Chapter 47

|8:00 AM

The office was silent when Williams returned. She hung her white coat on the hook with a calm, deliberate movement, then crossed the room and picked up the files waiting on her desk. Paper rustled softly as she flipped through them without seeming to register the two men frozen across from her.

Polo and Emilio sat stiffly in the visitor chairs, their faces pale under the relentless overhead lighting.

Polo already knew the storm that was coming. At dawn, Makizal’s men had raided his office, taken his devices, and sealed the door behind them like a tomb.

Emilio had no idea yet that the same thing had happened to him.

He only knew that the woman in front of them, silent and unreadable, was not someone anyone wished to disappoint.

Makizal leaned toward her. His voice was low, but it cut through the air like a blade.
“The documents have been found.”

Williams did not look up, but a shift passed through her, subtle and cold. Confirmation. That was the confirmation she needed. Her suspicion that Emilio and Polo had formed a silent, unauthorized alliance was now verified. They had taken initiative without her consent, attempting to manage a crisis that belonged to her. Williams inhaled sharply through her nose, then exhaled.

Beta moved toward Emilio, his hand extended. “Hand over your phone.”

Emilio, still clinging to the illusion of his medical status, objected. “May I know what this is about?” he demanded, his voice cracking slightly.

Williams remained at her desk, her gaze fixed on the paperwork, ignoring the defiance. But Emilio foolishly insisted, trying to assert his rights.

Beta repeated, “Your phone.”

But Emilio was tense, humiliated, and desperate to keep a shred of control. “Not until someone explains…”

Before he could finish his sentence, Ultra delivered a solid slap so hard his head snapped back, his glasses flying across the room. He fell sideways into Polo, who flinched and grabbed the armrest, horrified.

Polo’s thoughts spiraled. Are we really at this point?

Ultra towered above Emilio, unblinking, muscles coiled.

“The phone,” Beta barked.

Emilio, dazed and clutching his ringing cheek, turned a broken look toward Williams. “Seriously?” he whispered. He offered no further resistance as Beta efficiently relieved him of his device.

Her eyes remained on the document in her hands. “Who is responsible for the Evelyn error?” she asked calmly, turning a page.

Emilio froze. He understood the subject now, but his loyalty was stubbornly misplaced. “It’s me.”

Williams did not argue. She finally lifted her head. Her eyes were clear. Her gaze landed on him, then at Polo, before her eyes fixed on Ultra. It was an imperceptible flash of communication, a silent trigger.

Ultra dealt a second, far more savage blow, driving Emilio back against the headrest.

Emilio cried out, clutching his jaw, breath breaking.

“Williams, please,” Polo interjected quickly, his self-preservation instinct screaming. “I’ll tell you what’s happening.”

“The question was not addressed to you, but to Emilio,” Makizal ordered.

Emilio, his cheek swelling immediately beneath the bruise, looked back at Williams, who remained utterly detached. She pressed him. “So, Emilio, who is responsible for Evelyn’s procedure?”

Emilio’s voice finally splintered, admitting the unforgivable truth. “Dr. Marz.”

“Good.” Williams set down the letter of resignation.

“But I can explain everything to you,” Emilio pleaded, the fight draining out of him.

“It’s not necessary.”

“Williams, please, I know that…”

“It’s not necessary,” she repeated one last time.

“Shut up.” Makizal’s voice landed like a hammer.

But Emilio, idiotically and desperately, tried one last time. “At least allow me…”

Makizal moved to strike him again, but Polo intervened, raising both hands. “Please. Enough.” He turned on Emilio, voice low and harsh. “Shut up. If she wanted to hear you, she would have asked.”

They both turned back to Williams. She was staring at them, utterly unmoved.

“I am done with you, Emilio,” she said, gentler than expected. “This silence you weaponized against me to prevent me from protecting my legacy is the only thing you will get from me. But you will pay for it. In your flesh. In your failures. And, in the life you chose to ruin.”

Emilio opened his mouth, but the warning in Makizal’s eyes forced him to close it.

Makizal signaled Beta. “Make sure he keeps a low profile until further notice.”

“Let’s go.” Beta yanked Emilio violently by the collar, hauling him to his feet. Once standing, Beta swiftly placed a surgical mask over Emilio’s face, hiding the rapidly forming bruise. “We will walk carefully to your car. Any sudden movements, and what my colleague did will feel like mercy.” Emilio, weeping silently, obeyed and left the office.

Polo remained seated, his body rigid with horror. His own phone and Emilio’s lay on the edge of Williams’ desk, trophies of conquest. Minutes later, the phones belonging to Rosa, Malaya, and other staff members from the private block were added to the pile, a mountain of seized privacy.

Malaya and Rosa watched, terrified, behind the glass wall. Malaya saw Emilio leave, bruised and broken, his masked eyes meeting hers for a fleeting, desperate second. In that moment, she knew she had made a terrible mistake. She had assumed Williams’ reaction would be rational; she had instead unleashed cold-blooded power. Yet she still clung to the notion that this brutality might be the only way to protect the innocent.

Polo, hands trembling slightly, kept silent. He had lost the youthful fervor for risk. He had just witnessed the cost of rebellion.

“Mr. Polo,” Williams said, pulling a specific large document from a box Makizal had delivered. Inside was the file concerning Emilio’s scandal, the file Polo had hidden.

“You went with Evelyn to the Mayeurs’, you did not come back to tell me about it, and you did it without my consent.”

“Williams, I’m sorry if you learned about this matter this way, but I just wanted to protect the hospital’s reputation.”

Williams said nothing.

Polo continued desperately. “What Emilio did was serious. Too many people were involved. You were, and still are, in a critical phase of this media affair. If one person had leaked it, the matter would have spread, and you would have been lost. All of us, for that matter.”

She picked up his unlocked phone and held it loosely in her hand.

“Who helped you?” she asked.

Polo looked at Makizal. He realized Romaric was gone. He did not flinch. He hesitated only a second before answering. “Romaric.”

She put the phone down. “You know,” she said softly, “I have always respected you. Do you know why?”

“No,” he whispered.

“Because I saw how you fought body and soul for the hospital’s interests, using every possible method to achieve your goals professionally. That said, when I took the helm of this structure, which is now mine, the rules were clear. Everything goes through me. And you…”

“Williams…” Polo tried to justify himself.

“Silence,” Makizal hissed, cutting him off.

“And you failed miserably. You had comfort, and that comfort made you forget where you were, which is at Niran Kai. And it is Dr. Niran Williams who decides. You and Romaric chose betrayal. Tell me, Polo, is it because I am a woman?”

“No. Never. Never,” he whispered. “I would never think that way. I have two daughters, and I consider you too as a daughter.” He lowered his gaze. “Often, out of love, we make mistakes to protect those we love.”

Williams raised a broken gaze to him. “When you love, you also respect. That is a golden rule,” she murmured before her tone snapped back to business. “Well, rest assured, you will finish what you started. I would like to know how you planned to proceed before I discovered it myself.”

“Romaric and I planned to make everyone who caused trouble with Emilio sign a confidentiality clause, and as for Evelyn, she chose to give us a definitive answer on Monday. I suppose she and the Mayeurs reached a common agreement.”

“Did you speak with the Mayeurs after that?”

“I thought it wiser to wait.”

Williams shook her head slowly. “I thought you were more intelligent. Did you believe signatures alone would erase years of misconduct? What about the staff who already know? Did you imagine no one among them might be speaking?”

“It was important to approach these young victimized women delicately.”

“Victims?” Williams was surprised, her eyebrows arching slightly. “Or did you mean those who seduced professors for grades?”

Williams was hardly affected by Polo’s assumptions. To her, if those young women had chosen to give themselves for grades, they were not victims but adult women who had made a conscious choice. Her problem was the location, her hospital. But the thought of girls being abused, not just seductive, was not in Malaya’s package. It was suddenly clear to Williams that there was a terrifying amount more to discover, and Polo, for now, was going to tell her everything.

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