She's My Sleeping Pill

Chapter 967: A MOMENT OF PEACE, PLEASE

Weeks ticked by with zero leads on Isabelle Ignacio. Nikolai had also gone completely off the grid; there hadn't been a word from him since he pulled Luiz from the abductors' clutches. The two of them had just vanished like smoke.

Nikolai's last message had been less of a goodbye and more of a warning: protect his foster family and abandon the search.

"Get to Country F. See if the Sloan family will move," Stefan ordered, the rhythmic snap of the bidding documents the only sound in the room. "Give them the cover story—tell them Nikolai's enlisted and he's gone indefinitely."

Rey bowed his head in silent obedience. He wanted to ask what happened if Nikolai was already a dead man, but he forced the ominous words back down.

Meanwhile, Cayenne sat down with Zaire to discuss the search for his missing father. When Zaire had first applied to be Cayenne's videographer, he openly admitted his secondary motive: tracking down the man who had abandoned him and his mother years ago. Reconciling was never the goal—Zaire harbored too much resentment for that—but his mother desperately needed closure. She wanted to know how the man was faring, harboring a lingering, stubborn concern despite the bitter betrayal they had suffered.

Zaire had never truly understood his mother's obsession with a ghost, viewing it as an unnecessary reopening of old wounds, but he had respected her wishes enough to pursue the truth. Now, thanks to Cayenne's extensive resources and assistance, the investigation was finally complete. Holding the definitive results in his hands, a wave of reality hit him. The mystery was solved; the answers were laid bare, and the time had come to face the music. He needed to find his mother, deliver the news, and prepare them both for whatever truth was waiting inside that file.

"Won't you open it?" Cayenne asked, closely tracking the expressions of the man sitting across from her. Zaire merely took the heavy envelope and shoved it deep inside his bag without a second glance. It was painfully obvious that he possessed zero interest in whatever tragic or mundane story had caused his parents' separation so many years ago. "I know that finding this was your ultimate goal," Cayenne continued, her tone softening with a hint of vulnerability, "but I really hope you will still choose to continue working for me."

Zaire smiled warmly at her last statement as he pulled his bag completely zipped to a close. "I would never give up my privilege as your videographer, Miss Yen," he reassured her, his voice brimming with genuine loyalty. "Thousands, if not millions of professionals have been eyeing this coveted position since day one. I would have to be incredibly stupid to let anyone snatch this opportunity away from me now." For him, the job was no longer just a means to an end; it was a career he had earned, and a bond he intended to keep.

Since there's no work scheduled today, Zaire didn't take so much of Cayenne's time and left the mansion. On his way home, he mailed the envelope directly to his mother without opening it at all. Then, he called his mother and advised her to only read the content once she's mentally and emotionally ready for whatever was coming at her.

Only a few minutes after Zaire left, the quiet of Cayenne's afternoon was shattered by an urgent message from the hospital. The medical team reported that Chloe was scheduled for an immediate, life-saving surgery after unexpectedly receiving a perfect match from a specific heart donor. Though the hospital rigidly withheld the donor's identity due to strict privacy protocols, the doctors made it abundantly clear that they needed to proceed with the operation immediately before the critical window closed.

Even though Cayenne was not Chloe's legal guardian, she had grown incredibly fond of the resilient young girl over the months. Furthermore, she had given Justin her word that she would personally look after his little wife while he was away. Driven by that fierce loyalty, Cayenne had previously instructed the hospital administration to arrange for the transplant at the exact moment a suitable organ became available, explicitly stating that cost was no object. Now that the miracle had arrived, the sheer gravity of the moment hit her. Her heart raced with a mix of intense hope and anxiety as she grabbed her things, ready to ensure everything went perfectly.

Stuck in a high-stakes board meeting, Stefan quickly texted Tristan to rush to the hospital in his stead and support Cayenne through the sudden crisis. Seeking to secure the home front, he also sent Erwin back to the mansion. When Sabrina caught wind of the situation, she and her boyfriend immediately headed over to help look after the triplets. The nannies could only exchange helpless, amused smiles as they watched the doting couple completely pamper the babies; fortunately, this constant stream of family visitors gave the exhausted household staff a much-needed chance to unwind.

At the hospital, Cayenne sprinted through the corridors, but the moment she saw a middle-aged couple weeping on a nearby bench, her steps faltered. A sudden, chilling realization made her heart skip a beat. "It's Elia," Cayenne stated, her voice trembling as she approached the grieving parents. "How come? Why would she do this?" she whispered, tears blurring her vision.

It felt like a cruel twist of fate; she hadn't even found the opportunity to properly repay Elia for saving her family, and now, the selfless woman had surrendered her very heart to give Chloe a second chance at life.

"What happened to her?" Cayenned asked Elia's parents who could only sob in silence. "This is all too sudden."

"We all genuinely believed she had moved on," the older woman's voice broke, trembling with a fragile mixture of grief and regret. "We truly thought she was finally doing fine. Ever since she returned home, she went through the motions of a perfectly normal life. She went shopping, watched movies, hung out with her friends, and laughed at all the right moments. She never let Xian's name cross her lips—not even once. Because of that silence, we had no idea she was still bleeding inside, utterly devastated by his cruel betrayal. All this while, behind our backs, she had been drowning her sorrows in secret, slipping away to drink alone in the dark. And today… God, today, the universe caught up with her, and she met with a horrific accident." She buried her face in her hands, the crushing weight of their ignorance suffocating the sterile hospital corridor.

If only they had looked closer beneath her carefully constructed facade, they might have seen the fractures before she completely shattered. But now, as they stared at the closed operating room doors, all that remained was the agonizing realization that their assumptions had cost them everything.

Based on the story, it turned out that Elia was not planning to live any longer. In her wallet, an organ donation card was found, and it mentioned Chloe's name as the recipient of her heart. Then, she gave the hospital the right to donate the rest of her organs; however, they deemed fit.

His family could do nothing but grieve for their loss. She was the only daughter they had, yet they lost her at a very young age.

"I wish we could go back in time," Elia's mother said mournfully.

What Cayenne knew about Elia was just a tip of the iceberg, but from the way her parents acted, she could tell that they did something horrible in the past.

Cayenne offered her condolences and sat on the opposite bench. She looked up to stop her tears from falling as she recalled the warm smile that Elia showed when she first met them. "Why did you have to give up your life for a man who wouldn't treasure you?" Cayenne mumbled in pain.