LOGINWith Cameron gone and the door firmly shut, Vivian had no further room to negotiate with reality.She tied her hair back and got to work.Bath water for him. Porridge on the stove. Fresh sheets pulled from the top shelf of her closet, she had bought extras on her last shopping run, which was fortunate, because the alternative was putting the CEO of Hartwell Empire Group to sleep on bedding that smelled like her laundry detergent, which felt like an entirely different category of problem.She had, she reflected while tucking the corners of the fitted sheet, very specific feelings about her bedroom and whose presence was in it. The list was short. It contained exactly one person, and that person was four years old and currently asleep in a room with Little Prince murals across town.She was not adding to that list tonight.The new sheets would have to do.By the time the porridge was ready, Ethan had changed into the clothes Cameron's assistant had sent over, a light silver silk pajama
Cameron's interest sharpened immediately."You study traditional medicine?" He looked at Vivian with the bright curiosity of someone who has just found an unexpected point of connection. "I wouldn't have guessed. What's your background, same field as me, essentially?""I studied it at university," Vivian said, with clean, flat finality. "No license yet."She did not elaborate.Because Ethan had been watching her with the particular quality of attention that preceded a conclusion, and the closer she let him get to the actual answer, the faster the wall she had built around Rosie's secret would come apart brick by brick.Back up. Create distance. Stop here."Is that so." Cameron stroked his chin with the expression of a man filing information away for later use. His gaze drifted back to Ethan on the sofa with barely concealed amusement.He was thinking, with some genuine admiration, that his friend had either lost his mind entirely or found something worth losing it over, because allowi
He had been watching her since the bathroom.Not obviously. Not the way most people watched, openly, waiting to be caught. But with the quiet, accumulated attention of a man who collected details and held them until they formed a picture.The acupuncture technique that mapped his meridians with the familiarity of someone who had treated this condition before. The herbal preparation sitting ready in her refrigerator, not bought today, not prepared in response to his arrival, but already there, already portioned, already familiar with its own bitterness. The candy produced from her pocket at precisely the right moment, as though she had done this before and knew what came after the medicine.None of it was coincidental.And this condition, his condition, was not something that existed in any database or medical record. He had spent years making certain of that. Every specialist who had seen him had been sworn to discretion. Every search query returned nothing. Whatever this was, it exis
The line went completely silent.The kind of silence that has a texture, thick and mortified and very much aware of itself.It stretched for several seconds.Then, from the other end of the phone, a voice emerged that sounded almost, almost, like a different person entirely."Hello! Yes, sorry about that, my assistant grabbed my phone for a moment there. This is Dr. Cameron Reid. Miss Rong, is that you?"His voice was identical to the one that had been speaking thirty seconds ago.Word for word. Tone for tone.Lying through his teeth with the brazen confidence of a man who had decided the only way out was through.Vivian looked at the phone in her hand."Dr. Reid," she said, choosing to let it go entirely. "Mr. Hartwell is here with me. He's in significant discomfort, I think it may be an episode. Are you able to come?"The theatrical persona evaporated instantly."What?" Cameron's voice sharpened into something purely professional. "Where are you? I'm on my way right now."Vivian gav
In the urgency of the moment, the formality dissolved completely.Vivian pressed her palm to his forehead.Pulled it back immediately.Burning. Not warm, burning. The kind of heat that meant the body was fighting something hard and losing ground."You have a fever?" She stared at him. "You were completely fine ten minutes ago. How does someone spike a fever like this in the middle of a shower? That's not"She stopped reasoning about it. Reasoning could happen later."Get up." She got an arm under his and pushed to standing. "I'm taking you to the hospital.""Get out."The words came through his teeth, low, forced, each one clearly costing him something. His hand came up and pushed weakly at her arm, his jaw locked so tight the muscles in his face had gone rigid."Get out.""Absolutely not." Vivian pushed his hand back down and held it there. Her voice came out sharper than she intended, frayed at the edges with something that was trying very hard not to be fear. "You're in my apartmen
Her back hit the wall.Ethan's arms came up on either side of her, caging her in, his face close enough that she could feel the warmth radiating off him. The look in his eyes, fixed, dark, entirely too intense, sent her pulse into a completely unreasonable register.What Then he exhaled.A long, controlled breath. His gaze dropped from her face. His hands came down from the wall.He stepped back."It's nothing," he said.His voice was steady. His face was not. Beneath the composed surface, something was off, a tightness around his jaw, a pallor at his temples that hadn't been there a moment ago.Vivian stayed against the wall for a second longer than she needed to, recalibrating.Ethan had turned slightly away from her, two fingers pressed to the bridge of his nose, eyes closed. The controlled lines of his posture had gone rigid in a way that looked less like composure and more like effort.He was in pain.She crossed toward him before the decision fully formed. "Are you alright?"He







