Chapter 347

Lucie's chest felt tight, her heart pounding so hard it hurt. She took a shaky breath and forced herself to push down the panic swirling inside. Pulling out Cody's medical report from the children's hospital, she read it once, then again, then a third time. The words blurred together. She wasn't a doctor-half the terms made no sense to her.

She stood up and grabbed her phone. "Ruby, I need to head out. Cancel everything this afternoon."

Ruby stared at her in shock. "Ms. Anderson, where are you going?"

But Lucie was already out the door, not stopping to answer. She dialed the Anderson family's private doctor, Dr. Meza. He'd looked after her since she was a kid—he'd been with the family for thirty years and was more like an uncle than a physician.

By four in the afternoon, Lucie was standing outside Dr. Meza's house, her nerves frayed. He opened the door and looked surprised to see her. "Ms. Anderson, you didn't have to come all the way here. If you weren't feeling well, you could've just called and I'd come to you."

Lucie didn't even try to make small talk. She handed him Cody's file, her hands trembling a little. “Dr. Meza, please can you look at this? Cody's doctor says he has acute lymphoblastic leukemia, but..... I need to know if anything looks wrong."

Dr. Meza adjusted his glasses and opened the file. He flipped through each page slowly, reading every line, every number. The silence stretched on until Lucie's heart was in her throat.

Finally, as he reached the last page—the bone marrow report—he paused. He frowned and tapped a line with his finger. "This percentage of immature cells doesn't add up."

Lucie felt a chill run through her. "What do you mean?"

He looked up at her, serious. "In cases of acute lymphoblastic leukemia, the proportion of immature lymphocytes in the blood should be above twenty percent. This report has it at three percent. There are a few other key numbers that don't match up either."

He glanced at her, his eyes careful. "It doesn't look like these results all belong to one person. More like they're stitched together from different cases. Here-see this difference? These readings are from two separate people. The file itself is professional, and it matches what you'd expect from a leukemia diagnosis, but if you go over each test closely, things don't add up. Even most doctors wouldn't catch it unless they looked really hard."

The room spun for a second and Lucie had to steady herself. "So... you're saying this report is fake?"

Dr. Meza hesitated, then spoke even

more cautiously. "The diagnosis itself looks legitimate. It fits the

criteria for acute leukemia But two

For three readings are just.... don't belong together."

Lucie's chest ached. “So it's basically been faked, right?”

They

He fiddled with his glasses again, his voice dropping lower. "Ms. Anderson, maybe

the best thing is to take Cody to another specialist hospital for a full checkup. Just to be sure."

He didn't need to say more. Lucie could see it in his eyes-he knew exactly what was going on, but he was too afraid to spell it out. A big hospital like New Amberton or the children's hospital would never make such a basic mistak Someone high up had to have ordered the doctors to do this. And there was only one person with that kind of power-Mr. Heath.

He was being careful. You had to be, in this world. Lucie understood the warning behind his words. Combined with what Bria had hinted at earlier, she could finally see the truth.

"Thank you, Dr. Meza. I understand."

He looked at her, worried. "Is there anything else you want to ask?”

She shook her head, her whole body heavy. "No. That's it.”

Lucie walked out, her steps slow and weighted, like her heart was made of stone.