Chapter 22
Christian woke to the sound before he understood it.
A soft chime. Then another.
The laptop screen was still on.
He pushed himself up from the couch, joints stiff, eyes dry.
A notification blinked.
"I read your post."
"I'm a victim too."
He frowned.
Another message followed it, from a different account.
"This happened to me."
Different hospital. Same outcome.
Christian scrolled.
There were more now. Not dozens—but enough to feel intentional. Different names. Different cities. Different details.
The same shape.
He leaned back, rubbing his face.
For the past few nights, while Cassian and Junior chased angles that went nowhere, Christian had been writing.
Not about Dr. Sara Chen.
Not about Rask.
Not about Elias.
Just patterns.
Language.
Procedures.
Every word had been measured.
Legal.
Safe.
This wasn't noise.
This was response.
One of the messages stood out.
Not because it was long—but because it wasn't angry.
"Hi. I think this happened to me"
Her name was Minji.
She was twenty-four. A freelance artist. She worked remotely for a manga company, mostly backgrounds and corrections. No benefits. Just enough insurance to feel safe.
Six months earlier, she'd gone to a clinic because she snored.
"It's probably nothing," the doctor had said after a quick look. "We can fix it."
Everything moved fast after that.
Paperwork she didn't understand. A surgery date within a week. Nurses who kept smiling and telling her not to worry about the cost.
"They never even asked for my card," she wrote.
"My bill said seventy-five dollars."
The surgery itself was labeled as corrective. Functional. Necessary.
Forty-five thousand dollars.
She remembered feeling grateful. Almost lucky.
It wasn't until half a year later that things started to shift.
Her insurance premium tripled without explanation.
The deductible she thought she'd cleared reappeared—five thousand dollars, due.
Medications that had never required copays suddenly did.
Small charges at first. Then larger ones.
Then a letter.
She took out a loan. Twenty-five thousand dollars. Not for one thing—but for everything that came after.
When Minji found Christian's channel, it wasn't through the algorithm.
It was linked in a comment.
He watched the view count tick up while he read her message again.
You said companies don't deny expensive surgeries.
They just collect later.
Is there a way out of this?