At that moment, Shawn walked over, his expression worried. “Any news on Sonia?"

Sarah shook her head, her voice faltering. “She's still in surgery. They haven't updated us yet."

She embraced Melon again and then asked, “What about Holden? How is he doing?"

“Mr. Fredrick has woken up. He's safe now," Shawn answered. “I stopped by to check on Sonia's condition."

At that moment, the emergency room doors burst open, and a nurse rushed out. "Who is the patient's family here? We need someone to sign a critical condition notification."

Sarah's knees gave way upon hearing the news, and Aziel quickly supported her.

Through her tears, Sarah managed to say, “Her parents died years ago. She has no close family left. We're all she has now."

Realizing that someone needed to sign the notification, a calm voice pierced the tension. "I'll sign it."

Maxwell stepped forward, his expression serious, and took the form to sign his name. He then turned to the nurse and asked, “How is she doing?"

"The patient is still in critical condition. We're doing everything we can," the nurse answered, taking the signed form and hurrying back inside.

An hour later, the lights in the emergency room dimmed, and the door swung open. Everyone surged forward.

Mitchel emerged and said, "She's still unconscious, and we need to keep a close eye on her. The bullet came dangerously close to her lung."

As Sonia was moved to the intensive care unit, Melon's tears flowed freely. Sarah comforted him with a gentle pat on the back.

In a pitch-black room, Ariana slowly opened her eyes, each part of her body throbbing with pain. Her limbs were bruised and scraped, feeling heavy and weak.

Her head hurt the most; although the bleeding had stopped, the pain lingered stubbornly.

Ariana realized she was confined within a cage. After a moment, she recalled the car spiraling out of control and plunging off a cliff.

She must have knocked her head and blacked out.

It felt almost like a cruel joke. Life seemed intent on throwing her into car crashes. A car crash had torn her away from Theodore five years ago, and now, here she was again, in some unknown place after another car accident.

She had been barely conscious after the crash, hardly able to pry her eyes open, dimly aware of being hauled away and handled like an object.

During a fleeting moment of lucidity, before she could survey her surroundings, someone had injected her from behind, and she had lost consciousness again. Now, she was groggy and weak, realizing she had been kidnapped.