Nora immediately wrapped her own woolen coat around Clara’s shivering shoulders.

“She needs a doctor, Adrian,” Nora said. “Her pulse is very weak.”

“We can’t trust the clinic,” I said. “Not yet. Not until we know who else Caleb has paid off.”

I knelt in front of Clara again, taking her cold hands in mine.

“Why?” I asked her. “Why did he keep you alive down there?”

Clara blinked slowly, her eyelids heavy with the drugs.

“The money,” she whispered.

“Your family’s trust funds,” she said, her voice cracking.

“I wouldn’t sign the release forms.”

“He needed my signature, but he couldn’t let me leave.”

I shook my head, trying to make sense of the timeline.

“But the bombing,” I said. “Caleb pulled me from the burning wreck. He saved my life that night.”

Clara let out a weak, bitter laugh that turned into a cough.

She looked deep into my eyes, her gaze suddenly sharp through the haze.

“He didn’t save you, Adrian,” she whispered.

Her fingers tightened around my wrist with surprising strength.

“The bomb,” she said, her voice trembling.

“It wasn’t the rival family.”