Chapter 426: The Pain Beneath the Surface

Just as Sierra had feared, the faint heartache had only been the beginning. By the second day, Johnathan’s body was wracked with unpredictable pain.

Sometimes it was his bones. Sometimes his head. Sometimes it was his heart again.

Yet every test came back clean. His bloodwork remained unchanged. And still, the fever refused to break.

Experts from all over had gathered at the old Wynn estate—not just from there, but from across research institutes and scientific organizations. Still, no one had found anything.

Draven, Mateo, and several others soon arrived.

Though Wayne had locked down the news from spreading publicly, anyone close enough to the Wynn family could figure out what was really going on.

And with their long-standing friendship with Johnathan, Wayne didn’t stop them. Instead, he allowed them to be brought straight to his grandson.

Seeing Johnathan stunned them. In just a few days, he’d become visibly thinner. He looked worse now than when he’d been in that car accident.

Draven, being in the research field himself—even if not in the same specialty—could immediately tell this wasn’t good.

He glanced around the room and asked, “Where’s Sierra?”

Right now, if anyone stood a chance of solving this, it was Sierra.

“In the lab,” Johnathan replied with a trace of helplessness.

Since that night, Sierra hadn’t left. She’d locked herself away, working day and night.

Johnathan had gone to fetch her, but she refused to come back.

Seeing the determination in her eyes, he hadn’t pushed. If burying herself in the work gave her even a sliver of peace, he would let her be.

Besides, the pain in his body was growing harder to bear by the hour. Even someone like him, who could endure almost anything, was starting to falter. He didn’t want her to see that.

She may not have visited, but she definitely knew how he was doing.

And if he could keep her from witnessing that side of him—he would.

He didn’t even know he had this kind of cowardice in him.

“So what’s the current situation?” asked Stone from the side.

Johnathan laid it out—his symptoms, how they progressed.

The others were visibly shaken and furious.

They’d known Johnathan for years. When had he ever suffered like this?

Whoever had dared to touch him must’ve been insane.

“Damn it, let me catch them. I’ll skin them alive,” Mateo snarled, his temper the worst of the bunch.

Stone immediately stood up. “I’m going back to interrogate that bastard.”

“Don’t kill him,” Johnathan said. “We still need him.”

Stone gave a firm nod. “Got it.”

Once he left, Maddox couldn’t sit still either. Adjusting his glasses, he said:

“I’ve got some connections overseas. I’ll ask around—see if anyone recognizes this thing.”

And with that, he stepped outside to start making calls.

Mateo and Maddox both dove into their own leads.

Seeing how his friends dropped everything to help him moved Johnathan deeply.

“I put up a bounty on the dark web—hoping someone might sell us a clue.”

No sooner had he spoken than his screen lit up with a notification. He opened it and cursed.

“Son of a-!”

Maddox looked over and saw that the post Mateo had just made had been deleted—and his account banned.

Even the address they’d used had already been changed.

“Let’s see who’s faster—me posting or them deleting,” Mateo growled, diving back in, hunting for new entry points like it was personal.

But it quickly became clear it was a losing battle. Every time he found a new route and posted again, it was deleted in seconds. Then the domain would shift again.

Though Mateo had been working nonstop with no real breakthroughs, one thing had become obvious.

“Whoever’s running that part of the dark web might be tied to the group that did this,” Johnathan said.

“Even if they’re not the same people, there’s definitely a connection,” added Draven.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t be so quick to suppress the posts.

That, at least, gave them a lead.

“That mysterious group might be hard to track,” Johnathan said, tapping on the laptop. “But this one? This part of the network—they’re easier to follow.”

Mateo finally caught on and nodded. “Right. I should’ve thought of that.”

Instead of continuing his cyber-duel, he pivoted—calling in friends who could infiltrate and gather intel quietly.

As everyone busied themselves, Johnathan leaned back and closed his eyes.

His body was hurting again—this time deep in his bones.

It felt as if his skeleton was about to shatter from the inside out.