The Year I Stopped Being His novel Chapter 353

"Shh—keep your voice down!" Assistant Dawson practically lunged forward to cover her mouth. "Dr. Foster specifically ordered that nothing about Room 521 gets out! Why are you yelling so loud—"

The young nurse quickly nodded, lowering her voice as she muttered, "Got it, got it." The two of them hurried off toward the inpatient wing.

Quinn stepped out from the stairwell.

Her fingers tightened around her purse strap, her knuckles turning white.

Room 521...

Why Room 521? What did that signify?! And who was this mysterious patient... what kind of patient required the hospital director to personally instruct an assistant to order their meals?

She turned and headed back to the stairwell, descending the dim, aging steps down to the fifth floor.

At the end of the corridor was a set of doors she had never passed through. A sign above the frame read "Special Care Unit." Next to it was a keycard scanner. The red light glowed steadily, like a silent, forbidding eye denying entry to all trespassers.

She stood by the door, peering through the small glass panel. The corridor beyond was deeper and quieter. The lighting was dimmed to half the brightness of a regular ward, and the air carried a faint scent of disinfectant mixed with a medication she couldn't identify.

A moment later, the doors clicked.

A nurse pushed a medical cart out from the inside. The scanner's light turned green, the lock disengaged, and the nurse brushed past her, muttering a casual "Excuse me."

Quinn stepped aside, and at the very last second before the door swung shut, she reached out and silently caught the edge. She slipped inside.

At the end of the hall, the nameplate for Room 521 was mounted above the doorframe, crisp blue letters on a white background.

A warm, yellow glow spilled from the observation window on the door. She walked over, stood in front of the door, and peered through the glass.

Sloane.

Yes, it was Sloane. She would never mistake that face!

She wasn't dead. She was lying right there, drinking the soup he personally cooled for her, wearing the hospital gown Garrison had likely changed her into.

Resting in Garrison's embrace, being cherished by him like a fragile piece of glass!

Five years... Everyone thought she was dead! She was treated as everyone's ultimate heartbreak, everyone's great hero! Basking in everyone's mourning, their unconditional love, and even... their worship!

But it was all a fake, a meticulously crafted lie.

Then what was Quinn? What was everything she had done over these past few years for?"