"It's not a coincidence!" Bella sat up straight, her eyes burning with intensity. "Aunt Mila didn't mistake what she saw. There is a man who looks exactly like Hugh! I know him. His name is Jace. I met him while I was under Christopher's control on Rose Island in Sentania!"

The Thompson family was utterly stunned.

"Bella! Is he Hugh?!" Wyatt pressed for an answer.

Bella bit her lip, falling silent. She was deep in thought. 'Why would Jace appear at the hospital at this time?'

There was only one possibility. That night, the person who hit her with the car was Jace. The person who brought her to the hospital was also Jace.

But when she woke up after losing consciousness, the first person she saw was Grant.

'Christopher, Jace, Grant...'

Suddenly, Bella felt a shiver run down her spine, as though she had just woken from a dream.

A thought leaped into her mind, one that seemed absurd on the surface but terrifying when examined closely.

Bella did not believe in coincidences, especially when all the coincidences seemed intricately connected.

"Bella, speak up!" Mila's eyes were red with urgency. "Is he Hugh? Hugh didn't die... He survived, didn't he?"

Bella took a deep breath. Her eyes suddenly brightened with realization. "Aunt Mila, did you say that he was smoking in the hallway? Did he leave after finishing his cigarette, or was he still smoking when he left?"

"Maybe... I scared him off. He crushed the cigarette and left in a hurry."

"Aunt Mila, tell my brothers to go to that balcony and look for the cigarette butt he left behind."

Bella's heartbeat quickened, feeling as though the fog of deception and confusion before her was beginning to clear. "Then, take that cigarette butt and compare it to Hugh's DNA. We'll know whether it's him or not with a single test!"

Jace, with his hands stuffed into the pockets of his leather jacket, walked alone through the hospital's underground parking lot, his expression dark and brooding.

He recalled the woman who claimed to be his mother, and his heart clenched painfully. His mind was a chaotic mess.

"Jace!"

Jace's head snapped up, and he saw Clarice approaching with a cold look on her face. "Why are you still here? Didn't the Boss tell you to leave immediately after bringing Bella to the hospital?"

The man's eyes narrowed. After he had delivered Bella to the hospital two nights ago, his heart remained unsettled, though he could not explain why.

Jace feared he had hit Bella too hard and feared that she might not make it out of the emergency room alive. So he stayed, watching from the shadows. But none of this was something he would ever tell Clarice.

To him, this woman was a snake, a scorpion-cold-blooded under a human disguise and anything but human. He would not reveal a single thing to her.

"I'm watching over the Boss. After all, the Thompson family is here now." Jace's voice was indifferent, his gaze icy.

Clarice blurted out anxiously, "It's precisely because the Thompson family is here that you shouldn't be!"

Jace took a step closer, his voice low and dangerous. "What do you mean by that?"

Clarice had initially harbored suspicions about him, but after her own slip of the tongue, she panicked and quickly explained, "Bella isn't someone to be underestimated, and you've already shown your face in front of Drew. If the Thompson family replaces out you're at the hospital, they might connect you to her car accident. If you and the Boss are seen together, Bella could start questioning your relationship with him, and that would cause a lot of trouble."

Jace pressed his lips into a thin line, remaining silent.

"You should leave now. Take my car." Clarice urged.

"No need."

Jace coldly refused, brushing past her.

"Oh, by the way, you didn't leave any traces behind in the hospital, did you?" Clarice, meticulous by nature, asked one more question.

Jace suddenly remembered the cigarette butt he had left on the balcony, but he did not give it much thought. Over the years working for the Boss, he had never left any evidence at a crime

scene.

His DNA was not in the police database, so even if he left a cigarette behind, nothing would come of it.

"No traces."

With that, he walked away, his back solitary and proud as he disappeared into the distance.

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