Chapter 331: Save A Life
According to Lucian, Raka had prescribed him some medicine, which he handed over to the facility to administer. However, Lucian wanted to run the new test and have Raka look into it.
"That’s so nice," Ashley giggled, wheeling Lucian to the lift as they prepared to head to the rooftop and leave the territory. "He’s annoying, but he’s actually a good guy, huh?"
Lucian nodded, looking up at her. "He’s not annoying; he’s lonely."
"Well," Ashley raised her brows and shrugged. She was about to change the topic to Primo when her brows furrowed suddenly. "Hang on."
Lucian and Gustav, who stood beside them, looked at her curiously.
"How did Raka know where you were?" she asked, confused.
Ashley had planned for Raka to check Lucian’s medical records, hoping he would tell her something useful — or that his miracle pill could cure Lucian. She had been desperate.
In her head, once she dealt with the High Chamber, she would contact him again.
Hearing that, Gustav nodded as he shifted his attention to Lucian. "I didn’t tell anyone where he is."
"Aside from Red and the team, no one else knows where Lucian is," Ashley added. "And I didn’t tell him."
"I didn’t ask him." Lucian blinked. "I woke up, and he was already there."
Besides, Lucian hadn’t thought it necessary to ask. He had more important things to worry about.
Silence fell over the lift as the trio looked at one another, a little bothered and unsettled by how Raka had known where Lucian was. Even the High Chamber couldn’t find him. Yet Raka knew.
How did he know?
*****
[What happened that night.]
Raka furrowed his brows at the sound of the doorbell echoing through his house. He wasn’t expecting any visitors, especially at this hour. When he checked the door monitor mounted on the wall, he saw no one.
Curious, he walked toward the door just to be sure.
The moment he opened it, what greeted him was a large brown envelope on the floor.
"What is this?" he wondered, picking it up.
He looked down the hallway to his left, then to his right. There was no one.
"Weird," he whispered, stepping back inside and closing the door behind him.
He curiously opened the envelope and pulled out what appeared to be an X-ray. His steps slowed; he didn’t notice the small note that slipped out and fell to his feet.
"Whose imaging is this?" he wondered, eyes drifting to where the patient’s name should have been.
There was no name.
Raka furrowed his brows, a little unsettled. But when his eyes fell on the scan itself, he blinked several times.
"Is this that guy’s imaging?" he wondered, walking back to the living area to grab his phone.
Ashley had sent him a digital copy, but he wanted to compare it against the hard copy. Once he had his phone in hand, he held it beside the imaging.
It was the same.
Raka’s eyes widened.
"Oh!" Then he scrunched up his nose and glared at the door.
"Was it her? How could she just leave it like this? Does she think I’m a pushover?" he grumbled, marching back to check if Ashley was still there.
Nothing.
"Hey!" he called out into the hallway. "Do you think I’m doing this for free?! You can’t even afford my professional rate! How dare you treat me like this?! Come out!"
He huffed, but there was no answer. He narrowed his eyes and stepped out, closing the door behind him. He planned to ambush Ashley if she peeked out, thinking he had already gone back in.
A full minute passed. Still nothing.
"Did she just leave?" he muttered. "I’m not going to check on your husband! Who cares about him?!"
With that, he stomped back inside.
Raka was tempted to ignore the imaging entirely — clearly, Lucian and Ashley had no decency when it came to treating him properly. But in the entryway, he paused. There was a note on the floor.
He picked it up and saw a handwritten address.
"Huh? This is where he’s admitted?" He snorted. "Of course. How could they afford to put him in an expensive facility?"
Raka shrugged and dragged himself away, calling it a night. He was halfway up the stairs when he stopped and clicked his tongue.
"That couple is going to be the death of me," he grumbled, turning on his heel and stomping back down to look at the imaging.
He picked it up and turned on the television, setting it to a white screen before holding the imaging up in front of it. His eyes narrowed, brows creasing.
"What the —" His mouth fell open. "What the hell are these lungs?"
Raka leaned closer to make sure. This was, by far, the strangest imaging he had seen in his entire career. At a glance, it looked exactly like what Ashley had described — any doctor would have arrived at the same diagnosis, because that was precisely what it appeared to be.
But studied more closely, there was something else in it.
"These aren’t fibrosis... or scarring." He blinked, confused. "This is something else."
He wasn’t sure what it was, but it was definitely something else. If Lucian had what he appeared to have, his lungs wouldn’t look this healthy. And yet, there was clearly something present — something he had yet to identify.
Raka’s thoughts halted. His breath caught in his throat.
"No," he breathed. "If he’s in the intensive care unit, he’s going to suffocate."
Without thinking, he glanced between the imaging and his phone, then quickly dialed Ashley’s number. It didn’t go through.
"Her husband is going to die, and she’s not answering —" he hissed.
Then he thought of Julius.
"Right!" He quickly dialed Julius’ number. "They’re friends. He probably has a way to reach her."
But Julius was unreachable too.
"What is going on?!" he gasped. "How can people not answer their phones?! It’s not even that late!"
It was late, but Raka had no way of knowing that the people he was calling were occupied with things far more pressing. Ashley had already flown out of the country to force Dominion’s allies to back her, and Julius had turned every hospital upside down searching for Dominion’s leader.
"Ugh!" Raka seethed, then paused as his eyes landed on the note on the table.
He frowned as he picked it up again — the address of the facility, the room number on it. He looked up toward the stairs and ruffled his hair in irritation.
"Screw it. They’d better worship me after this."
With that, Raka hurried to his maid’s room, woke her, told her to watch over his son, and ran out to save a life.
Thanks to him, a life — or rather, many lives — were saved.
