“Can I see her?”

“After we finish documenting what each of you knows independently.”

I nodded, because for once I understood why patience mattered more than pride.

PART 7

That evening, Chen showed me the official timeline.

A call had been placed to emergency services from the reception hotel after midnight.

Paramedics found me unresponsive.

At the hospital, my condition had been assessed, and an erroneous death pronouncement was entered after a cascade of serious clinical and administrative mistakes that investigators were still examining.