So terrified that he was willing to give up everything... even the child he might have secretly longed for. Her lips trembled.
Slowly, she leaned forward and wrapped her arms around him, her voice barely a whisper as she spoke everything into his ear, the dream, the cloaked figure, the demand... Ivy’s blood.
Jay’s expression darkened instantly. By the ti she finished, his eyes had already turned sharp, filled with a cold, dangerous clarity.
Without another word, he stood up and rushed out.
When he returned, he wasn’t alone. Ivy stood beside him.
The mont Ember saw her, her gaze instinctively shifted away, guilt flickering across her pale face.
Ivy, however, felt a sharp pang in her chest.
’If she wasn’t my sister... would she have suffered like this?’
The thought cut deep. Because now, it was obvious...that cloaked figure hadn’t chosen Ember randomly.
It wanted Ivy. Ember was just... a ans. Ivy’s gaze hardened slightly as her mind raced.
’If he can affect her from a distance... then there must be a connection.’
Sothing linking Ember to that entity. Sothing inside her. Her eyes slowly drifted toward Ember’s abdon.
Ember winced again, a soft cry escaping her lips, her body trembling with pain.
Ivy pressed her lips together tightly, her fists clenching. Then she turned sharply toward Jay. "Give the reports."
Jay imdiately handed them over, confusion evident in his expression.
Ivy scanned them quickly, once... twice...
Her grip tightened around the paper. Anger flared in her chest, sharp and uncontrollable.
’This... bastard ...’
Taking a deep breath, she forced herself to calm down before looking up at Jay.
"We need to abort it. Now."
Jay froze. "What? But she’s already in this condition..."
"Now," Ivy repeated, her voice firm, leaving no room for argunt.
Sothing in her tone made Jay’s heart skip. He didn’t understand everything yet...
But he knew...sothing was very wrong.
"No!" Ember shouted, but when Ivy leaned toward her ear and whispered, she stopped struggling, looking completely lifeless.
"Now!" Ivy barked at Jay, who ca to his senses.
Without hesitation, he scooped Ember into his arms and rushed toward the nearest hospital.
.............
The hospital lights were harsh, almost blinding.
Doctors, already inford about Ember’s condition, looked at them with quiet pity as she was wheeled into the ergency room.
Ivy stopped Alana just before she followed. "Go inside," she instructed. "Focus on healing her as much as possible."
Alana nodded and rushed in. Ivy remained outside.
Jay stood beside her, his chest rising and falling rapidly. "What’s going on?" he demanded, his voice strained. "Did you find sothing?"
Ivy exhaled slowly, her eyes dark. "It’s not a pregnancy."
Jay blinked, confusion flooding his face. "What?"
Ivy turned to him, her voice low but clear.
"If soone can control Ember through sothing inside her... if they can cause pain and manipulate her..." she said, "then there has to be a dium."
She paused briefly. "And that dium... is inside her body."
Jay’s breath caught. Ivy’s gaze hardened. "I think... it’s not a baby."
Silence. Heavy. Unbearable. Jay’s eyes widened in horror.
Ivy nodded slowly. "Yes... exactly what you’re thinking."
Her voice turned colder. "Soone planted sothing inside her. A tumor... disguised as a fetus."
Jay staggered back slightly, as if the ground beneath him had shifted.
Ivy continued, her mind piecing everything together.
"What’s even stranger..." she added, "is that you wouldn’t have touched Ember during her illness. You wouldn’t risk hurting her."
Jay imdiately nodded. "Of course not."
"And yet," Ivy went on, "the reports say she was already three months pregnant."
Jay’s brows furrowed. "But... that’s what they showed..."
"That’s the problem," Ivy cut in. "A month ago, Alana was treating her regularly. If there had been a fetus, she would have felt it."
Her eyes narrowed. "Healing energy attracts a fetus. It draws more energy instinctively. But Alana felt nothing."
Jay’s face went pale.
"And then," Ivy added, holding up the reports, "the second report suddenly shows four and a half months."
She let out a cold breath. "How does a pregnancy progress that fast?"
Jay’s hands clenched into fists. "...That stomach cancer," he muttered. "It started from there, didn’t it?"
Ivy froze for a mont. Then her eyes widened.
’Of course ...’
She hadn’t even considered it.
In her previous life, she had simply assud Ember had developed cancer and eventually gotten cured.
But now... How could soone survive in such a world with untreated cancer?
The more she thought about it, the heavier her chest felt. Her eyes slowly closed, regret washing over her like a tide.
’If she suffered this much... then I’m not innocent either ...’
She had ignored it. Dismissed it.
Jay noticed the change in her expression imdiately.
"Don’t," he said quickly, shaking his head. "This isn’t your fault."
His voice softened slightly. "Even though you had told us about your last lifeti... and we still didn’t figure this out."
Ivy opened her eyes slowly. Silently... she nodded.
She had known for a long ti that Jay knew about her rebirth.
Ember had told her. It wasn’t sothing she could hide forever.
It wasn’t that she couldn’t keep it hidden; she simply didn’t want Jay to ever question Ivy’s actions moving forward. Not when everything was already this fragile.
Lifting her head, she looked at him, her expression calm yet heavy with thought. "Even then... I still don’t understand sothing," she said slowly. "How did all of this happen behind the scenes?"
Her brows furrowed faintly.
"Who was capable of disguising sothing like this as stomach cancer..." she continued, her voice tightening just a little, "...and then turning it into a tumor later?"
Jay exhaled slowly, his jaw tightening as he leaned back.
"Instead of trying to figure out who did it..." he muttered, his eyes narrowing slightly, "...we should look at it from the other side."
Ivy’s gaze flickered toward him.
Jay continued, his tone steadier now, more analytical. "Think about it from their perspective."
A brief pause followed as his thoughts aligned.
"Whoever planned this... knew exactly what would happen," he said. "They knew that once healing energy was used on Ember ..."
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