ELODIEI glanced at Tedros as soon as his father was done talking. Why was he paying attention to me? It wasn’t like we knew each other. Tedros reached down to hold my hand and squeezed it softly. He was comforting me, but I felt like it was more like telling me not to snap. “Yes, go on, Freddie,” I replied. “What is it that you want to ask me?”I had a feeling that whatever he wanted to ask me wasn’t good. A grin spread across his face. Everyone was silent; I guess they were curious about what he had to say.“I heard you are the best friend of my son’s ex-wife,” Freddie stated, making me freeze. Why was he bringing that up? If he had paid attention to that, he must have known what happened.“Yes, I am,” I replied, unwavering.“Why are you suddenly asking that?” Tedros demanded. “We have made it clear that we won’t mention my ex-wife anymore.”Turning my gaze to look at him, I found him glaring at his father. “That’s right,” Belle added. “If that’s what you want to talk about, you

ELODIE“Are you alright, sweetie?” Mrs. Vinters asked, her fingertips grazing my cheek.Why are they so worried? I am not dead yet; I just collapsed from... I couldn’t even tell what caused me to faint. It must have been stress from reading all night without getting proper sleep.“I am fine,” I replied.“No, you aren’t,” Belle choked out.It was then that I realized she was crying. What the hell was happening? Her sobs increased, making me panic.“I am seriously fine,” I said, trying to calm her down. “Nothing happened to me; I only passed out from stress. It was nothing important.”Although I was confused, I was glad that they were still by my side. That proved they didn’t believe the allegations Freddie made against me, but where was Tedros?I had trailed my eyes earlier to catch sight of him, but he was nowhere in sight.“Stop lying to us,” Cole murmured.Mrs. Vinters pulled them both away from my body and shoved them behind her. Sitting next to me on the bed, she snatched the box

ELODIE“He came to look for you again,” Tedros muttered, making me wonder who the man he was talking about was. “You know him; he comes all the time to visit you, and he also insisted that I tell him where you are.”As soon as he was done talking, I could already picture who it was in my mind. The only man who had ever visited me was Lucas.“Was it Lucas?” I questioned him, frowning at him for not telling Lucas where I was. “You should have told him where I was; he must have been worried sick.”“He shouldn’t be worried about another man’s wife.” Leaning in, his face was inches from mine as he stared at me like he could see into my soul. “So, what’s that pill that you are feeding me?” My eyes widened in shock. Did he know about the pill? How did he find out? My heart began beating hard against my chest as I panicked, trying to think of what to tell him, but I couldn’t come up with anything. It was like my head was blank, and I couldn’t think of what to say. I could only wonder how he

ELODIESeeing that my words were having an effect, I tilted my head to the side. He was still cupping my face in his hand and forcing me to look at him.“How sick am I?” he questioned. “And when can I stop taking the pills?”“When you’re better,” I replied.“What’s the name of the sickness anyway?”That was it. The grin I had been trying to control spread across my face. Lucas didn’t tell him what the sickness was. I was right; he wasn’t given all the information he needed.“It’s a secret,” I answered, winking at him. “If you know the name of the sickness, it will only get worse.”“Is that true?”“Yes.”He released me and sat up on the bed, and I did the same. I stared at him from the corner of my eyes, sighing in relief. I couldn’t believe how I had panicked for no reason; now it was all settled.“Are you going to find Lucas and apologize?” I asked, keeping the conversation going.“No, I won’t,” he replied stubbornly.“You beat him on purpose because he shot you with a tranquilizer.”