After two hours on the road, they finally rolled into Grayenfall.
Liam had been expecting a café stop, a stroll through town, maybe even a shopping errand. What he hadn’t expected was Evelyn casually pointing toward the hospital.
"Pull in here," she said, as though asking him to stop at a bakery. How casual.
Liam blinked at the sign. ’Hospital?’ His knuckles tightened on the steering wheel.
He wanted to ask why she needed to go there. But no. He had promised her. No questions. No following. No reporting. Today, he was to be the silent, obedient chauffeur.
So he nodded, parked the car, and watched as Evelyn and Oliver disappeared through the hospital’s glass doors.
That was nearly two hours ago.
Now Liam sat in the car, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel, staring at the entrance like a watchdog waiting for his lady boss and young master to return.
Each minute that passed only cranked up the unease gnawing at his chest. Evelyn hadn’t said how long she’d be inside, but two hours?
His mind started to invent scenarios, each worse than the last.
Check-up?
Emergency?
Surgery?
No, Oliver had looked fine, bouncing into the building like it was a playground.
Evelyn hadn’t seemed ill either.
But what if—
"Stop it," Liam muttered to himself. He had promised. No questions. No assumptions.
But then came the heavier promise, the unspoken one, the one to his actual Boss.
Axel Knight.
Liam’s stomach clenched.
’If something happens and I don’t report it, I’ll be skinned alive. If I do report it, I might also be skinned alive.’
Wonderful choices.
After another ten minutes of torment, he decided. He pulled out his phone, typed a message, and stared at the screen.
"Boss, please don’t be shocked. I want to inform you that Lady Boss and Oliver are now in the hospital."
Liam stared at the words, his thumb hovering over "send."
"Should I soften it? Add emojis? No... definitely not emojis." Liam erased and retyped twice before finally pressing send.
The second the message left his phone, he regretted everything. His ringtone shattered the quiet, sharp and loud, and Liam nearly jumped out of his seat. Axel wasn’t texting. Axel was calling.
Liam swallowed hard and responded right away. "Hello, Boss—"
"Who’s sick?" Axel’s voice was sharp. "Oliver? Evelyn?"
Liam’s heart skipped. "No, no, no one is sick. They look fine, at least... from what I saw. But, they’ve been inside for almost two hours now, and they haven’t come out."
Silence.
Not the comforting, everything-is-okay silence. No, this was Axel’s silence. The kind that could strangle a grown man with sheer tension.
Liam panicked. He rushed to explain before his Boss decided to strangle him literally.
"Lady Boss asked me to wait in the car. She didn’t want me to follow her inside. I don’t know what they’re doing. That’s why I... I reported it. Just in case. Because you told me to always notify you..."
Still nothing.
Liam glanced at his screen, wondering if the call had dropped. "Boss? Are you still there?"
Finally, Axel’s voice came, low but sharp. "Which hospital?"
"Grayenfall Medical Center," Liam blurted, sitting straighter as though posture could save his life.
But a second later, the line went dead.
Liam stared at his phone, utterly baffled. That was it? No instructions? No shouting? No threats? Just a question and then silence?
He ran a hand through his hair, muttering under his breath.
"Why didn’t he say anything more? Is he angry? Or... worse, is he calm-angry?"
Calm-angry was lethal. Calm-angry meant Axel was already planning something.
Leaning back in the driver’s seat, Liam groaned.
"I should’ve added emojis. At least smile emoji!"
...
Meanwhile, back in the capital, Axel exhaled a long, heavy sigh as he stared at his phone.
Hospital. Evelyn and Oliver. The words still echoed in his head. He hated how it made his chest feel tight. He hated even more that he regretted not calling them this morning.
He had been in too much of a rush with business, brushing off the urge to check in on them.
And now here he was: distracted, restless, irritated at himself. Worrying.
Worrying wasn’t something he allowed himself to do.
Not in years.
Not about anyone.
Yet now his mind wouldn’t sit still.
Finally, after thinking for several seconds, he snatched up his phone and scrolled to the number he wanted.
One ring was all it took.
"Boss. Do you need anything?" a polite, steady voice greeted him.
"Collins," Axel said sharply, "I need you to check patient records. Evelyn Taylor. Or Evelyn Knight. Grayenfall Medical Hospital. And check for Oliver too, just in case she is not the patient..."
"No problem, Boss. I’ll check right away and call you back in a few minutes."
"Hmm." Axel ended the call with a grunt.
Waiting, however, was not his hobby. Waiting was pure torture. Especially waiting for this.
He stood up from his chair and moved toward the glass wall, staring down at the street below as if the traffic could somehow distract him. It didn’t. His thoughts chased themselves in circles.
’Why the hospital? Who’s sick? Or... what if...’
He cut the thought off. His hand clenched tightly.
Still, every second stretched unbearably. Two minutes felt like twenty. His fingers twitched impatiently at his side.
Finally, his phone rang again. Relief shot through him when Collins’s name lit up the screen.
"Talk."
"Boss," Collins’s voice came through, a little hesitant this time, "I already checked. But... there’s nothing."
"What do you mean, nothing?" Axel’s voice dropped.
"No record of either Evelyn Taylor or Evelyn Knight. Or Oliver. I even checked under variations of their names. Nothing."
"And?"
"I tried accessing the hospital’s CCTV," Collins continued quickly, "and I found them on entry. Evelyn and Oliver definitely walked inside. But..." A pause. "... there’s a blind spot. Big blind spot. There was no camera coverage in the wing they entered. So I lost track of them."
For a man who thrived on control, those words were gasoline on fire. Axel’s chest burned. His grip on the phone turned bone-white.
He ended the call without another word. His reflection in the glass looked back at him, sharp and stormy.
’Where did they go?’
He was just about to call Evelyn directly when his phone buzzed again. This time, it was a message.
"Boss, they come out!" From: Liam
Axel’s eyes narrowed as he read it, relief flooding him but colliding with irritation just as fast. Relief that they were fine. Irritation that he’d just aged five years waiting.