Family on Their Knees Heart Turned to Ice novel Chapter 1297

"There is a massive amount of blood on these clothes. The shirt, the pants—the entire front is soaked in it.

I couldn't risk ignoring it, so I brought the evidence straight to you."

The charred carpet was too dark to reveal much detail under the dim light.

But the blood on the Limited-Edition Autumn Suit was impossible to miss. It was everywhere.

There was a morbid array of patterns: erratic speckling, heavy saturation around the cuffs, and a massive, continuous stain soaking through the thigh of the trousers. None of this looked like a minor accident.

Lillian stared at the fabric for a long moment, her mind calculating. She turned to Ethan. "Wake up one of our senior medical staff. Have them take samples immediately. I need to know whose DNA is on this."

Ethan nodded sharply. "Right away."

Halfridge Villas housed several top-tier medical professionals. While they weren't forensic pathologists, pulling a DNA profile from fresh blood was child's play for them.

It was standard procedure, especially with doctors who had trained over at Prescott Bio-Labs.

After Ethan hurried out, Lillian finally looked away from the gruesome pile.

Marcus carefully packed the evidence back up. He peeled off his latex gloves, meticulously folded them into a plastic biohazard bag he had brought with him, and shoved it into his pocket. He wasn't about to toss contaminated material into Lillian's pristine wastebaskets.

Lillian’s exhaustion had entirely vanished. Her mind was firing on all cylinders.

"Sneaking out in the dead of night to burn evidence... this isn't just a cover-up. This is a crime scene.

Wait. I heard Debbie Harris was placed under strict surveillance after Sebastian and Bella's wedding, but then she mysteriously vanished.

Could it be...?"

Marcus shook his head. "There isn't enough blood here to be fatal."

In his line of work, dealing with the violent underbelly of the city, he had seen his fair share of crime scenes.

A fatal bleed-out would have required exponentially more blood than what was on the fabric.

Lillian crossed her arms, her gaze sharp. "Dr. Celine, translate that for me. What kind of injury causes this specific combination?"

Dr. Celine pointed a gloved finger at the frantic speckling on the fabric. "The spray pattern here is classic arterial spurting. A major vessel was breached."

Lillian froze, exchanging a sharp glance with Marcus.

An artery?

Bella had been holed up in a hotel with Lucas. No matter how twisted their games were, they wouldn't have accidentally severed an artery.

Plus, both Bella and Lucas had walked out of that hotel under their own power. This blood didn't belong to either of them.

Which meant there was a third person in that room.

And if that third person was who Lillian suspected it was...

Things were about to get incredibly entertaining.