Family on Their Knees Heart Turned to Ice novel Chapter 1364

"Who cares if we're exposed?!" Bella shrieked, her face flushed with panic. "Debbie is in the hands of the Blake family now! She was rushed to The Blake Medical Center!

"If she dies, we can never touch that money! Do you understand me?

"Being exposed is one problem, but losing the payout is everything!

"Do you have any idea how much I sank into tonight's ambush?

"Two million! I threw the entire $2 million operation cost at this, and now I have almost nothing left!

"And I still have debt collectors breathing down my neck! Do you realize that if Debbie dies, I'm the next one on the chopping block?

"If I don't pay off the loans, The Blood-Debt Vultures will be the ones hacking my hands off!

"Do you have any idea how vicious those loan sharks are?!"

Lucas knew exactly how ruthless they were.

His own family had been dismantled by the very same predators, hadn't they?

"It's true she might end up back under the Blake family's control," Lucas reasoned, trying to calm her down. "But that doesn't mean we're completely screwed.

"Bella, you planned this perfectly, didn't you?

"You said you hired someone to wipe the city's surveillance grid.

"If that's true, there's nothing linking us to the crash. We just lay low and find a new way to get close to Debbie.

"You can bring your laptop right to her hospital bed and transfer the funds right then and there. Wouldn't that work?"

Lucas's words acted like a splash of ice water. Bella's hysterical pacing ground to a halt as she processed the logic.

She suddenly stopped screaming and slowly regained her composure.

She considered his point. "You're right. Since we aren't exposed, and she's in a hospital, we can definitely find a way to infiltrate her room.

"We can split the money right next to her bed.

"But... that only works if she's breathing.

Wiping the surveillance footage of their escape route took an agonizing amount of time.

It was a stark reminder of how much her technical skills had rusted over the years.

Back in the day, it wouldn't have taken her nearly this long.

Thankfully, she managed to sanitize the trail.

Even though the mission was a catastrophic failure, she wired the remaining balance to the mercenaries she had hired.

This was to ensure their absolute silence going forward.

With her tracks covered, exhaustion finally crashed over her. Her back aching, she collapsed onto the hotel bed and pulled the covers over her head.

She swapped her SIM card back, tossed the phone aside on silent mode.

After sunrise, she sent a quick text to her secretary at the Mercer Group claiming she was taking a personal day and told them not to contact her.