Chapter 648
After ending the call, Rowan turned and walked back into the study. As he closed the sliding glass door to the balcony behind him, his gaze caught Elissa, who had slipped into the room completely unnoticed.
He wasn’t overly surprised to see her.
Having been treated like a fragile piece of glass by the entire family, Elissa had finally managed to wrestle the job of bringing Rowan his coffee away from lan Murphy. Setting the mug down on the desk, she looked at him with clear confusion. “What happened? What were you talking about with all that ‘feeling like failures’ stuff?”
She had only caught the tail end of the conversation and had no idea what it was about.
But it didn’t take a genius to hear how incredibly angry Rowan was.
He was practically seething.
Looking at her innocent expression, the furious storm raging in his chest subsided marginally, only to be entirely replaced by a profound, suffocating heartache.
He quickly crossed the room and gently ruffled her hair. “What could possibly have happened? Nothing is wrong.”
He swore to himself he would never let anything bad happen to her ever again.
As for the Wilkinsons and whatever the hell they were thinking, they were utterly irrelevant now.
If they treated her right and could prove themselves worthy of her, he would gladly step back and let her have the family she deserved.
If they let her down, he wouldn’t say a single word to sway her decision to walk away from them permanently.
No matter what happened, he would always be her ultimate safety net.
For some reason, Elissa caught the subtle, coaxing undertone in his voice. She locked eyes with him, profoundly suspicious. “Are you absolutely sure nothing happened?”
She could practically feel the tension rolling off him.
And she strongly suspected it had everything to do with her.
Rowan didn’t look away. He hesitated for a brief second before asking, “What is the absolute most important thing to you right now?”
Elissa blinked in surprise, thrown off by the sudden question.
Before discovering her pregnancy, her ultimate goal had been to uncover the truth behind her adoptive parents’ deaths and tear the perpetrators apart. Then, another priority had emerged: figuring out her true identity and tracking down her biological parents.
But last night, when the agonizing cramps had started tearing through her abdomen, only one terrifying thought had consumed her mind: keeping her baby safe and bringing it into this world unharmed.
She wanted to be a good mother.
She wanted a real family, a child that belonged entirely to her and Rowan.
Maybe it was selfish, but until this baby was born, she flatly refused to take any more risks that could jeopardize its safety.
Right now, she only wanted to protect her baby.
With that in mind, she met Rowan’s gaze steadily. “Our baby, obviously.”
“Then nothing else matters.”
Rowan offered a gentle, reassuring smile. “Nothing else is worth getting upset over.”
Mr. Blaine hadn’t explicitly banned
her from traveling, but he had aggressively warned Rowan that during this critical stage, avoiding physical exhaustion was only half the battle Elissa had to re remain
completely stress-free.
She was likely trying to shield him from the terrifying reality, hiding behind her own
medical expertise to insist she and the baby were completely fine.
But in truth, the situation was far more precarious than she was letting on.
The slightest misstep right now could easily result in a devastating loss.
Ever since Rowan had escorted Mr. Blaine to his car, absolute terror had gripped him.
Hearing him say this confirmed her suspicion that something had gone horribly wrong. But she decided not to interrogate him about it.
She trusted him implicitly. If he was keeping it from her, he had a damn good reason for it.
And she knew with absolute certainty that no matter what it was, he would always put her first.
“Then… we divide and conquer. I’ll focus entirely on resting and protecting the baby, and you can handle everything else.”
Her unwavering trust transported him back to the years when they were absolutely inseparable.
Looking deeply into her bright, trusting eyes, the adoration radiating from Rowan was almost palpable. “Deal. Divide and conquer.”
…
Meanwhile, back at the hospital,
while Rex was trying to finalize his
resignation, a colleague had
collapsed from acute gastroenteritis,
forcing him to scrub in as
e lead
surgeon on an emergency procedure.
He was completely oblivious to the fact that his incredibly stupid father had just orchestrated the catastrophic escape of the woman who had tried to kill his sister.
By the time the operation was over and he dragged himself back to his office, the sun was already setting.
“Well, look at you. After today, you’re officially Mr. Rex, Corporate Boss, not Dr. Wilkinson who I can draft into emergency surgery.”
The sick doctor, looking severely dehydrated and exhausted in his chair, managed a weak smirk as Rex walked in.
Rex wasn’t fazed in the slightest. He
grabbed his water bottle off the desk taking a slow sip before
With
Casually reply, Dont worry my dad calling the shots at the top, climbing the corporate ladder isn’t going to be a walk in the park.”
Jesse had been practically killing himself for the group for years and was still just
treated like a glorified assistant boss.
There was no magical corner office waiting for him.
Knock, knock.
A sharp knock interrupted them as a newly hired intern from HR peeked into the office. “Dr. Wilkinson? I just need your signature on this one last form, and your resignation will be finalized.”
“Sure.”
Rex set his water down and strode quickly toward the door. Just as he was reaching
for the paperwork, he caught something out of the corner of his eye and froze
entirely.
Their eyes locked for a split second, and he saw a flicker of raw shock dart across Tanya’s face.
But just as quickly as it appeared, the shock vanished, perfectly replaced by her signature, careless facade. Her red lips curled into a lazy smile as she threw out a detached greeting. “What a coincidence.”
Then, without waiting for him to reply, she turned on her heel and walked away.