“No.”
Rayan noticed immediately.
“What?”
She read the message again.
Then called someone.
“Hello?”
Silence.
“This is Chloe Bennett. Margaret Bennett is my mother.”
Another pause.
“No, there must be a mistake. I was told the surgery was approved.”
Her fingers began trembling.
“What do you mean she’s been removed from active transplant status?”
Rayan’s gaze sharpened.
Chloe stood.
“No. No, you don’t understand. I’m already flying there.”
Her voice cracked.
“What administrative discrepancy?”
Silence.
“When?”
Her face changed.
“Forty minutes ago?”
Rayan checked the time.
Forty minutes earlier.
Exactly when the flight was in the air.
“When will the heart be reassigned?”
Chloe listened.
Tears filled her eyes.
“Please don’t.”
Her voice collapsed.
“Please. I’ve been waiting almost a year. She’s dying.”
Rayan rose.
Chloe turned away.
“I can provide whatever documentation you need when I land.”
Another pause.
Then the call ended.
She stared at the phone.
“What happened?” Rayan asked.
“They say there’s a problem with her identity file.”
“What kind?”
“They won’t tell me.”
“Who called?”
“Saint Catherine’s transplant administration.”
Rayan’s eyes changed.
Chloe barely noticed.
“They’re giving the heart to someone else unless the problem is cleared within two hours.”
“How long does your mother have without it?”
Her answer was almost inaudible.
“Maybe days.”
Rayan held out his hand.
“Give me your phone.”
Chloe looked up.
“What?”
“Your phone.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m going to call the hospital.”
She shook her head.
“No.”
Rayan looked almost offended.
“No?”
“My mother isn’t more important than someone else’s because I happened to sit next to a billionaire.”
That stopped him.
Chloe swallowed.
“If she has a legitimate medical problem or someone else has higher priority, then that’s horrible, but fair. I’m not letting you buy her a heart.”
Rayan’s expression remained unreadable.
Then he said quietly, “Good.”
“What?”
“I was checking.”
“Checking what?”
“Whether you’d ask me to.”
Chloe stared.
He held out his hand again.
“I am not going to buy anything.”
“Then what are you doing?”
“Finding out why an identity discrepancy appeared forty minutes ago in a case that has apparently been verified for eleven months.”
That was different.
Chloe handed him the phone.
Rayan did not call the hospital.
He called Faris.
“Get me Saint Catherine’s transplant director.”
Faris blinked.
“Now?”
“Was I unclear?”
Within six minutes, Dr. Adrian Cole was speaking to Rayan through an encrypted line.
The conversation lasted ninety seconds.
When it ended, Rayan’s face was no longer merely cold.
It was dangerous.
“What?” Chloe asked.
Rayan sat beside her.
“Your mother’s transplant record was modified today.”
“By who?”
“They don’t know.”
“What was changed?”
“Her place of birth.”
Chloe frowned.
“She was born in Boston.”
“According to every record except the one uploaded today.”
