Elena’s POV

When the slip of paper fell from my sleeve, I bent to pick it up without thinking, but the moment I unfolded it beside the one Dr. Li had just handed me, my fingers turned cold.

The numbers were identical.

Not just the sequence. The handwriting.

The curved tail on the nine. The slight hook on the one. The six that leaned faintly to the right as though it had been written in haste. I had seen those details too many times in medical charts to mistake them.

Dr. Li frowned at me. ...