Forbidden Passion

Chapter 524 A Fateful Encounter

Phoebe never gave a damn about the entertainment biz, but she never saw it coming that Patrick had been blind once. His eyes looked totally fine now. Phoebe blurted out, "Did Patrick get a corneal transplant or something?"

Theodore's grip on the wheel got tighter, and he peeked at Phoebe's glowing phone. "What's the gossip online?"

Phoebe said, "They're saying there was an explosion during filming, and he got seriously hurt."

Theodore nodded. "Yeah, the Reynolds Group threw money at that movie. It was a cop flick. They rehearsed a big scene a bunch of times, but when they actually shot it, something went wrong. The explosion went off early, and he was driving through the blast zone. The car got blown into the air, flipped a bunch of times, and landed on a taxi."

Phoebe's hands got all sweaty. "What happened after that?"

Theodore went on, "The crash killed three people and seriously injured one. Patrick made it, but the actress riding shotgun wasn't so lucky. She died right there, and so did the taxi driver. The passenger in the back was still alive when they got to the hospital, but they died a few days later. The movie got canned."

Phoebe was horrified. "How did Patrick go blind?"

Theodore added, "The explosion messed up his eyes. Two days after he got out of the ICU, he said he couldn't see a thing. The docs thought it was just temporary from the trauma, but after checking him out, they found out it was corneal necrosis, and he might be blind for good."

"It was that bad?" Phoebe gasped.

"Yeah, but whether it was lucky or not, after the docs confirmed he was blind, the passenger in the taxi died. The passenger had signed an organ donation form, and the Winston family pulled some strings to get the family's approval to give Patrick the corneas."

Phoebe was stunned. "What was the passenger's name?"

There was no way it was that much of a coincidence, right? It couldn't be!

trying to remember. It had been a while, and he couldn't

heart was racing. She sat up straight and looked at Theodore,

right. I heard he was a med student at Harvard. His folks said he wanted to dedicate his life to medicine, so he signed the organ donation form early," Theodore said. Phoebe slumped back in her seat, feeling a chill down her spine. She

mentioned the guy's eyes were beautiful and that she wanted to dig them

along that Patrick's corneas were Caleb's, which was why she became

turned to Theodore and said, "Can you take me

glanced at the time on the car's display. "It's late. Why do you need to

need to ask her something face-to-face. If you're tired, just drop me off, and I'll grab a

annoyed. "You think I'd leave you on the side of the road in the middle of the

ditch me on the overpass last time

was how much Cindy knew. Did Cindy go after Patrick on purpose, or was it just

the identities of Caleb's organ recipients were

how the heck did Cindy know Caleb's corneas ended up

U-turn

was one place in the apartment she loved, it was the bathroom with its massage tub. Steam bath, glass sauna, and massage bath, with

heard the doorbell but didn't plan on

shoot, so it couldn't be him. Whoever else it was, Cindy wasn't in the

doorbell rang more urgently, followed by

tub any longer. She got out, dried off, and

the intercom, Cindy saw Phoebe standing outside. She

Reynolds?" Cindy asked, closing the door and following Phoebe into the living room. Phoebe plopped down on the couch and saw Cindy's wet hair draped over her shoulders, still wrapped in a robe. "Were you just taking a bath?" she asked. "Yeah, I was enjoying it. Did you really have a

Phoebe shook her head, looking uneasy. "I just found out something that's really bugging