Chapter 8 — It's Too Late, Doctor Vu

His dark eyes from staying up all night could not be hidden from anyone in the hallway of the Cardiology Department that Monday morning, but Dinh Vu still showed up at the hospital on time as usual. He tried to maintain his usual calm demeanor in front of colleagues and patients, but inside, his mind was constantly racing with questions about the strange woman's identity and the motive behind all that had happened.

All night long, he tried to retrieve data from the security camera system installed around the villa, but the results he received made him even more suspicious. The recording of the front gate camera and the third floor hallway camera, right at the same time frame the night before he discovered Lam Nhi leaving, were all abnormally errored or lost signal, lasting exactly from ten o'clock in the evening to six o'clock the next morning - the only time that could explain the appearance of the strange woman in his house.

"This was not a random technical problem." He muttered to himself as he reviewed the system log, noticing signs of manual intervention in the camera management software, done remotely through an administrator account that only very few people knew about.

What caught his attention the most was that the access log itself was located on an independent monitoring server, completely separate from the camera's image storage memory - a security audit system that had only been installed a few months ago, in accordance with the strict requirements of the technical appraisal department of the Meridian Healthcare Foundation before they agreed to invest capital. Ironically, the very upgrade that the hospital offered to prove its professionalism to investors is now the only thing that retains traces of the person who deleted the images - that person clearly only intended to delete the recording, but did not expect that each login into the administration system would be backed up separately, separate from what he had tried to destroy.

During lunch break, Dinh Vu went to Phung Dac Nguyen's office and closed the door tightly before starting the story. Nguyen is the only person in the hospital who knows the whole truth about his secret marriage from the very beginning, and is also the person he trusts absolutely to share what is happening.

"What do you say? Lam Nhi and little Mien have left?" The pen in Nguyen's hand fell on the table with a clatter. He was stunned when he heard the whole story, his face changed color. "So what about that woman, do you have any clues?"

"Nothing concrete yet." Dinh Vu shook his head, pushing the notes he had compiled from the system data across the table for you to see. His fingers were still stained with ink from crossing out notes over and over again all night. "But I'm sure of one thing — this wasn't a coincidence. The camera was disabled that night, right when I was on emergency duty and couldn't go home. Someone knew my schedule very well, knew my home security system very well, and planned to create that scene for Nhi to see."

Nguyen picked up the notepad, his eyes quickly scanned each line, occasionally pausing to rub his chin in thought. A long while later he spoke up. "So the question is, who has enough access to your home security system, and who has the motive to do this? This is not something a normal individual can do, it requires careful preparation and certain resources."

Dinh Vu leaned back in his chair, his arms crossed in front of his chest, his eyes gradually becoming colder than ever as pieces of data began to rearrange themselves in his head. "I'm also thinking about that. The company that installed and maintained the security system for my villa is the same unit the hospital is using, contracted by the administrative department. If there was someone inside the hospital, in a position high enough to access contract information and my duty schedule, it would be possible to arrange this."

Nguyen lowered his voice, even though the room door was closed. "Who are you suspecting?"

Dinh Vu was silent for a moment, then slowly spoke, each word seemed to be carefully considered. "I don't dare to confirm anything right now. But I remember, last week during the briefing to prepare for the appraisal, besides Chairman Ton Ba Thanh, only a few senior members of the Board of Directors knew the details of my duty schedule and personal schedule that week, including the information that I would be on emergency duty that night as a backup for the demonstration surgery the next morning."

"Do you think someone on the Board of Directors is behind this?" Nguyen lowered his voice, his eyes clearly showing concern. "But for what purpose? What benefit will it bring to the hospital if your image collapses, when the whole board is putting all their heart and soul into this investment deal?"

"That's exactly what I can't explain." Dinh Vu sighed, rubbing his temples, which were sore from lack of sleep. "But I have a bad feeling. Perhaps this is not simply a personal matter aimed at me, but part of some larger plan, directly related to the investment deal that everyone is hoping for."

Nguyen nodded, stood up and walked to the window, looking down at the hospital campus below, where the staff were still busy with their daily work, completely unaware of the underground storm forming behind these luxurious walls.

"I have an acquaintance who works in the field of cybersecurity and has helped the hospital handle some technical problems in the past." Nguyen turned to look at you. "If you need, I can ask him to check further about who accessed the camera system that night, using which admin account, from which IP address. This may be the most important clue we have right now."

"Thank you." Dinh Vu squeezed his friend's shoulder, his eyes showing a faint ray of hope for the first time in many days. "I need to know the truth, not only to exonerate myself, but more importantly, I need to find convincing enough evidence so that Nhi can trust me again. She has suffered too much, I cannot let her continue to live with such a misunderstanding."

That afternoon, while waiting for information from the cybersecurity expert that Nguyen introduced, Dinh Vu still had to complete a busy work schedule as usual, from consulting examinations to an important surgery. During the surgery that afternoon, even though his mind was full of chaos, he still forced himself to focus all his attention on each knife line and each stitch, because he understood better than anyone that even a moment of inattention could cost the life of the patient lying on the operating table. That was one of the abilities he was most proud of himself - no matter how much his personal life had collapsed, he had never let it affect his responsibility to his patients. But as soon as I stepped out of the operating room and took off my gloves and mask, the psychological burden came back immediately, heavier than before.

In every rare free moment between work shifts, his mind always returned to the image of Lam Nhi standing on the stairs, her eyes looking straight at the strange woman with a broken look that he had never witnessed in the five years they were together. He remembered every little detail in the letter she left behind, trying to find some clue hidden between those painful words, but the more he read it, the more clearly he saw the extent of the hurt she had endured, and the self-blame in his heart for letting things go this far.

Late at night, when returning to the empty villa, Dinh Vu received a text message from Nguyen: "My acquaintance has started checking the data. It seems that the account accessing the camera system that night was logged in from an IP address located in the office building of the Hospital Board of Directors. I will need a few more days to determine exactly which computer it is and which department it belongs to."

Dinh Vu read and reread that message many times, feeling an uneasiness growing in his heart. If there is indeed someone in the hospital's leadership team, the people he has trusted and devoted himself to over the years, who is behind the plot to destroy his family, then what is their real purpose? And is this just the first step in a larger plan, far more dangerous than he could have imagined?

He sat down at his desk and reopened the list of hospital Board members, going over each name carefully, trying to find clues about each person's possible motives. He stopped for a long time at the name of Vice Chairman Vuong Ba Khiem - who always seemed friendly and enthusiastically supported all decisions of Chairman Ton Ba Thanh in meetings, but sometimes he still felt a discreet scrutiny in his eyes every time he mentioned an upcoming investment deal. Dinh Vu reminded himself not to rush to conclusions based only on vague feelings, but still noted that name in a corner of his notebook, along with a few questions that needed to be learned more about the share ratio and benefits of each board member once foreign investment officially poured in.

That night, like the night before, he barely slept, but this time, instead of just wallowing in pain and regret, he began to take a clearer direction — a silent investigation that he knew he had to carry out very carefully, because the person behind all of this was clearly no ordinary opponent. Before the third dawn since the day Lam Nhi left, Dinh Vu made a silent promise to himself, no less steadfast than the promises he had made to his wife over the past five years - this time, he would not let any pressure, whether career or reputation, prevent him from getting to the bottom of the truth.