Celine was frozen in her seat, her eyes wide as she gazed intently at her older brother's face, which appeared stiff and devoid of any trace of playfulness.
Her fingers, which had been moving rhythmically to stroke the orange cat's soft fur, suddenly froze, clutching the blanket so tightly that her knuckles turned white. The new heart beating inside her chest pulsed steadily, yet her mind raced wildly, dissecting the meaning behind the stern warning that had just slipped from Luan's lips.
The prohibition didn't make her comply; rather, it cemented her conviction one hundred percent that the mysterious figure behind that emergency blood bag was Mark. If the donor were just a stranger who happened to be passing by, as the nurse claimed, there's no way Luan would have had to rush home from the office during work hours just to worry about this.
"Why?" Celine asked softly, breaking the silence with care to hide the tremor in her throat.
