Chapter 235

When Verena last sat down with Ivan, he had voiced his suspicions-he believed Carl had hidden intentions toward her when he was in the Clokron hospital.

That meeting had led Verena to investigate Carl's background and whereabouts.

Tonight, her focus shifted. What she wanted now was the restoration of the surveillance footage from Carl's hospital stay in Clokron.

The request required no further explanation.

Verena kept silent, her gaze locked on the computer monitor, sharp and unyielding, every line of her face carved with concentration.

One look at her expression was enough for lvan to know exactly what she expected of him.

Without another word, he plunged into his work.

His hands flew across the keyboard, striking the keys in a rhythm that filled the room like a relentless drumbeat.

The world outside seemed to fade away,leaving only the rapid clatter of typing and the low mechanical hum of the machine.

Verena leaned forward slightly, her lips pressed together, her heartbeat quickening as she waited for the screen to reveal its secrets.

An hour crept by, until at last Ivan leaned back with a small nod-the surveillance had been recovered.

The blurred haze of static gave way to sharpened images, and Verena's eyes never wavered from the screen.

A file opened, a video running just past twenty minutes. Ivan gave a quiet sigh, a note of resignation in his tone. "The footage is old, the data fragmented.It takes time to process, so I can only restore it piece by piece. You'll have to watch it in sections as it loads."

Verena nodded in understanding,determination steady in her voice. "That's fine. As long as it comes back,I'll watch every second."

She pulled a chair closer and settled beside him, her eyes fixed on the screen.

In the hospital bed lay Carl, motionless, his long,disheveled hair falling across his face, strands nearly hiding his eyes.

His body looked wasted away, his face so sunken it carried the hollowness of a man decades older than he was.

Sliding the timeline forward, Verena watched the footage and saw him lying in bed for hours, barely moving,a shell stripped of vitality.

Even through the grainy screen, there was something sinister about him, a heaviness that radiated like he was born to despise the world.

Simon, by contrast, was the complete opposite.

That man projected warmth, his presence bright,almost refined, every gesture polished with elegance that carried the air of quiet nobility.

Verena struggled to reconcile the two. How could this broken figure in the video be the same man she knew now as Dr. Moss?

It was as if two entirely separate people wore the same name.

How could anyone undergo such a drastic transformation?

"Wait, check this out!" said Ivan, who'd been watching closely. He pointed at a different section of the footage and leaned in with interest. "Is he actually yanking at his own hair?"

Verena followed the direction of his finger,narrowing her eyes.

Ivan dragged the timeline back a few seconds and eplayed the clip.

Onscreen,Carl lay blank-faced in the hospital bed,his expression an empty void.

A nurse arrived to change his bandages, something outine and simple, but Carl refused outright, his esistance firm and unyielding.

wShe spoke to him softly, trying to coax him into eFooperating. What happened next was completely uunexpected.

oon an instant, Carl exploded with fury. Without a hint ebf warning, he clutched at his own hair and began yanking it violently, turning the calm moment into something deeply unsettling.

Shaken by the sudden outburst, the nurse rushed to call for backup. Several male nurses came running to estrain him before things spiraled even further out of control.

As the video cut off, Ivan frowned and gave a slow )shake of his head. "What do you think? Is he dealing with some kind of rage problem, or does he have a nabit of hurting himself?"

'Verena replayed the clip from beginning to end,her es narrowing as she spoke in a low, steady tone. "It oks like he has no outlet for his emotions. When the essure builds too high, he forces it out by hurting nself."

an quickly loaded another piece of footage and inted at the screen. "And it isn't just once.He does is a lot."

erena shifted her gaze to watch closely.

this scene, Carl pressed the call button beside his ed.

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nurse arrived later than he expected, and that small

ay seemed enough to set him off.

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js men she asked what he needed, he shot her a pririous glare, and then dug his fingers into his hair,eni bing out strands as though pain was the only way to

ease his frustration.

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9lsnrena exhaled softly, her voice calm but heavy."He iqz a no control over his emotions at all."

7's face tightened as he shook his head. "I always nought he was unnerving... especially the way he ob id to look at you."

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"a comment struck Verena sharply,and she suddenly ognized it as a crucial thread in uncovering Simon's ort eidentity. Determined, she clicked through to the next set of files.

One recording showed her performing a routine examination on Carl.

At the time,she had treated him like any other patient,paying no mind to what might have been going on behind his eyes.

Now, watching through the lens of the camera,she saw it clearly-Carl's gaze never left her, brimming with twisted layers of admiration, longing, and something darker.

A chill ran through her as she realized she had been oblivious to his fixation.

When the examination ended and she walked out of the ward,his stare grew hungrier,almost feral,tracking her until she vanished from sight.

His hand drifted back to his hair again, tugging violently, as though the sting of pain was his anchor to reality.

It felt like he was hurting himself on purpose, as if the pain was the only way he could prove to himself that everything around him was real and not just something imagined. The whole thing gave off an eerie, unsettling vibe that was hard to shake.

Ivan's fists clenched at his sides, his voice rising with fury. "That bastard gives me the creeps! How dare he look at you like that? If I had the chance, I'd beat him until he regretted it."

Verena felt her skin crawl at the memory of Carl's stare and the twisted smile that had lingered on his face.

Yet instead of shrinking back, she now had a clearer sense of her next step.

Turning to Ivan with a calm smile, she said,"When the time comes and I finally catch him, you'll have your chance to help me settle the score."

Ivan's eyes widened, his tone urgent. "Wait-are you saying you already have a lead? Do you really think you can corner Carl this soon?"

Verena leaned back into her chair, folding her arms,her expression sharp as her gaze locked on the glowing monitor.

Her chin lifted slightly, her lips curving with confidence. "Carl is closer than anyone thinks. I only need to push the right buttons, and he'll show himself."

No matter how carefully someone disguised their face or reinvented themselves, the patterns shaped from childhood always slipped through eventually.

And Simon...

It didn't matter what name he carried or what mask he wore. If he was the one who murdered her grandmother and dragged Isaac into ruin, then she would make sure he paid in full.

At the same time over at Bennett Group, Isaac rolled his chair out of the meeting room just as Jacob came up to him with a report. "Mr. Bennett, someone's here to see you."

"Who is it?" asked Isaac, his tone calm and unconcerned.

Jacob cleared his throat and answered with measured care,"It's Luis Sampson from Sampson Group."