Chapter 30: Cracks in the Darkness
The police had barely begun sorting the confession when an urgent call came in—
The transport vehicle carrying the suspect had crashed.
Night cloaked the highway.
The guardrail was torn open, the car overturned in the mud.
By the time backup arrived, the handcuffs were still there—but the man was gone.
"This wasn't an accident," an officer said grimly. "Someone planned this."
When the news reached Manida, her vision blurred.
She had believed his arrest meant closure—
But the real darkness was still at large.
At the hospital—
The air was thick and suffocating.
Palin was bleeding again, and doctors rushed to her side.
Manida gripped her hand tightly.
"Lin! You promised me we'd find the truth together!"
Palin's lashes trembled. She forced her eyes open, her breath shallow but steady.
"Mani… don't be afraid. Even if I'm not here… you have to keep going…"
"No!" Manida screamed, her tears unstoppable.
"I won't let you leave me!"
The doctors pulled her away, and Palin was intubated.
Machines shrieked in alarm—each sound a blow to Manida's heart.
She stumbled to the wall, shaking uncontrollably.
Later, she sat in the empty corridor, clutching Palin's blood-stained handkerchief.
Her voice trembled.
"You always stood in front of me, taking every hit.
And me—I couldn't save you. I couldn't save anything."
She removed her glasses again, vision blurred by tears.
For the first time, a terrifying thought crossed her mind:
Maybe… she wouldn't be able to walk this road with Palin to the end.
Outside, the wind wailed.
The night was darker than ever.
And in that darkness, another shadow was already approaching—
Not the escaped senior,
But the true mastermind who had been hiding all along.