He Never Loved Me Until the Day I Finally Left Him novel Chapter 854

The sheer stress had pushed Julian, Claire, and the rest of the Campbell family to their breaking point.

Solomon was the only one who remained utterly unfazed.

Time and time again, he dragged the little girl back from the brink of the afterlife.

Finally, on the seventh day, he officially declared her out of the woods.

He formally handed her ongoing recovery protocols over to the hospital's elite pediatric team.

With his job done, Solomon packed his bags.

Julian had no grounds to detain him.

He stood aside, treating the genius surgeon with rare, rigid courtesy.

Once Solomon was gone, Lance James turned to Julian. "Still nothing?"

"Nothing. Coralia isn't that big. I've flipped this city upside down and still haven't found a single trace of them. It's a goddamn joke," Julian spat, his face a mask of furious exhaustion.

Lance found it just as baffling.

Coralia was practically Julian's backyard.

How could two living, breathing people vanish into thin air?

Especially considering Helena was supposedly comatose.

"Could he have smuggled her out already?" Lance asked, keeping his tone level.

"None of our informants at the borders have reported anything," Julian replied coldly.

"What if they forged new identities to slip past the checkpoints?" Lance theorized.

"Facial recognition algorithms are tied to the checkpoint databases. Even with fake names, their biometrics would have triggered a silent alarm. If they left, there would be a digital footprint," Julian stated with grim certainty.

That left Lance completely stumped.

A heavy silence fell between them.

Suddenly, Lance's head snapped up. "Wait. Coralia isn't just the downtown metropolis. What about the outskirts? The slums, the rental districts, the isolated fishing villages? Did you search those?"

This realization hit Julian like a freight train, dropping him into stunned silence.

"I think it's time to start looking there," Lance urged. "Because right now, nothing else makes sense."

Julian remained silent, berating himself for the oversight.

Skye had been stabilized enough to be moved out of the ICU.

When Julian pushed the door open, the sight hit him hard.

The little girl was thrashing wildly, sobbing hysterically as two nurses tried to hold her down.

"Julian! Tell me where she is! Where is Helena?" Skye shrieked the second she saw him walk in.

Julian crossed the room in three long strides, his expression softening as he reached her bedside.

"Julian, is she okay? Please tell me she's okay!" Skye begged, clutching his sleeve with weak, trembling fingers.

She remembered exactly what had happened. She remembered Helena throwing herself into the line of fire to save her.

She knew Helena took the bullet meant for her.

Even in her fevered, drug-induced haze in the ICU, she had been crying out for her.

The terror radiating from the tiny girl was palpable.

The horrifying memory of the gunshot was looping endlessly in her mind, leaving her paralyzed with fear.