Andrew stood in his place, unable to process the doctor’s words.
He stepped forward to confirm again, and if he had heard it right, the doctor entered another ward, leaving him to stand alone in the corridor.
As he thought about all the possibilities and the freshness of the wound, he remembered the gunshot he had heard at the exhibition hall.
He remembered seeing Daniel’s men making a man kneel who had shot someone, and then that car that was rushing someone bleeding to the hospital...
That was Elara?
Andrew suddenly felt a tinge of guilt in his heart before his expression hardened.
Wait. Why was it his fault? Did he invite her there? What was she doing in a risky place like that in the first place? And he had asked her to come with him, no? Who asked her to meddle with Daniel?
Andrew clenched his fists in anger, feeling more annoyed with his confused emotions.
He started walking towards the end of the corridor and was about to turn when he saw a few men dressed in black rushing inside the corridor.
He paused to see where they were headed, because such force could only mean someone was influential.
However, when he saw them opening the door of another room, he shook his head.
What was he doing wasting his time when he had a meeting to attend? And to think he came here to check up on her by cancelling the meeting with producer Li.
Andrew scoffed inwardly before leaving in a fit of anger.
At the same time, Carla, who was worried that her brother had gone to meet Elara and that bitch would blabber about how she pushed her off the stairs, called her brother.
"Hello?" Andrew picked up through Bluetooth.
"Brother, where are you? Producer Li is asking for you. Are you seriously wasting your time with that bitch again? Beatrice is trying so hard for you and the company. How can you leave her alone like this?" Carla scolded before Andrew could say anything.
Paired with the humiliation he suffered earlier when Antonio pushed him out of the room and what the doctor said, Andrew’s expression soured further.
"I am sorry about that. I will be there right away. You are right. I was just wasting my time," Andrew said and ended the call.
Carla smirked at Beatrice when she heard his words.
A sigh of relief left Beatrice’s mouth at his words.
For a moment, she was really worried that the man was starting to worry about that woman right when she was getting so close to her target of getting him.
"Thank you, Carla," Beatrice said, holding Carla’s hand.
Carla scoffed before flipping her hair.
"I told you, didn’t I? My brother will always put me before that bitch. Even he knows she is worth nothing. I don’t know why the heck our grandfather approved of her. Maybe she did some kind of black magic on her," Carla scoffed before she extended her feet with a fake pained expression.
Beatrice, initially confused, smiled forcefully when she realised the girl was asking her to massage her feet.
"Your feet must be hurting because of those high heels. Let me massage them for you," Beatrice said.
"Oh no, you don’t have to. But if you insist," Carla placed her feet in Beatrice’s lap.
Beatrice looked at her designer dress, clenched her teeth, and gave Carla a tight-lipped smile.
"No problem. You are like a family to me," Beatrice said.
You just wait and watch, Carla. The only reason I am letting you treat me this way now is that you are like a key to the house. Once I enter, you’ll see the real me. I am not Elara. I am Beatrice. Beatrice scoffed inwardly.
Inside the ward, Elara looked at her brother, who entered the room while smacking Xylon’s head.
"It’s not my fault, George. I thought that was the right room," Xylon groaned.
George took a deep breath and then looked at Elara on the bed.
"What did the doctor say?" He asked Antonio, and the man’s eyes drifted to Elara for a brief second.
"He said we can know only after recovery. It’s not good to have a wound like that reopen, especially when it’s so close to the joint. Besides, she took a good fall when she fell down the stairs," Antonio said.
George nodded. He had a million things to say, but he also knew all of that would be useless before his headstrong sister.
"And you happened to fall on your own, right?" George asked.
Elara looked away. She didn’t want to lie, nor was she trying to protect Carla. She just didn’t want her brother to mess with that worthless family that she was trying to cut ties with.
George massaged his forehead in annoyance. First the divorce, then the bullet wound, and now a fall from the stairs. When their parents find out about it later, they’ll surely give him an earful because of how he hid it from them.
However, one look at Elara was enough to tell him that she didn’t wish for them to know, not just yet.
"On my way, I talked to Nate, and he said they loved your song. They have already sent it to Producer Li. Maybe you are perfect for it. You can’t afford any more injuries. It will ruin you, and if that happens, I will ruin the entire Lloyd family. You know that, right?" George asked.
Like a good girl, Elara nodded in understanding.
She couldn’t give two fucks about Andrew and his relatives getting destroyed at her brother’s mercy.
But not that old man—he was more or less like her grandfather, and she couldn’t afford to have him suffer, not when he was always the only one who supported him in that family.
"Though I still don’t understand why you need to work," George said as he sat closer to her.
Elara smiled at his words.
"We have had this talk before, brother. This is not because I distrust my family, but because I don’t trust myself. I need something of my own to build my self-respect, which I have wounded. It’s for my survival, for my pride," Elara said.
George looked into his sister’s eyes for some time before nodding.
"Did he try to contact you?" He asked.
"Who?" Elara asked, confused.
"Daniel," George said.
When Elara shook her head in denial, George breathed a sigh of relief that confused Elara even more.
Her brother was hiding something from her, and she didn’t know if she really wanted to know. After all, it was Daniel Macros they were talking about.
After some time, when she had eaten, everyone left the ward to let her sleep in peace, since she had said she wanted to be alone, and Antonio stayed outside to guard the ward.
Antonio, resolute not to go anywhere, placed his chair right outside the door so he could stop anyone who would enter the ward.
However, he didn’t know that some people wouldn’t necessarily use the door to enter the ward.
The man dressed in black from head to toe, his face hidden behind a mask that left only his eyes exposed, looked at the woman sound asleep on the bed, his expression dark and unreadable.
"Why did you save me, Miss Elara? And if you did, why couldn’t you save yourself?" The man asked before he walked to the sleeping woman.
He raised his hand, brushing his gloved knuckles against her cheeks, his heart skipping a beat when she groaned in her sleep, making him pull away immediately.
"If only you remembered who you are," The man whispered before he sighed and turned to leave.