CHAPTER 630: CHAPTER 630

The surgery would take a long time, but Joanna did not dare to leave. She waited outside the whole time.

When everything was going smoothly, Ace turned to leave.

"Wait," Joanna whispered suddenly as she stared at his back.

Ace stopped and said arrogantly, "What now?"

After a while of nibbling her lip, Joanna finally gathered her courage and said, "Thank you." She took a deep breath and continued, "My family was once on friendly terms with yours, but unfortunately, we’re enemies now. I hope that our families as well as the Baldwins can put their prejudices aside and be at peace after Quinton is cured. I believe that’s what our ancestors would want too."

Ace stared at Joanna, disappointment blooming on his face as he sneered. "So, your only expectation of me is peace between our families?"

"What else would it be?" Joanna swallowed in panic, not knowing how to face Ace. Too many things had happened between them that she couldn’t ignore, and she couldn’t get close to him again.

"Nothing. That’s pretty good," Ace scoffed mockingly, and then he turned around and left.

For a moment, he felt like a clown. Joanna’s brother was in a coma, but instead gone fishing with a doctor just to ask him to save him.

What was it he wanted?

He should be trying to get close to Seraphina. After all, their families had similar backgrounds and goals, and were bound firmly with shared interests. Additionally, Seraphina’s love for him was sincere and passionate without any hidden motives. She was more open than people who hid their feelings, and he felt that he should never let her down, Joanna watched him leave but struggled to collect her thoughts for a long time.

Haze had been watching everything, and when he noticed Joanna’s disappointment, he felt sorry for her. "You’re contradicting yourself. You want to drive him away but you can’t bear to part with him. What is it you really want?"

"No, I want him to leave. I just... don’t want to owe him anything," Joanna said hesitantly.

"You owe me a favor too, but you treat me very differently." Haze sighed and said bitterly, "So, he hired the famous doctor, and now I’ve lost. I’m afraid my three percent has turned into a negative number again."

Joanna was at a loss for words. Her mind was thinking of Ace, so she couldn’t be bothered to reply to Haze. Yes, her attitude was vastly different when she accepted Ace’s help. She felt that she could return Haze’s favor one day, but something always weighed on her mind when Ace helped her.

It seemed like she could never repay his kindness...

In the plastic surgery hospital.

"Where’s everyone? Come out now!" A clear and overbearing voice rang out through the entire hospital.

Clara clenched her fists tightly and walked towards the plastic surgery room where Quinton was previously. She said firmly, "I won’t leave if you guys don’t come out and explain what happened to me. I’ll make such a scene that you won’t be able to run a business here anymore!"

After she bade Joanna goodbye the other day, she investigated and interviewed a lot of people. She found that there were many doubts surrounding Quinton’s case. It seemed more likely that foul play was involved, and it wasn’t because of Quinton’s health or a careless mistake. She felt that she needed to be held responsible for the incident since it was her suggestion and she had asked Ethan for the doctor’s contact.

Hence, she had rushed to the hospital to demand an explanation.

The assistant of the doctor who performed the plastic surgery for Quinton cautiously walked over and smiled flatteringly. "Miss Blackwell, we know that this incident has caused you and your friends great trouble, so the hospital has decided to pay you compensation to remedy our mistake. Please forgive us and do not make a scene, or else this hospital will go bankrupt."

"You want to pay compensation?" Clara snorted disdainfully." Do you know who Quinton is? He’s the boss of Carmine Pawnshop, and everything in his shop is worth millions or billions. Do you think your measly compensation will mean anything to him?"

"What?! Are you saying that the person who underwent the surgery is the famous boss of Carmine Pawnshop? So... he’s the terrifying Night Demon?"

"Yes!" Clara added, "Although Carmine Pawnshop is no longer doing shady business, and Quinton is no longer calling himself Night Demon, he is still powerful and influential. You all have harmed him so openly... Do you think the people of Carmine Pawnshop will let you off the hook? Do you think my bestie and I will forgive you?"

"We... We didn’t know that things would turn out this way. If we knew that he was the boss of Carmine Pawnshop, we wouldn’t have..." The assistant blurted out anxiously, then realizing she had slipped up, immediately went silent.

However, Clara was not someone to be trifled with. She immediately asked, "What wouldn’t you do?"

"No, it’s nothing. I don’t know anything. Please don’t interrogate me-l’m just a mere assistant." She avoided Clara’s sharp gaze and shuddered in fear. Her words and actions confirmed Clara’s suspicions that something had happened, and she most likely knew what it was.

Clara glanced around at the onlookers and approached the assistant before she whispered, "Miss, don’t feel pressured. We can talk somewhere else. You look honest, so I’m sure that you’re a victim in this too. I just want to know the truth. We won’t make things difficult for you as long as you tell me what you know." "Okay... let’s talk somewhere else." The assistant nodded with watery eyes.

They then went to a cafe near the hospital.

"It’s okay, this place is safe. Your colleagues and superiors aren’t here," Clara said reassuringly.

The young woman stared down into her cup of coffee for a long time. She looked conflicted as she said slowly, "To be honest, I found that surgery weird because Doctor Leslie Snyder is always very cautious. He would use the anesthesia with the lowest risk if he could, but... he behaved strangely that day. He insisted on using the forbidden anesthesia. Although that anesthesia is effective, its side effects are strong. One of the side effects is causing the patient to go into shock and enter a long coma. It’s what we call brain death!"

"A forbidden anesthesia?" Clara was shocked when she heard that. Unexpectedly, their enemy had been that bold. Joanna’s instincts were right-it had been a deliberate attempt at murder.

"At first, I disagreed with it, but Doctor Snyder claimed that we were out of imported anesthesia and this surgery couldn’t be delayed, so we had to take a risk. Although it was forbidden, many plastic surgery hospitals used it in the past, but there were never any complications. I was just a mere assistant that couldn’t speak out then, so I could only cooperate... I didn’t expect that something would happen."

The assistant cried and said, "I’m so sorry. We didn’t do it on purpose. At least, I didn’t mean to. I wouldn’t have let them use the problematic anesthesia if I knew things would turn out this way. Please don’t take it out on us; my family is poor, and I’m my parents’ only child. I..."

"Alright, stop crying. If you’re innocent, we’ll leave you alone. " Clara became flustered because of the assistant’s crying, so she frowned and said, "I can give you a chance to make up for your mistake. Try and recall carefully if Doctor Snyder did anything odd. You’re saying that he’s very experienced and wouldn’t purposely use forbidden anesthesia on the patient, so someone must have ordered him to do so."

"Er..." The assistant struggled for a long time before she said slowly, "He did something, but I don’t know if it was odd or not."

"Go on."

"He got a call before the surgery. If I’m not mistaken, it was a call from Shirley, the famous movie star."

Clara’s eyes grew wide. "Shirley?"

"Yeah, she’s a frequent customer at the hospital. She did a lot of fine-tuning these years, and it was always Doctor Snyder who did it. Shirley seems to be very close to Doctor Snyder. They spoke for more than a minute before the surgery. It wasn’t unusual since it’s normal for doctors to be friendly with their clients, but I found it strange when I heard their conversation."

"Tell me the details." Clara held her breath in anticipation.

"Doctor Snyder asked her not to worry about something. He guaranteed that nothing would go wrong..." The assistant continued, "I don’t understand. If Shirley had nothing to do with the patient, Doctor Snyder didn’t have to tell her the result of the surgery."

"So, it means that Shirley was aware of the surgery and she purposely contacted Doctor Snyder before that..." Clara took a deep breath. Reluctance hit her but she had to face it.

She had to meet Shirley to ask her about the incident.