Chapter 12 — The Bait
The morning sunlight poured into the grand dining room of the Hudson estate, casting golden reflections on the polished mahogany table. For once, laughter filled the air instead of tension. Mr. Hudson, dressed in a crisp navy suit, was in rare high spirits.
"You've done brilliantly, Sophia," he said, cutting into his omelet with sharp precision. "This deal with the Albanian Corporation… it's not just a contract—it's salvation. You've revived a corpse." He raised his glass of juice. "To my daughter. The future of Hudson Holdings."
Sophia beamed as her chest swelled with pride. Her fork paused mid-air, heart racing from the rare warmth in her father's words. She lived for his approval—and now, she had it.
"I'll be at the office all day, mobilizing the teams. We start moving immediately." Mr. Hudson rose from the table, straightening his jacket. "We can't afford to waste a second."
After he left, Sophia's smile lingered, then deepened.
"I wish he'd look at me like that every day," she said to her mother, who sat silently stirring her tea.
Mrs. Hudson looked up. "Then make sure he always has a reason to."
Sophia turned to her, eyes gleaming. "That's why I must tie our family's fate to the Albanians—King, especially. If I can get him on our side, no one will dare disrespect us again."
Mrs. Hudson nodded slowly. "Then you need to know what happened between King and that girl. Valerie."
Sophia's smile wavered.
Her mother leaned in. "She's the missing puzzle. If King helped you only because of her, then she holds the secret. Find her. Or find someone who knows her."
Sophia's lips parted. "Tina…"
Mrs. Hudson's eyes sharpened. "Exactly. Pretend concern. Invite her. Say you're worried. Say we're going to the police. Make it convincing."
Sophia blinked, then grinned. "You really are wicked, mum."
Mrs. Hudson merely sipped her tea. "No. I'm a mother."
Sophia nodded at her mother's word.
---
Later That Day — Hudson Private Garden
Sophia welcomed Tina with a long, tight hug, her eyes already glassy with feigned emotion.
"Tina… we're so worried. Mum hasn't eaten well. Dad… he feels awful. He only told her to leave because he thought she couldn't convince Mr. Han."
Tina's brows furrowed. "I haven't heard from her either…"
Sophia sniffed. "We're going to report her missing. Just so the authorities can start a search. What if something happened? She didn't even come back to the apartment. Please… If you know where she went, just tell me. We won't make trouble. We just want her back."
Tina's gaze softened. "You… you really care?"
"I cried for hours. You have no idea," Sophia said, biting her lower lip as a single tear trailed down her cheek.
When Tina left a few minutes later, Sophia ducked behind the garden's vine-covered wall, watching her.
She waited until Tina brought out her phone and stepped into a quieter space by the fence.
Yes. Call her.
Tina did.
---
Valerie's POV
Meanwhile — A Balcony in an Undisclosed City
The scent of crushed ginseng and simmering wild roots hung in the cold air. High in the secluded belly of the mountains, time moved differently. The clouds seemed lower, the trees taller, and the silence... almost holy.
Valerie's fingers hovered above the man's bare back, her eyes sharp behind the silk mask veiling her identity. Thin, silver needles gleamed in the soft lantern light as she inserted each one with absolute precision—along the meridian points, tracing the web of energy flow centuries of knowledge had mapped.
The patient groaned faintly, his body twitching as a current of life began to shift inside him. He had been bedridden for twelve years, locked in a body that betrayed him. Now, after just six weeks under her care, his fingers twitched. Yesterday, he opened his eyes on his own.
"Don't speak," Valerie murmured gently, her voice low and grounding. "You're waking up. Let your body remember before your mouth catches up."
She pressed a warm herbal compress to his spine, breathing in deeply to stay grounded herself. Her black robes swept silently behind her as she moved across the room to prepare the next round of powdered herbs—boiled at a specific hour to align with the patient's weakened organs.
Outside, the wind howled through pine needles like distant whispers. This place had no roads, no digital reach, no prying eyes. The family who brought her here respected the one condition she demanded through World Health: never try to see my face.
And they didn't.
Not when she first arrived cloaked in black with her surgical gloves. Not when their son blinked for the first time in a decade under her hands. Not even now when they heard her soft footsteps or passed notes beneath the paper screen.
Valerie had vanished from the world, poured herself into the only thing that still made sense—healing. Her scent was gone from the hotel suite. Her face was erased from cameras. Her identity a ghost.
But even in this haven, her mind sometimes slipped.
To the man with a golden aura and haunted eyes.
To a night she should have forgotten.
To the suite she should never have entered.
She pushed the thoughts aside like smoke. Here, she was not that girl. She was the mountain keeper, the nameless healer—guarded by snow, silence, and shadow.
The soft chime of the herbal hourglass clicked into silence.
Valerie turned off the flame beneath the clay pot, the herbs now perfectly extracted into a bitter, life-giving tea. She poured the golden liquid into a porcelain cup, stirring in two drops of ginseng essence. A precise balance of warmth and restoration.
Then the phone buzzed.
Her body stilled.
No one called this line. Not unless it was World Heart headquarters. Not unless it was coded emergency or an update from a terminal patient.
But the screen didn't display a number.
Just a single name.
TINA.
Valerie stared at it.
A thousand feelings surged at once—confusion, wariness, even a flicker of guilt she crushed immediately. She moved into the far corner of the wooden lodge, sliding the paper door closed behind her. Her voice was steady as she accepted the call.
"Tina?"
A pause. A nervous breath.
"Valerie... Oh, thank God. Where are you?"
Valerie leaned against the wooden beam, her eyes flickering toward the mist outside the frosted windows.
"Somewhere quiet," she answered simply. "Why are you calling?"
Tina's voice cracked as she quickly replied, "Valerie… I don't know what's going on, but Sophia and her mother—they reached out to me. They pretended to be so worried, even crying. Said you disappeared and haven't been seen since that night. Sophia claimed her mother couldn't eat, and that her dad felt guilty for telling you to leave. She said they'd report you missing to the police if I couldn't get in touch with you soon."
Valerie's expression didn't change.
Tina hesitated, then added, "I thought you should know… I think it's a trap. But I didn't know what else to do. They cornered me."
For a moment, the only sound was the distant cry of a mountain falcon.
Then Valerie exhaled, her voice firm but strangely calm.
"I didn't leave because of the Hudsons, Tina. I left because I had a VIP client who needed me. That's all."
Tina was quiet on the other end.
And from a distance—hidden behind a pine tree, just far enough not to be seen but close enough to observe—Sophia smirked.
She watched Tina's body language shift as she spoke to Valerie, her eyes tearing up as she nodded, grateful to hear her friend's voice. The tears were real. The concern was real.
But for Sophia, this was confirmation.
Her plan worked.
The Bait.