She Was the Treasure All Along novel Chapter 255

Leroy pulled up his phone and held it out. “The protest at Blossom Hospital went viral this afternoon. Loyce is the owner.”

Gordon read the headline and his eyes blazed.

“Blossom Hospital Hiring Scam: Using Unqualified Disabled People as Doctors to Cash In on Government Charity Funds—Putting Patients’ Lives at Risk?”

“What kind of garbage is this?!” he thundered.

Leroy lowered his voice. “Lucian already went over there. He said he and Loyce probably won’t make it to dinner tonight, and told you to eat without them.”

“Eat?” Gordon’s anger tightened into something heavier—worry, fury, protectiveness all at once. “He ‘took care’ of my granddaughter so well she ended up in a police station, and you think I can sit down and eat?”

He grabbed his coat. “I’m going to see exactly who’s behind this.”

The commotion reached Forrest Lonsdale too. He’d barely lain down after a brutal day of work when he heard his sister was in trouble. The irritation on his face vanished, replaced by sharp, immediate tension.

His first instinct was to call the mayor, then he remembered Metropia’s leadership was a mess: one disgraced, another under investigation. Useless.

So he called the head of the city’s judicial oversight committee instead.

The official had been on rare leave, hosting a family dinner for his daughter’s first birthday. When Forrest’s call came in, he sounded confused. “Mr. Lonsdale… I’m surprised to hear from you. Is something wrong?”

In the background, children were singing a birthday song.

Forrest leaned back against his headboard, voice unreadable. “It’s your daughter’s birthday?”

“Sorry—give me a moment.”

When he hung up, his wife demanded, “What is it? What happened?”

“I have to go out.” He turned, already moving toward the bedroom.

She stared, then anger surged. “Douglas! You weren’t even there when our child was born. Now it’s her first birthday and you’re leaving again? Are you even a father?”

Douglas snapped, frustration bursting out. “You think I want to leave? Two calls—one from the Lonsdales, who practically keep half of Metropia’s economy alive, and one from a Navy admiral. If I mishandle either one, I’m finished. Do you want me fired? Do you want this family living on nothing?!”

She went quiet, eyes reddening, and threw over her shoulder, “Do whatever you want,” before walking away.

Douglas watched her go, miserable and furious at the same time. Then he changed clothes fast and called the Metropia Police Department, voice packed tight with rage. “Who did you arrest today? What exactly do you think you’re doing? Are you trying to get yourselves killed?”