Shadows Between Us (Stella and Sebastian) novel Chapter 261

Chapter 261

“Red Shadow, show yourselves,” Stella said.

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As soon as Stella stepped out of the elevator, she could sense a protective presence lurking in the shadows. This time, it was Red Shadow’s Third Unit assigned to guard Paul.

It was Vincent’s team.

Emily stayed silent.

She always knew there was a secret bodyguard watching over Paul, but no matter how many times she’d come by, she’d never caught a glimpse of anyone. Now, she glanced left and right, trying to spot them.

“Ms. Carter,” a voice suddenly spoke up behind Emily, making her jump out of her skin.

Emily snapped around like a coiled spring.

Standing there in complete silence was a massive guy, easily over six feet tall and built like a tank.

“Mr. Gray,” the burly man gave a respectful bow to Sebastian, who was seated in his wheelchair.

“Has anyone else come by these past few days?” Stella asked, her voice flat and emotionless as she scrolled through the hospital records. Her perfectly sculpted brows lifted slightly in a cool, indifferent way.

The burly man tilted his head, thought for a moment, and then replied, “No.”

Even though the folks in Jaffina tried to keep things hush-hush, there was no such thing as a leakproof secret. Thanks to some schemers stirring the pot, word spread fast.

Many people heard that Paul’s top disciple had betrayed him, wrecked his hands, and taken Penn’s Acupuncture Mastery to defect to Tongalia.

Now, he was set to represent Tongalia at the International Herbal Medicine Conference in half a month.

The whole city was in an uproar.

Everyone loved to jump on the bandwagon when things were good, but when disaster struck, they were nowhere to be found. After Paul’s scandal broke, all those bootlickers scattered like birds.

Not a soul in sight.

Especially the Clusia Medical Association crowd, who never got along with the Traditional Medicine Association. Now they were kicking him while he was down, going head-to-head at every major meeting.

Even though everyone knew Paul was in Haliville, nobody bothered to drop by.

Except for those old geezers.

“Are you sure?” Stella looked up, slow and deliberate.

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Chapter 261

“Absolutely,” the burly man said.

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With Red Shadow on duty, nobody was getting past us.

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“What’s up?” Emily asked, catching the shift in Stella’s expression. “Is there something wrong with the records?”

Stella didn’t answer right away. She paused for a couple of seconds, and then said, “Call out everyone who’s on shift today.”

The burly man looked uncertain. “Uh…”

Sebastian, still in his wheelchair, made a small gesture with his hand. The burly man instantly nodded respectfully. “Yes, Ms. Carter.”

With his signal, three more guys emerged from the shadows.

Emily was stunned.

She wondered, ‘Seriously, where the hell were they hiding?

‘This hallway’s massive. How did they not get spotted even once?’

Emily was still reeling when, out of nowhere, the squeak of a medicine cart echoed down the hallway. It was just the nurse coming by to swap out Paul’s meds.

“Hey, Dr. Chase,” the nurse said, her voice a little tense as she pushed open Paul’s door, but nobody seemed to pick up on how nervous she sounded.

However, Stella and Sebastian both looked at once, turning to watch the nurse’s retreating figure.

Their eyes turned razor-sharp, cold and dangerous.

“John,” Sebastian called out.

“At your command, Mr. Gray,” John replied, his tone cold as steel. He’d already sensed something was off from the way Stella and Sebastian reacted.

“You and Red Shadow, go lock down the hallway. Nobody gets in or out,” Sebastian ordered, his voice sharp.

Emily was shocked.

Emily was no fool. As soon as she heard that, her expression darkened.

“Yes, sir!” John replied.

Stella, unfazed, moved behind Sebastian and started pushing his wheelchair toward the door of Paul’s room.

Callum was on the phone with his agent.

Just as the nurse was about to add the meds to the IV drip, the half-open door banged shut out of nowhere,

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Chapter 261

echoing through the room. Even Paul, who’d been dozing off, jolted awake.

Everyone else nearly jumped out of their skin.

Emily didn’t know what to say.

The door groaned in protest.

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Emily stared at the door, which looked like it might fall off its hinges any second, and decided to keep her

mouth shut.

Callum blinked. “You…”

Once the initial shock wore off, he recognized Stella right away. That superstar face of his lit up with an excited smile. “It’s you!”

But then he caught sight of Sebastian, and the memory of that blood-soaked hallway came rushing back. His smile vanished.

Stella didn’t bother with Callum at all. She walked over to the nurse with a lazy, uninterested look. “Changing the meds?”

She glanced at the label on the IV bag, and then at the syringe the nurse was about to use. Inside was a pale yellow liquid, just waiting to be pushed into the IV port to finish up.

“Emily, come here,” Stella called out.

Emily hurried over, her white coat flapping behind her.

“Tell her which medication listed here is supposed to be pale yellow,” Stella said, pointing coldly at the IV bag.

Callum was stunned.

‘Seriously, can someone tell me what the hell is happening right now?’ Callum thought, completely battled.

“None of these meds are supposed to be pale yellow!” Emily shot back, her voice tight with fury. Medicine was sacred stuff. Nobody should mess with it.

“W-What’s going on?” Callum stammered.

He looked completely lost.

Paul lay there, calm as ever, his eyes lingering on Stella with a thoughtful look.

The nurse’s eyes darted away, and she was clearly nervous. “I’m just doing what the doctor told me. I have no idea what you guys are talking about!”

Stella gave a cold, mocking smile. “Oh, you don’t understand?”

In the blink of an eye, her smile disappeared. Before the nurse could react, Stella had already snatched the syringe from her grip. “Let me teach you how to understand it,” she said, her voice chilling.

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Stella suddenly shoved the masked nurse hard against the wall. There was a heavy thud as her back slammed into it, and before she could even cry out, the nurse’s pupils contracted in terror.

The tip of the syringe hovered less than a fraction of 0.01 inch from her eye-one slip, and she’d be blinded instantly.

The nurse was frozen in fear, not even daring to make a sound.

She held her breath, terrified that even the slightest scream might make Stella’s hand tremble and erase that razor-thin gap.

Callum stammered, “Wait, you… you guys…”

Stella, Sebastian, and Emily all shouted in perfect sync, “Shut up!”

Callum froze.

Stella arched her brow, her expression tinged with menace. “What’s in this syringe?”

The nurse stammered, “I… I…”

“1

Stella cut her off, her voice icy. “Don’t even try to tell me you don’t know.”

Huge tears streamed down the nurse’s face. She could smell the icy scent coming off Stella, but to her, it felt like a warning from death.

Stella’s patience was nearly gone, her deep amber eyes turning darker and more lethal.

There was a brief pause.

“It’s a drug that stops wounds from healing!” the nurse blurted out, her voice trembling.

That was it.

Stella flicked her wrist, pulling the syringe away from the nurse’s eye. It was like the nurse had just been given a second chance at life. She slumped down the wall, hit the floor, and started bawling her eyes out.

Emily’s face twisted in shock and anger.

She couldn’t believe this was happening right under her nose. “Who was it? Who put you up to this?” she demanded, her voice sharp and furious.

Stella shot her gaze up, cold and intimidating.

“Speak,” she commanded, her tone brooking no defiance.

“I really don’t know!” The nurse finally broke down, her voice trembling. “One day, I got a call from an unknown number.

“They asked if I’d do it, and I thought it was just a friend messing with me, so I joked that I’d do it for 60 grand. I didn’t expect…”

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Chapter 261

She looked up, her eyes darting nervously.

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“Didn’t expect what?” Emily demanded, her tone urgent.

But before the nurse could answer, a cold male voice cut in. “Didn’t expect someone to actually send money the next day.”

you

the

The nurse stared at Sebastian, her mouth hanging open in shock. “Yes.” After a pause, she added, “The next day, I got a 60-grand transfer in my account. I was so freaked out that I couldn’t even move!”

“Was it just the money?” Stella pressed, her voice cold as ice.

“There were also a few vials of medicine in my locker,” the nurse stammered.

Emily’s eyes widened in disbelief. “A few? How many exactly?”

The nurse looked at her nervously. “Five in total. I used three…”

“Three?” Emily shouted, her voice shaking with rage.

Stella raised her eyebrow, her voice icy. “You sure about that?”

She shot a look at Paul’s hand. She thought, ‘No way that’s the effect of three vials.

‘One at most.

‘Maybe not even a full one.’

The nurse started sobbing again after Emily yelled at her. She reached into her pocket, pulled out a vial, and handed it over, her voice trembling. “I was scared, too! I just diluted it with a little saline, I swear!”

“A little?” Stella asked, her tone icy and skeptical.

The nurse glanced away nervously. “Well, a lot.”

The others didn’t know what to say.

Seriously, that was wild.

But looking at the pale yellow in the syringe compared to the deep yellow in the vial, they knew she really did dump a ton of saline in there.

Callum’s confusion snapped into rage, his usually soft eyes now sharp and deadly. He started, “You…”

He barely lifted his hand before the nurse instantly cowered, clutching her head in terror. “I’m sorry! I swear I’m sorry!”

Callum was speechless.

“Then how do you know this is a drug that stops wounds from healing?” Stella asked, her voice cold and direct.

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Chapter 261

She raised the vial toward the sunlight, letting the dense yellow liquid swirl and catch the light.