Raina Reddington followed Ethan Lancaster out of the hospital. Seth Sinclair was already waiting at the entrance.
Raina was pushed into the car. She sat there woodenly, not moving a muscle. Ethan saw that her hands, which had been clenched the entire ti, had finally relaxed.
She was sitting by the window. Ethan started to move to the other side, but then he looked at her state and reached over to fasten her seatbelt for her.
As Ethan told the driver to go, he noticed Raina wringing her hands. There were dried bloodstains on them, and her fingertips were dark red.
He reached out and wrapped her hand in his. After all this commotion, she hadn’t had a single bite to eat. Ethan felt a pang of regret. He never should have made Raina pick him up from the airport.
He must have been possessed at the ti. It wasn’t just that he wanted to see her right away; he also wanted her to be like other n’s wives, waiting excitedly to pick him up. ’If she hadn’t witnessed that car crash with her own eyes, would she be in so much pain right now?’
"Fourth Master, where to?"
"Let’s find a place to eat first."
Raina’s shoulders twitched, but she didn’t lift her head. In a barely audible voice, she said, "I can’t eat. I want to go ho."
"Alright," Ethan compromised, a rare occurrence. "Back to The Verdant Garden."
The servants at ho knew he was returning today and had already prepared dinner. But when Raina walked in, she looked as if she’d lost her soul, heading straight upstairs.
Ethan had the servants heat up the food, put so in a small bowl, and brought it into the room.
Raina had taken off her shoes and was sitting on the bed. She didn’t lie down, just hugged her knees and stared blankly at a single spot.
He sat on the edge of the bed. He could feel the warmth of the bowl through his fingertips. Ethan scooped up a spoonful of rice and brought it to Raina’s lips.
"I’m really not hungry."
"Were you close with him?"
Raina lifted her gaze slightly. "Who?"
"Miles Hawthorne’s special assistant."
Raina’s voice was still a little hoarse. "We were classmates, and we got along well... He was a buddy, I guess."
"Life is unpredictable. Aren’t you the one who’s best at accepting things?"
Raina’s eyes were red-rimd, and a tear slid into her hairline. She kept wiping her face with her palm. "Yeah, I’m great at accepting things."
"Then stop making it so hard on yourself." Ethan’s spoon was already touching Raina’s lips. Her eyelids trembled, and she slowly opened her mouth. He shoved the rice inside. He didn’t have much experience feeding people, and the spoonful was a bit too much, stuffing her mouth full.
"I just feel..." Raina choked up. "...so sad."
"You’ve already done the favor he asked of you. That’s all you can do."
Raina struggled to swallow the rice in her mouth. "You knew?"
"Do you take for a fool?"
"I don’t know what it was. It looked like a key."
Ethan picked up so vegetables with his chopsticks, added them to the bowl, and stirred it a couple of tis with the spoon. "Forget it. I won’t hold it against you this ti. But I really have to wonder, if Miles Hawthorne and I were on opposite sides, whose side would you be on?"
He brought the spoon to her mouth again. She looked at him steadily for a mont. "He wouldn’t target you."
"Why not?"
Miles Hawthorne wanted a life-or-death struggle, but only with the people who had killed Samuel Hawthorne. Besides, his power was limited, and he wouldn’t make an enemy of Ethan Lancaster over this.
Seeing her fall silent again, likely thinking about Miles Hawthorne, Ethan said irritably, "Open your mouth."
The mont she opened her mouth, he forcefully shoved the food inside. Raina furrowed her brow. She really wasn’t hungry, but Ethan didn’t look like he was going to let her off the hook. She had no choice but to hold out her hand. "I’ll do it myself."
He then scooped up another spoonful. Raina quickly covered her mouth. "I haven’t even swallowed this bite yet."
Ethan shoved the rice into his own mouth. "I haven’t eaten either. You’re so heartless. Don’t you know how to feel a little sorry for ?"
He took a couple of bites with the sa spoon he’d used to feed her. He had found the airplane food unappetizing and hadn’t eaten much, thinking he could co back and have a nice, hot al with Raina. Who would have thought things would turn out this way?
"Then you can finish the rest."
"You want to eat your leftovers?"
Raina pushed away the spoon he offered. "You just ate from it too."
"Alright then. This bite is for you."
Although they had been intimate in the most profound ways, sharing food from the sa bowl with the sa spoon still felt strangely awkward. But Ethan quickly and forcefully pried her mouth open, giving her no chance to be shy.
He just wanted to coax a few more words out of her. He didn’t want her bottling it all up until she made herself sick.
Felix Finch’s family rushed to the hospital, accompanied by his fiancée, who had been busy preparing for their wedding.
Felix rarely had any ti for himself, so he had left all the wedding planning to his girlfriend. She never imagined that before he could co to marry her, she would be t with such devastating news.
His girlfriend threw herself onto the side of the cold bed, her cries heart-wrenching. "Why couldn’t you wait a little longer? I never got to tell you... you were going to be a father..."
Miles Hawthorne was leaning nearby, but he finally couldn’t listen anymore. He stumbled out with unsteady steps. Even on flat ground, he missed his footing, his body starting to slide down. He propped himself up with a hand against the wall, barely managing to stand up again.
Back at ho, Hannah Lynch had fallen asleep, curled up on the living room sofa. The sound of his arrival startled her awake.
"Miles?"
Miles Hawthorne walked over. The living room lights were off. The pale, gray light from the entryway dusted his shoulders, illuminating a face that was whiter than the light itself, looking utterly terrifying.
"Miles, why are you back so late?" Hannah Lynch took a couple of steps forward. Seeing his pale expression, she worriedly reached out to touch his face. "Are you not feeling well?"
Miles Hawthorne avoided her touch. "Felix is gone. There was a car accident."
"What?" Hannah was shocked, but ultimately, it was soone else’s tragedy. The most she could do was express a brief mont of sympathy. "You look so tired. You haven’t had dinner, have you?"
’Of course, she doesn’t care about any of it. All that matters to her is that the people *she* cares about are alive and well.’
Miles didn’t want to look at Hannah for a second longer, but it wasn’t the right ti yet. He suppressed his disgust, took her hand, and led her to the sofa. "I’ll go get a glass of water."
"Okay."
Miles walked into the kitchen. The servants had all gone to bed. He took so milk from the refrigerator and started heating it.
The heart-wrenching cries of Felix’s fiancée seed to still be ringing in his ears. Miles felt his mind thrown into turmoil, his heart feeling as if it were being squeezed and twisted. He pulled a small dicine box from his pocket.
He took out the cup that Hannah usually used, dropped two pills inside, then poured in the hot milk and stirred gently.
Miles showed no hesitation as he did this, as if the pills he dropped in were nothing more than beneficial vitamins, and not...
A mont later, he carried the cup out and sat down next to Hannah.
"Drink so warm milk, then go to sleep like a good girl. You don’t want the baby to stay up all night with you, do you?"
Hannah obediently took the cup and drank all the milk.
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