tr Gifts
Chapter 186 Something Science Couldn’t Explain
Everyone in the room had sharp enough instincts to catch what Paige had just let slip. But given the situation, no one asked her to elaborate.
Mabel still looked pale, but there was a liveliness in her eyes. Her energy had clearly returned. Just as Jaxon said-“Madam Ashbourne is doing just fine.”
Out in the hallway, just around the corner from the room, Jaxon pulled off his mask. There was a mix of guilt and astonishment in his voice.
“Mr. Harlow,” he said, “you were right. We ran the same set of tests on Madam Ashbourne again, and I can now say with full confidence that my diagnosis was wrong.”
Alistair’s smile was calm and sincere. “Well, that’s a mistake we’re happy to have. If only more of them turned out this way.”
Jaxon gave a sheepish wave. “Let’s not jinx it. We’re lucky Madam Ashbourne stayed calm, and that the family didn’t lose their heads. If things had gone the other way…”
“Don’t second–guess yourself,” Alistair interrupted gently. “Maybe it wasn’t about your judgment at all. Maybe it was something else. A miracle, perhaps.”
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Chapter 186 Something Solence Could
The System, after all, was nothing if not miraculous.
Jaxon let out a long breath and gave a small laugh. “Maybe. If more miracles like this existed, the world would carry a lot less regret.”
They shared a brief smile.
Alistair nodded and walked off toward the patient room. As he turned the corner, he spotted Gordon standing there, arms crossed, posture unreadable. There was no telling how long he’d been there, or how much he had heard.
Alistair’s heart skipped, but he quickly steadied himself, nodding politely as he passed.
Gordon didn’t move. A few seconds later, he said, “Hold on.”
Alistair paused, inwardly sighing. He turned with the composed half-smile of someone used to power plays.
“Something on your mind, Mr. Gordon Ashbourne?”
Gordon’s tone was direct. “The reason you didn’t want my
mother leaving New York–was it because you already knew she was sick and wanted to help?”
Alistair blinked slowly, feigning confusion. “I’m not sure I follow.”
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But Gordon wasn’t backing off. His eyes narrowed, reading Alistair’s every twitch. “How did you pull it off?”
And here it comes.
Gordon wasn’t just rich. He was observant, surgical, and dangerously intelligent. Alistair could lie to most people and never get caught. But not him.
Still, he had no choice but to stick to the script.
“I really don’t know what you’re talking about,” Alistair said smoothly. “Yes, I heard from Dr. Rollins that your mom’s condition looked serious at first. But now it’s clear–it was a misdiagnosis. She’s perfectly healthy.”
Gordon stared at him in silence.
The words might’ve sounded fine on the surface, but they didn’t fool him. Not even close.
What Alistair didn’t know was that Mabel, overwhelmed
by anxiety, had already confided in Gordon about the first diagnosis.
And when the second round of test results came back clean, Gordon sat alone in the bathroom, staring at the report. Then he tore it to pieces and flushed it.
He’d planned to lie to his mother–tell her the initial diagnosis
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had exaggerated things, that with early treatment, she had every chance to recover. He’d even paid someone to create a new, falsified report to back the story up.
All he wanted was to spare her from living in fear.
He had already spoken with specialists overseas. The trip was scheduled. He planned to leave with her the day after tomorrow.
He’d wanted to go sooner. But then Alistair had made that strange, persistent request. Against his better judgment, Gordon had agreed.
Just three days… for Caroline’s sake.
That was what he’d told himself.
What he hadn’t expected was a clean bill of health.
It was simply so coincidental that he couldn’t ignore it.
Alistair’s bizarre behavior before his arrest. His insistence on delaying. Even if it sounded insane, Gordon couldn’t help but draw a line between them.
He had a gut feeling… that if Alistair hadn’t stepped in, this so–called “misdiagnosis” might’ve ended very differently.
As Alistair turned to leave, Gordon muttered behind him, “Maybe I’m just reading too much into it.”
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Alistair said nothing. He kept walking.
But Gordon couldn’t let it go. What had happened to Mabel defied every logical explanation. Just like Alistair said, maybe it really was a miracle.
Gordon had never believed in anything he couldn’t quantify. But maybe science did have its limits–because none of it had made sense, and yet, it had all happened.
Which was why he didn’t let himself celebrate just yet. Gordon arranged for Mabel to be retested at a different hospital. The second set of results came back clean. She was in perfect health.
Alistair did feel relieved, but that wasn’t the only thing on his mind.
He figured it was time to dig around the System Store and see if there was anything that could wipe memories.
Gordon was too sharp, the kind of man who could stare right through someone and see what they were hiding.
It made Alistair deeply uncomfortable. If Gordon weren’t Caroline’s father, he’d seriously consider silencing him…
Just kidding. I’m a law–abiding citizen. Mostly.
To be fair, Gordon didn’t seem hostile. He was just curious.
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He hadn’t brought it up again, not even in passing, as if their whole conversation had been nothing more than a fleeting afternoon dream that existed only in Alistair’s head.
Still, even if Gordon didn’t plan to act on what he suspected, Alistair couldn’t just sit back and ignore it.
It was like Gordon was holding a string Alistair didn’t even know was attached to him. He hated that feeling. No control, no leverage.
And more than that-
Why should Gordon know a secret even Caroline doesn’t?
He scrolled through the System Store for a while, hoping to find some kind of memory–erasing product, but came up short.
What he did find, however, was something that could work just as well—“Everything Makes Sense.”
The description was simple.
Just like food kept people alive, plants grew toward light, and rivers ran downhill–when something was made logically consistent, people stopped questioning it.
That’ll do.
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If it looked like a fact, felt like a fact, people would stop digging.
And that was exactly what he needed.
*****
At Ashbourne Manor, sunlight poured over the garden. Mabel stretched her arms, rolled her shoulders, and even kicked out her legs. Her body, once heavy and fatigued, moved with ease and strength. It was like she’d dropped twenty years overnight. She felt reborn.
From a terminal diagnosis to a clean report, Mabel had come through something few people ever faced, and somehow, she was lighter for it, inside and out.
Eloise tossed a ball into the grass, and Nugget darted after it, tongue flopping. Then she turned to Mabel, eyes wide with wonder. “Great–Grandma, did you take some kind of magic potion or something?”
Mabel blinked, caught off guard. “Hmm?”
Eloise studied her carefully, dead serious. “You look younger than you did yesterday.”
Mabel couldn’t stop smiling. Her whole face lit up. “Do I really? Well, maybe I did get younger after all.”
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