"Surveillance from that day? Why?" Max asked slowly but Adam’s jaw was clenched so tight that he could barely speak a word. Max waited for another mont, giving Adam ti to answer but when no reply ca through, he asked again, "Wait. Adam... why now? Why surveillance all of a sudden? Do you think there’s a clue in it? Maybe sothing that could tell us who hurt lanie... or where lody was taken to? But how will the hospital surveillance help? lanie said that she walked directionlessly for an hour or two before she got to the hospital."
Adam didn’t answer imdiately. He kept walking, one hand in his coat pocket, the other holding the phone tighter than necessary, his mind in a whirl.
Max, finally sensed sothing was off, pushed again. "Adam?"
Still no answer.
Then ca the faint sound of a door closing and Adam had entered the stairwell where he finally seed to collapse on the stairs as he spoke quietly, his voice colder than an iceberg, "I need access to that surveillance," he said quietly, his voice stripped of emotion. "We need to find out who took lanie... and what lody is really up to."
The words hit like a thunderclap and seed to echo in the quiet stariway.
"What did you say?" Max nearly fell out of his chair as he just heard the words. "Did you just say who took lanie? Adam, what the hell are you talking about?"
Adam leaned against the cool tal railing, head tilted down. He hadn’t ant to say it. Or even believe it. Not yet. Not until he had proof. But the words had slipped out and he knew they were the truth.
"I don’t know what I’m talking about," he said at last, but Max wasn’t buying it.
"No," Max said sharply. "You do. You wouldn’t say sothing like that unless you had a reason. What’s going on? What happened? You want to check the surveillance of the hospital because you think lanie was taken away?"
Adam exhaled slowly. "I want the hospital surveillance... because I think the girl who showed up that night-the one in that hospital bed—is lody Thomas."
There was a stunned silence. Then Max let out a string of half-choked curses. "Are you serious right now? Are you saying lody showed up pretending to be lanie? That she faked her identity? Adam, that’s insane. Are you sure you’re not mistaken? That’s... that’s not just far-fetched, it’s unhinged."
Adam didn’t respond to the panic in Max’s voice. He wasn’t even hearing it, not really. Like soone who’d already accepted a horrible truth and was now simply working backwards from it.
"From the mont I heard about the attack, sothing didn’t sit right. I couldn’t na it, just this deep unease I couldn’t shake. But when I saw that lanie was alive and safe, I pushed it all aside. I told myself I was being paranoid. I told myself it was just fear. That I was just relieved."
Max’s curses died off as he listened to the quiet certainty in Adam’s voice. That tone he hadn’t heard it in years. Not since Adam had vowed revenge against Robert Collins. And even then, it hadn’t sounded this bleak.
"Adam," Max said more carefully this ti, "are you saying you know she’s not lanie? That you’re sure?"
Adam was silent for a beat too long.
Then, he spoke quietly, "I don’t want to touch her."
"What?" Max asked in confusion.
"I don’t want to kiss her. I don’t want to hold her. I can’t even bring myself to et her eyes for too long. She keeps trying to get close to , and all I feel is—" he stopped, then forced the words out— "repulsion."
Max frowned, even more confused at this explanation. "That’s your reason? You’re suspicious of her because you’re not attracted to her anymore? Adam, I get that it’s strange, but that’s not solid evidence. That’s not enough to accuse soone-"
Adam interrupted, and this ti his voice had an edge. "Max. If there ever cos a day that I stop finding lanie attractive, it won’t be because I’m disgusted by her. It won’t feel wrong. I would never find her repulsive. Not even on her worst day. And I’d never want to pull away from her like this."
Max was quiet again. He could hear the weight behind those words. Adam wasn’t speculating, he was convinced.
"I don’t know how lody did it, or why, but I need that footage," Adam continued. "Go back to the ti she ca to the hospital. When you find her, you will have evidence. I’ll text you a picture of what lon was wearing when she left ho."
Max’s throat had gone dry. "And if I find her?"
"Then you’ll know who’s in that room right now," Adam said grimly. "And where we need to start looking for my lanie."
Max’s fingers flew over his keyboard, his mind already racing at all the implications. They were looking for lody but if lody was here pretending to be lanie, things were going to get much more ssy... "Alright, I’m on it. I’ll bypass the red tape so that we don’t have to make calls and get permissionsno calls. It’ll save hours of having to grease palms and get clearance from security heads."
Adam didn’t speak, just waiting for the evidence of his own stupidity.
Within minutes, Max had accessed the hospital’s internal system. He was fast, efficient, his screen lighting up with windows and code. "Almost there. I just need to isolate the shift logs and surveillance archives for that date—"
He stopped mid-sentence. "Fu*k"
Adam, still leaning on the stairwell rail, straightened. "What happened?"
Max didn’t answer right away. His eyes were fixed on the screen, a single ssage blinking back at him in stark red: "Surveillance Records: Files Not Found."
He tried another route. Then another. But the result was the sa. A cold knot ford in his stomach. "They’re gone The footage. It’s all been wiped, Adam."
Adam’s heart stopped as he straightened, "What do you an wiped?"
"I an every single entry cam, corridor feed, ergency room log has been completely erased. No trace left. Soone scrubbed it."
Adam’s jaw clenched. "Then soone knew we’d co looking. This was planned..."
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