The Cold Surgeon's Contract Bride novel Chapter 266

Seeing my mother's frantic state, I quickly tried to soothe her. "It's going to be okay. We're still within the normal window. Just don't—"

"No, I can't wait any longer," Lucille insisted. She had never been one to sit idly by. She shot to her feet. "I'm going to find my son-in-law. I need to ask him directly and find out exactly what's happening to Silas."

Remembering the disaster at noon, I knew she would just get the door slammed in her face. I grabbed her arm to stop her. "Just wait here patiently. I'll go ask him."

"Make sure you ask clearly, and keep your tone soft," Lucille urged desperately. "Ferris responds well to that."

I could only sigh at her blind optimism.

Half an hour later, I arrived at Ferris's office alone. When I looked inside, Zoey was standing right at his desk, dutifully packing up his belongings.

I knocked politely on the door.

Hearing the noise, both of them looked up at me simultaneously.

The younger woman looked surprised and greeted me politely, "What brings you here, Selena?"

I didn't beat around the bush. I got straight to the point. "Director Sterling, it's been thirty hours since the operation, and Mr. Lowell still hasn't woken up. Could there be—"

"Weren't the monitor readings clear enough during rounds?" Ferris cut me off coldly, his annoyance palpable. "You're supposed to be so good at reading data. Did you spot a problem?"

Silas's post-op numbers were all technically normal.

Ferris was just mocking me.

I suppressed the surge of anger and tried to maintain a professional attitude. I pleaded, "Could I trouble you to check on him in the ICU one more time before you leave?"

At my request, both Ferris and Zoey looked mildly surprised.

Zoey stole a quick glance at me, then turned to Ferris, offering sweetly, "Why don't you go check on the patient first, Ferris? I'll explain things to my parents. The airport isn't far from my house anyway, so I can just grab a cab."

Parents? The airport?

"What?" Lucille looked completely baffled. "Silas is in this condition, and our son-in-law just calmly clocked out?"

I kept my voice steady. "Mom, he's my uncle. Not his."

A wave of defeat washed over Lucille's eyes at my words. She sighed heavily. "You're right. He already operated on your uncle personally. We... we probably shouldn't demand so much."

Hearing the sorrow in her voice, my heart ached, but I felt a strange sense of peace.

It was better she realized early on that the Sterling family was never a tree we could rely on for shade.

But sometimes, the things you fear the most are exactly what come to pass.

An hour later, while I was downstairs grabbing dinner for Lucille, the hospital called. Silas's vitals had crashed. The situation was critical.

I abandoned the food and sprinted back like a madwoman, dialing Ferris's number the entire way. But the only thing echoing through the receiver was the cold, mechanical repetition of "The number you have dialed is not answering..."