Unwanted Blood (Harper) novel Chapter 60

Chapter 60

Harper’s POV

I didn’t wait for Adrian to come to me the next morning, I knocked on his study door directly

He opened the door. He was already dressed-dark sweater, trousers, hair slightly unkempt like he’d been up for a while. His eyes widened when he saw me.

“Harper.”

I walked past him into the study and set the manila envelope on his desk.

“I read it.” I said. “The medical records. The doctor’s note.”

He closed the door and came around to the other side of the desk.

“And?”

“It’s not enough.” My voice was steady. “The note says ‘a medical incident.’ It doesn’t say which one. It doesn’t say who the victim was. Your father could claim it was something else entirely-a malpractice suit, a patient complaint, anything vague enough to fit. This document proves nothing.”

I held his gaze. “You gave me a thread. But a thread isn’t a rope. And I can’t climb out of this house on a thread.”

Adrian was quiet for a few seconds. His eyes moved from my face to the envelope on the desk and

back.

“So what are you saying?”

“I’m saying the trade you offered me isn’t balanced.” I didn’t blink. “You want me to do things you can’t do. To get information you can’t reach. But you’re not giving me enough to work with. If you really want me on your side, then give me more.”

He studied me. Then he pushed off the desk and walked to the bookshelf. He pulled a slim folder from the second shelf and carried it back.

He set it on top of the envelope.

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Chapter 60

“The nurse.” he said.

My pulse jumped I didn’t let it show.

2All Vurhers

“A night-shift nurse from the maternity ward at Vancouver General. She was on duty the night your mother was admitted. The night everything happened.”

He tapped the folder.

“I don’t have her full name. This is what I pulled from the hospital’s old employment records- before they were purged. It’s a name she used when she was hired. But she resigned seven years ago. No forwarding address. No contact information. The file ends there.”

I opened the folder. A single page. Yellowed. The header read Vancouver General Hospital – Staffing Record, Maternity Ward. Below it, a name, a hire date, a resignation date, and a single line under “reason for separation”: Personal circumstances.

Nothing else.

I looked up at him. “Did she leave a phone number? A home address? Anything?”

“No.”

I closed the folder. My mind was already turning, searching for angles.

“But,” Adrian added, his voice quiet, “your brothers found Martha. I guess a nurse who resigned seven years ago shouldn’t be harder to track than that.”

I stared at him. Was he giving me permission to pass the information outside. To my brothers. To the people he’d been fighting against for years.

“You’re okay with me sending this out?” I asked.

“I told you, I want him to fall more than you do.”

“Fine.” I take the phone, opened the messaging app, and typed a single line:

Vancouver General Hospital. Night-shift maternity nurse. Resigned seven years ago. Name on file: [Rachel]. Find her. I hit send.

His phone buzzed on the desk a second later-a notification that the message had been relayed through Lily’s device to the outside network.

Adrian had no question. He picked up his coffee cup. “Breakfast in ten minutes,” he said.

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Chapter 60

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