Richard’s expression darkened, not dramatically, but enough to shift the atmosphere again into something sharper, more focused, more controlled.
“Where is she now?”
No one answered immediately, because no one knew.
And that was the problem.
Leo shifted his weight, his mind turning over everything he had seen since walking into the hospital, every detail, every movement, every face.
He remembered something.
Small.
Almost nothing.
But his grandfather’s voice returned again, louder this time, clearer, as if guiding him through the noise.
Look closely.
Leo took a step forward.
“I saw her,” he said quietly.
Several heads turned toward him again, surprise flickering across faces that had already dismissed him once before.
Richard looked at him directly, this time without hesitation.
“Where?”
Leo pointed toward the hallway behind him, toward the elevators that led down to the lower floors.
“She was rushing,” he said, trying to recall every detail exactly as it had happened.
“She bumped into me near the stairs. She dropped something.”
“What?”
Leo hesitated, his fingers tightening again, because now what he said mattered in a way he didn’t fully understand.
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