Chapter 187: Oliver Baxter
The memory surrounding the name Oliver Baxter flickered in April’s mind with a little recollection—Samuel had given her a brief summary on the man weeks ago when she was discussing how to procure Pharmaceutical resources without flagging the government and health organizations.
Dr. Oliver Baxter was notoriously difficult to deal with. He was widely known to be rude, unapologetic, and completely indifferent to wealth. He didn’t even spare two glances at the rich or powerful. All he cared about was performing his duty as a surgeon and running the largest hospital in the city. And unfortunately for anyone trying to humble him, he definitely possessed the genius-level talent to back up his supreme arrogance. Samuel had told her.
April had also planned to approach him as a potential client just like she had with Xavier, but between her supply hoarding and the lessons and the recent chaos, she hadn’t found the time or opportunity.
She just took it that it was fate, and that they were never meant to cross paths but here he was.
"What is a famous surgeon doing in your private facility?" April asked, turning her dark eyes toward Xavier. "Does he work for you?"
Xavier shook his head, his face darkening with suspicion. "No. He has zero affiliation with this facility."
Xavier stepped forward, his broad frame exuding an aura of absolute authority. "Dr. Baxter. What are you doing at my private facility? Do you require something from my team?"
Oliver Baxter slowly turned his head. His cold, analytical gaze swept over Xavier, flicked toward Nat’s looming frame, glanced at Samuel and Alexander, and finally settled directly on April.
His eyes lingered on her face for a long, silent moment.
"I have business here," Oliver said, his voice flat, precise, and completely devoid of warmth. "But not with you, Xavier Reed. I am looking for her."
He lifted a single, long finger, pointing it straight at April.
April blinked, raising an eyebrow behind her quiet expression. "Me?"
Oliver stepped forward, adjusting his glasses. "I heard you are the primary distributor of the so-called ’Miracle Water’."
The moment the words left his mouth, everyone’s eyes instantly snapped toward Nat. Nat was the sole broker handling the black-market auction listings for the Revitalization Water.
Nat’s eyes narrowed into two dangerous slits, his lazy demeanor vanishing into an icy frown. "I didn’t give the auction house her identity. Who the hell told you that? What the hell have you been up to, doc? Have you been spying on me just to find the source?"
Oliver didn’t even flinch under Nat’s murderous glare.
"How I obtained the data is irrelevant," the surgeon said dismissively, stepping directly toward April. "I am here because of the substance. I want to know where you sourced it. That liquid represents the absolute pinnacle of cellular regeneration—a miracle that defies modern surgical research."
April folded her arms over her chest, staring at him with a flat, unbothered expression. "And how exactly did you trace it to me?"
"A patient," Oliver replied concisely. "A young man named Cai."
April’s eyes flicked slightly. Cai. Ah, to think she would hear his name again. She thought after she beat him to a near death state over and over and cured his body repeatedly, leaving his mind thoroughly broken, that would be the end of it.
But it seemed like his family couldn’t afford to let him stay broken and had apparently placed him under Dr. Baxter’s elite psychiatric and neurological care after his trauma.
"When Cai recovered his speech, he babbled incessantly about a ’vial of water’ that cured him after he was close to death over and over," Oliver explained, tapping his tablet. "I dismissed it as trauma-induced hysteria. But then a client at my hospital brought in a vial purchased at the Golden Dragon auction last night to treat a terminal patient. I tested a single drop. The cellular repair was instantaneous. Magic."
Oliver’s eyes gleamed with a quiet, terrifying scientific obsession. "I requested a physical description from Cai. The garage security feed from his incident was erased, but Liora Morgan stated you used to work at their estate so I had an archive photograph from the household and that is how I came to know of your identity."
So, Cai told him I beat him up near death almost a dozen times but he doesn’t even care about that and instead cares about the fact that I had cured him over and over. Is he a mad scientist?
"So you tracked me down through the Morgans’ old personnel files," April said flatly, her dark eyes entirely cool. "You found me. Now what do you want?"
"I want the formula," Oliver stated without a shred of hesitation or embarrassment. "I want to analyze your production resources. Just think of what this substance could achieve! Think of the medical revolution—"
"Thank you, but I am not interested," April cut him off cleanly, her tone completely flat. "And right now, you are interrupting my schedule."
Oliver went quiet for a second. Surrounded as she was by the Golden Dragon, a tycoon titan, the sole heir to the Greels and private security, it was understandable why a mere doctor’s scientific excitement didn’t move her.
"Then allow me to observe you," Oliver said calmly.
"Observe me?" April asked, raising a brow. "Why?"
Before she could refuse, Nat stepped up, his broad shoulder brushing against April’s as he glared down at the doctor. "That’s going way too far. Keep your distance, or you’ll be inviting a bullet between your eyes."
Oliver completely ignored Nat, as if the underworld Lord were made of thin air. He kept his eyes fixed entirely on April.
"I promise I will not disturb your daily routine," Oliver said with absolute, unshakeable determination. "I will simply observe your activities, monitor your physical variables, and take notes. Treat it as a medical survey."
April stared at the man, realizing with a faint, dry irritation that he was completely devoid of normal fear. He wasn’t scared of Nat, he wasn’t intimidated by Xavier, and he clearly wasn’t going to turn around just because she said no.
He was an obsessed genius driven purely by single-minded curiosity.
She had to see Emily first. She didn’t have the patience to argue with a stubborn surgeon right now.
"Fine," April muttered, waving her hand dismissively. "Do whatever you want outside the room. But that still doesn’t explain how you found the location of this private facility in the first place or the fact that we’d be here. What are you hiding, Oliver Baxter?"