A soldier promptly handcuffed Danilo and led him away.


    As Graham grimaced in pain, Violeta, tears streaming down her face, fretted over him.


    “My love, are you alright? Should we call an ambnce?”


    Graham, enduring the pain, assured her, “It’s nothing serious.


    ”


    The reality of their remote location hit them; no ambnce could reach the small ind.


    Lucinda inspected the wound on his back.


    “We need to leave this ind.


    There’s a first-aid kit in the car by the shore.


    Let’s treat this wound and then head to the hospital.


    ”


    Understanding the gravity of the situation, Lucinda quickly tore a piece of her dress, fashioning a makeshift bandage to stem the bleeding.


    With Lucinda and Violeta’s support, Graham was helped onto a boat, and they departed from the ind.


    Upon reaching the shore, the group split into two.


    Sonny led N and Danilo to the National Security Bureau for questioning, while Lucinda and Violeta apanied Graham to the hospital for bullet removal.


    Despite the doctor’s and Violeta’s efforts to convince him otherwise, Graham refused anesthesia.


    Lucinda, puzzled and concerned, asked him, “Do you enjoy punishing yourself?”


    Graham struggled to speak, his voice strained with emotion.


    “I’ve failed you in the past, putting you in danger more than once.


    The guilt weighs heavily on me.


    Despite my attempts to atone, it never seems enough.


    Taking this bullet felt like some form of small redemption.


    I’d rather endure the pain fully, to feel as though I’m repaying my debts.


    ”


    Lucinda, taken aback, responded, “Have you lost your senses? Your wife is right here, witnessing your suffering.


    It’s selfish to think only of your guilt.


    Have you considered her feelings?”This content ? N?v/elDr(a)m/a.Org.


    Graham fell silent under Lucinda’s words, and reluctantly agreed to undergo the surgery with anesthesia.


    Following the operation, he was moved to a ward for recovery.


    Sensing the need for a private conversation between the siblings, Violeta excused herself to buy food, leaving Lucinda and Graham alone.


    The silence in the ward stretched on, filled with an awkward tension.


    After a considerable wait, Graham mustered the courage to initiate a conversation, breaking the ufortable silence.


    “What happened between you and N inside? That mark on her neck… did ite from a heated exchange? Was it about the truth behind our mother’s death?”


    Lucinda paused before responding, “N’s ims are just her side of the story.


    We can’t take them at face value without evidence.


    We need to verify the facts first.


    ”


    Yet, if N’s ims held truth, it implied she had deceived Graham as well, keeping him in the dark.


    Graham had lived under the belief that he was responsible for N’s mother’s demise, a guilt that led him to amodate N’s every wish in an attempt to make amends.


    The revtion that N might have deliberately removed his mother’s oxygen mask, effectively causing her death, was a shock.


    All this while, she had manipted Graham’s feelings of guilt for her own gain.


    Such malevolence was chilling to Lucinda.