"Keep a very close eye on Harrison over the next two days. Make sure there's always someone in his room."
Noah's expression shifted. "Claire, is he..."
Claire didn't give him a direct answer. She simply said, "Don't overthink it. Harrison knows his own body."
Most people gained an intense, sobering clarity when death approached, fully recognizing that their time had run out.
What's more, Harrison had given up.
As the saying went, life and death were determined by fate.
Harrison had reached the end of his road; his flame had simply burned out.
Sure enough, two days later, Claire received an emergency call.
She was in the middle of a lecture when her phone buzzed frantically.
It was Dr. Quincy.
What other reason could Dr. Quincy have for calling her?
The moment she saw the caller ID, she knew exactly what was happening.
Dr. Sterling had accompanied the hospital leadership on a trip abroad, and there was absolutely no one else capable of stepping into his shoes besides Claire.
Dr. Sterling had specifically instructed them to contact her if anything happened in his absence.
As Claire answered, she could hear the absolute chaos in the background on Dr. Quincy's end.
"Claire, why are you answering your phone during my lecture?"
The professor was livid, assuming she was blatantly disrespecting his rules.
Class was almost over, and the students were already restless and distracted.
It had been a difficult lecture to get through.
The professor was already irritated.
Claire might be a top student, but he was still angry.
She had walked right into his line of fire.
Claire stood up immediately. "I'm so sorry, Professor. I have a patient in critical condition at the hospital. They just called me in for an emergency resuscitation."
"Resuscitation at the hospital?" The professor blinked, his anger momentarily faltering.
"Then go! Hurry!"
The entire point of medical school was to save lives, wasn't it?
It wasn't until Claire had packed her bag and sprinted out the door that the professor realized something didn't add up.
"Wait a minute... I teach freshmen."
"Freshmen don't even have clinical rotations yet. Where would she get a patient?"
He thought back to the grave expression on Claire's face. It certainly hadn't looked like a lie.
He filed the suspicion away in the back of his mind.
If she actually had a patient, he would let it go. But if she was using
this as an excuse to ditch siet
he'd
fail her for the semester.
He didn't care if she had perfect test scores; he'd give her a zero for attendance!
The professor made up his mind-she had to face the consequences of her actions, whatever they were.
By the time Claire arrived at the hospital, the entire Darwin family was crowding the halls.
Even Silas was there, though he made no move to harass her this time.
He didn't dare. Who knew what Tilda had threatened him with?
Silas couldn't even bring himself to make eye contact with Claire.
The halls were packed with the Darwin family spanning multiple generations.
Arthur's side of the family was particularly well-represented.
Even though Noah's father was dead, his mother had been exiled from the family, and his grandmother had passed away, Arthur's immediate proodling was theving.
However, not a single one of them acknowledged Noah.
It was painfully obvious that Arthur's
wife harbored a deep, venomous ét
hatred for the son of her husband's illegitimate child.
Strictly speaking, Noah's father wasn't entirely illegitimate.
Back in the day, Arthur had been practically married to a woman in the countryside.
But Arthur was ruthless. As soon as he returned to the city, he abandoned his rural wife and child without a second thought.
In his eyes, a country girl was entirely unworthy of a wealthy Cabinda heir.
"Claire, thank God you're here!"
Dr. Quincy let out a massive sigh of relief when he saw her walking down the corridor.
"This girl again? Is she actually capable of saving my father?"
Lydia glared at Claire, her eyes narrowed with pure skepticism.