiple, counteracting ingredients. Administering the wrong antidote would only aggressively accelerate the poison's lethal effects.

As she spoke, she handed a vial of drawn blood to Evan. "Evan," she instructed, using his nickname, "Slate, take this blood sample to the research institute for an immediate chemical analysis."

It was the fastest solution she could think of.

As for...

Why Jacqueline would be targeted with such a deadly, sophisticated poison...

Before Elissa could voice the question out loud, Rowan seemed to read her mind. "Ian already called the police. He's heading to Mr. Blaine's house with them right now."