The Heart System

Chapter 454: Chapter 454

I stopped in front of the hotel and called Delilah. A few minutes later, she appeared from the automatic doors, looking around with quick, anxious glances. She was carrying a small backpack on her back, a white t-shirt slightly hanging out from the zipper like she’d packed in a hurry. Ivy and her must have had a heated argument if she just grabbed her stuff and left without looking back.

Seeing me, she walked across the street. She reached the car, opened the back door first, and dumped her backpack on the seat with a soft thud. Then she hopped into the passenger seat and shut the door firmly.

“Evan. What’s going on? Just tell me.”

“I, uh…” I cleared my throat, fingers tightening on the wheel. “We should sit down first.”

“We are sitting down,” she said as I eased the car to the left, merging into traffic. Her voice was sharp, impatient. “Just tell me what’s happening?”

I waited for the car behind me to pass, then joined the red light line. Damn, lots of traffic. A coffee shop next to us was blasting Jingle Bells so loud it felt like they were personally responsible for the song. The cheerful tune clashed hard with the knot in my stomach, making it impossible to think straight. The words I needed wouldn’t come.

I didn’t say anything at first. I just cracked my window open, letting in the cold, wet air, lit up a cigarette with shaking fingers, and took a long drag. Delilah was nervous—that was obvious. Her hands were clasped tight in her lap, knuckles white, leg bouncing slightly.

“I found something,” I finally explained, exhaling smoke toward the open window. “The kind of stuff that would… make anyone retch.”

“About… Chase?” she asked, voice quieter now, almost afraid.

“Yes. The kind of stuff that… if I had evidence, he’d be in jail.”

“Drugs?” She turned toward me slightly. “Chase is using drugs?”

“Worse.”

“Worse…” She repeated the word slowly, turning her body fully toward me now, seatbelt pulling tight across her chest. “What, Evan? Just tell me.”

I took another drag, buying time. The smoke burned my throat. “Just… don’t freak out, yeah?”

“Just fucking tell me, Evan!” Her voice cracked on my name—anger, fear, desperation all mixed together.

I looked at her for a second, then back at the road. “I found that Chase was… driving his female patients to commit suicide. Manipulating them.” I paused, letting the words settle. “Then… I found proof of it. And that’s not all. He was jerking off to their suicide videos.”

Delilah’s eyes opened wide. Her mouth parted like she was going to speak, but nothing came out. For a few long seconds she just stared at me, frozen. Then she leaned back into her seat hard, like someone had pushed her, and fixed her eyes on the car ahead of us. Her hands flew to her face, covering her mouth. As the light turned green, I eased forward, but we couldn’t make it through the intersection in time and I stopped again.

Delilah closed her eyes, leaned forward, elbows on her knees, hands covering her face completely. Her breathing was shallow, shaky. I didn’t say anything. I just let her process it. I didn’t even want to imagine what was going through her head right now—images of Ivy, of Chase’s smile, of all the times she’d warned her daughter.

“What the fuck?” Delilah said finally, voice muffled behind her hands. She lowered them slowly, eyes red. “H-how? What? We should call the cops.”

“I had the proof…” I muttered, flicking ash out the window. “But then… something happened and I broke my phone. The videos are all gone now.”

“All gone?” Her voice rose in pitch.

“Don’t worry.” I tried to sound calm, but my jaw was tight. “I could get into his laptop again. He saves all his shit there. And I also know his password.”

“Did you… get into a fight with him?” She asked, turning to me again, eyes searching my face. “Did he break your phone?”

“Not… exactly.”

I couldn’t just tell her that I was attacked by a damn goddess. So that part of the story had to stay hidden. I didn’t need her to freak out more than she already was.

“He… manipulates them,” Delilah said as I took another drag from my cigarette. Her voice was shaking now. “And then he… oh my god.”

“Ivy didn’t listen to me,” I said quietly. “And now I’m worried about her.”

“That’s why she was angry,” Delilah whispered. “Fuck.”

“You two argued, right?”

“Pretty badly.” She nodded, wiping at her eyes with the heel of her hand. “She accused me of being a hypocrite. That I was meddling in her life and expecting her to just take it. But when she did the same, I apparently made her the villain. And… then she told me I was… living under her roof and just needed to mind my own business. That I was acting overprotective. That… I hated her.”

“That’s Chase’s words, I bet,” I nodded, flicking the cigarette out the window and rolling it closed. “Chase tells her these kinds of things. Manipulates her just like he did with the other women.”

“I… also accidentally told her I was pregnant.”

I was taking a drag when she said that. The smoke caught in my throat and I coughed hard. The car behind me blared its horn. I looked up—light was green—so I eased forward, still coughing.

“What?” I blurted, voice hoarse. “Fuck me…”

“She didn’t even ask who the father was,” Delilah shook her head, staring out the windshield. “And she said she wouldn’t support me with the baby.”

“Damn it…”

“I’m just… fuck, Evan. Like… she changed.”

“Because of Chase,” I said. “Ivy is one of the toughest girls I know. If Chase managed to damage her mind in just a couple of days… don’t even wanna think about the other lives he ruined.”

“We gotta do something.”

“I’ll handle that.” I gripped the wheel tighter. “I’ll drop you at the penthouse. You can stay there. Then I’m headed to Chase’s office. Gotta get to his laptop and copy the files.”

“You have a phone?”

“Using Jasmine’s right now.”

“Okay.” She exhaled slowly, shoulders dropping. “I just want this to be over with.”

“It’ll be. Don’t worry.”

❤︎‬‪‪❤︎‬‪‪❤︎