Mistaken by the Billionaire Marquess

CHAPTER 29: The Truth

– LIA –

YESTERDAY NIGHT, we received more information about Doctor Silvio. It was because of Cloud’s doing. I am impressed. He works so fast and clean.

We planned to go to the hospital again and interrogate the doctor, but I suggested that we must do it in his house. Now that I’m thinking normally, I don’t want to be a hindrance in his job like I did yesterday.

Besides, it will be better for us to talk inside his house for privacy. He will also feel safer in his house, that is, if he feels threatened while we’re around him.

We decided to go to his house an hour after his shift. Kelleon’s men updated us when they saw Doctor Silvio going out of the hospital.

On the way to that house, I stalked the LinkedIn account of Doctor Andres and Doctor Silvio. My eyebrow furrowed as I reached the list of their connections.

Most of the people their are dermatologist and plastic surgeons. There are only a few neurologist and neurosurgeons in the list. It was weird. Why would they have connections like that?Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

I have a hunch, but I don’t want to entertain it.

GIVING three loud knocks on the doctor’s house was the first thing that I did. I didn’t wear a mask or a cap this time. If this doctor knew what happened to his best friend and its relationship with Denisse Cantos, I’m sure that he will recognize this face.

Cloud was with us. He has the information about the relationship of Doctor Andres and Doctor Silvio with each other, as well as the footage of them talking closely five days before Doctor Andres disappeared.

In that footage, I’m sure that they’re talking about something serious. Maybe about Denisse. Their faces are kind of blurred in the video, and I can’t read their lips.

“Who are th-”

Doctor Silvio’s words were cut short when he saw me. His widened eyes are a giveaway that he recognized my face.

“We need to have a word with you,” Kelleon said. His voice is not asking for the doctor’s time. He’s commanding him.

The doctor was dumbfounded. He is still staring at me. I’m itching to ask him a lot of questions, but I’m stopping myself from doing that thing.

“I have a lot of questions to ask,” his eyes widened more when he heard my voice.

“You’re the person in the hospital yesterday?” Doctor Silvio asked when he finally composed himself.

I nodded. “And you said that you have nothing to say about your best friend. Guess what? We don’t believe you.”

“We need you to cooperate with us so we can solve this case. If you keep on shutting your mouth, your best friend won’t receive justice, and my life will be ruined. Do you want that?” I guilttripped him.

He stepped further from us. “Come inside,” he said before turning his back

I sighed. Finally, we can talk to him.

I glanced at Kelleon. He nodded at me and touched my back to guide me inside. Cloud followed us.

When we entered, the doctor was nowhere in sight. I stood up beside the sofa and waited for him, just like what Cloud was doing. However, Kelleon made himself at home and sat on the sofa beside me. He looked at me as if he’s asking why I was still standing.

Footsteps from the other side caught our attention. I turned my head in that direction and saw Doctor Silvio carrying his laptop.

He put down the laptop on the table before sitting down on the sofa across Kelleon.

“Please, have a sit,” he offered to Cloud and I.

When all of us have already seated, he looked at us intently before speaking.

“Adrian and I,” he trailed off for a few seconds before speaking. “Conducted an illegal surgery four years ago.”

His revelation shook me. I didn’t expect him to say that. I was expecting him to reveal something about what happened to his best friend, or maybe, this statement of him is connected to that.

“Illegal? Is it brain surgery?” I asked while flipping my notebook.

He shook his head, making me furrow my eyebrows. They are both neurosurgeons. It would make sense that they’re both doing brain surgery.

“It’s a plastic surgery,” he said.

I was stunned. I looked at Kelleon and Cloud to see their reactions, but unlike me, they were calm and just serious. They are not surprised at all.

“Why would you do that kind of surgery? You’re neurosurgeons, and you’re not allowed to do that!” I exclaimed, losing my calmness.

I felt Kelleon touch my shoulder. “That’s why it’s illegal, mi amor.”

I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, starting to calm myself.

“Tell me, did that surgery involve someone who named Denisse Cantos?” Kelleon asked.

“Yes. She’s the one who approached us to do plastic surgery to her,” Doctor Caalim answered.

I opened my eyes and looked confused. Things started to make sense to me, but I couldn’t find a reason why she would do that.

He turned his laptop towards us. In the screen was like a presentation. The first page is a photo of a lady who looks like a foreigner. She has sharp green eyes, a tall nose, and small lips. She looks like a goddess because of her face.

“This is Denisse Cantos. She approached us last 2019 and asked us to do a plastic surgery on her,” Doctor Caalim explained.

Why? Why would she do that? Her face is already perfect! If I’m a man, I will bow on her feet just for her to accept me!

“Your highness,” Cloud said. “The woman in the photo is indeed Denisse Cantos. She’s Countess Annaliza’s illegitimate child.”

“There rumors that her father is one of the guards of their mansion. The family has hidden her so that it won’t taint the reputation of the family.”

Kelleon nodded and turned his head to the doctor.

“Why did she choose you? You’re neurosurgeons, and you’re not well known in the field of plastic surgery,” Kelleon asked. “What makes her trust you to do that?”

Doctor Silvio sighed before answering. “We already did a few illegal surgeries before her. All of our patients came from foreign countries,” he explained. “She said that a friend of her mother was a former client of us.”

“How did you learn to do plastic surgery?” Kelleon asked again. I wrote down the answers of the doctor even if I’m still confused.

“We were friends with a lot of plastic surgeons inside and outside of the country. We were able to learn from them, and we learned fast, especially Adrian.”

When no one spoke again, the doctor clicked a button, and the page changed.

Now, the lady is still in the picture. The difference is that my old photo from college is beside her face. I already have a hunch. My body stiffened at the hypothesis forming in my head.

Kelleon must have noticed that, so he carressed my back before whispering. “It’s okay, mi amor. I’m here.”

“She asked us to copy the face of the lady in the photo. She even told us that she would pay us five million euros each if we successfully did it,” Doctor Silvio said. “That’s a huge amount, so we didn’t think twice and accepted it.”

“Adrian asked that lady about who the woman in the photo is. She said that it’s her godmother’s dead child and that she wanted to look like her to help her godmother,” he added. “We believed her and thought of the money. We didn’t ask further questions.”

He clicked a button, and it showed the collage of the progress of the surgery. The more I look at the picture, the more absurd it becomes.

On the last click, Denisse’s face was finally replaced with mine. If Denisse is just in front of me, I will scratch her face until all of the remnants of surgery are gone.

Doctor Silvio turned off the computer.

“A week after the surgery, Adrian found out that the lady in the photo is not dead,” he turned his head to me. “He saw you in one of the conferences in PICC. You’re living on a different name, and a lot of people there have known you for years.”

He sighed and looked down. “We confronted Dennise after that. But she threatened us. She said that if we tell anyone about it, we will lose our heads.”

“A colleague of mine told me that Denisse came from a powerful family in Spain. I was scared that she would really do what she said. I don’t want to die,” he added, nearly crying because of it.

“I stopped Adrian. I told him to just be quiet so that we could live peacefully. But he didn’t listen,” he wiped his falling tears. “He gathered evidence about Denisse and planned to tell the police about it.

He stopped for a few seconds, catching his breath.

“But before he could do that, Denisse shut him down.”

“She went to me and told me that she’s going to hurt my family if I do anything against her. I love my family, so I chose to keep my mouth shut.”

With his trembling hands, he handed me a flash drive that’s inside a broken case.

I touched the broken part of it. That part fits the debris I found inside the chestbox.

“That USB drive contains the files of Denisse. From the records she gave us until after the plastic surgery was done,” he explained. “There are also audio and video recordings of our interaction with her. Adrian secretely recorded those.”

Kelleon and I left Doctor Silvio’s house. Cloud was still inside because Kelleon asked him to put the doctor under his security.

My mind is still registering what happened. I was in daze while Kelleon was driving.

“Why would she do that?” I asked while my eyes were staring far away. ”

“Of all the faces, why did she choose mine? She’s even much prettier than me.”

Kelleon touched my hand and carressed it using his thumb.

“Mi amor, will you still trust me if I tell you that I know the reason why, but I won’t tell you right now?” he asked.

I turned my head to him. “When are you going to tell me?”

“When we already captured Denisse,” he answered.

I sighed. “Yes. I will still trust you.”