Chapter 1008
Sitting on the couch in his room, I couldn’t help laughing at the ridiculous sight before me.
“This whole setup is absurd,” I said as I walked over to his bedside and glanced at the towering stack of documents. “Anyone who saw this would think you moved your entire office into the hospital instead of coming here to recover.”
Ethan glanced up at me before calmly explaining, “The bigger the commotion, the more rumors will spread. And the more people talk about it, the more convinced Brian will be that I’m on the verge of death. He’s naturally suspicious. If I quietly disappeared from sight, he wouldn’t believe it for a second. But if I make enough noise and everyone knows about my condition, he’ll be more likely to believe it’s genuine.”
I sighed before sitting down on the edge of the bed. “So you intentionally made such a huge spectacle?”
He gave a nod and lowered his eyes back to the paperwork in front of him. “Exactly. Brian won’t lower his guard until he’s certain I’m dying.”
Since I had to convincingly play the role of a woman who had lost the love of her life, I’d even brought along a bottle of eye drops so I could produce tears whenever I faced the reporters.
I took the bottle out of my bag and held it up for Ethan to see. “Look, I even brought my own prop. If my acting isn’t convincing enough, I’ll just pretend the grief is too much and faint. Tracy and the others can take care of the rest.”
Ethan’s gaze fell on the eye drops, and the corners of his lips lifted into a faint smile. He reached out and gently patted my head. “Thank you for going along with all this.”
I rested my head against his shoulder and murmured, “It’s fine. I’ll stop at nothing to find the antidote.”
He put his documents aside and drew me into his embrace, his movements gentle and comforting. “Once I’ve finished dealing with everything that needs my attention, we can put the plan into motion. After we make it through this, we’ll have the complete antidote. From then on, we’ll only have good days ahead.”
I nodded and rested against his chest. As I listened to the familiar, steady beat of his heart, an overwhelming sense of reassurance settled over me.
After some time, I changed into a nurse’s uniform and quietly went downstairs to see what was happening outside.
The area surrounding the hospital was already engulfed in a media frenzy. Speculation was spreading like wildfire. Some people claimed Ethan was critically ill. Others insisted that he’d been poisoned. There were even rumors that he’d been ambushed and had very little time left. Reporters packed the entrance, their cameras flashing nonstop. The entire place was chaotic.
I watched for a while before making my way back upstairs to the hospital room.
But the moment I returned, I couldn’t shake the heaviness that had settled over my heart. I sat beside the bed in silence for a while before finally voicing the concern I’d been holding inside. “Ethan, this whole performance has attracted so much attention. When the truth eventually comes out, won’t deceiving everyone like this have an impact on your position?”