Chapter 228: Chapter 228: Three Women, No Bloodbath
Chapter 228: Three Women, No Bloodbath
Knock, knock, knock.
The second the sound came again, Elias showed an entirely different attitude from before.
"Get out!"
Then he burrowed straight under the blanket.
He knew Serena too well. That rhythm, that pressure against the door, that restrained impatience that still tried to sound civilized, only she knocked like that.
Outside the room, there was a brief silence.
It seemed even Serena had been stunned by the shout.
Then the lock turned.
The door opened, and Serena leaned halfway in, her expression already cool. "Are you done making trouble..."
Her words stopped.
Elias had hidden under the comforter, but one pale shoulder had slipped out, clean and bare against the sheets.
Serena shut the door at once.
She turned back to Yvonne Quinn, who stood in the hall with a polite, mild expression and gold-rimmed glasses resting neatly on her nose.
"Sorry," Serena said, voice flat with forced composure. "I’ve spoiled him too much. His temper has gotten out of hand."
Yvonne smiled softly and shook her head. "It’s fine."
Her face gave away nothing.
Her thoughts, however, had already become clear.
Forget Serena’s attitude for a moment. That single "get out" from inside the room was enough for Yvonne to identify him.
So even the background he had given her had been fake?
She remembered the housekeeper’s careful address when knocking at the door. Mr. Kane, spoken with the precise deference staff used for someone who was not merely a guest, not merely a patient’s son pulled in by charity, but someone with a place inside the house’s private orbit.
A pretty face surfaced naturally in her mind.
Red lips. Beautiful face. A face too vivid to hide inside poverty no matter how plain the clothes were.
Could a poor family really raise a boy with that kind of bright, expensive liveliness?
Yvonne had already wondered before. Elias’s father, the man staying at Longhaven Hospital, did not look wealthy. She had seen him herself. As a doctor, she had not investigated further. Patient privacy mattered, even in a world where people like Serena could bend doors open with money.
Still, the question had stayed with her.
How did that man afford such an expensive room?
Now Yvonne finally had an answer.
A boy selling himself for his father’s hospital bills.
Was that how Elias and Serena had first become tangled?
The thought turned through her mind without disturbing her expression.
She only said warmly, "Then it would be better to have Mr. Kane dress first."
Mr. Kane.
When the words left Yvonne’s mouth, even she felt the faint shift inside them.
As if the roles had tilted.
As if she were no longer the doctor standing outside a bedroom, but the patient on an exam table waiting to be touched, measured, and understood by someone else.
Serena nodded slightly, though her brows drew together.
This doctor was too perceptive.
Yvonne had never seen Elias’s body, not properly. Yet telling Serena to have him dress first inevitably meant she had imagined, for one instant, what condition he might be in behind that door.
Serena disliked that.
Then she forced the feeling down.
Her possessiveness toward Elias was already too strong. Letting herself react to every woman’s possible thought about him made him seem far too important. Even if she had fallen in love with him, she did not want to prove it in such a humiliating way.
"Dr. Quinn, please wait a moment."
Serena opened the door again, then paused before entering and called toward the stairs. "Liora, keep Dr. Quinn company."
"No need," Yvonne said at once.
Liora was already walking up to the second floor. She smiled faintly at Yvonne. "Come sit downstairs for a bit. He likes to play when he’s in bed. You probably know that."
By the time Liora said it, Serena had already entered Elias’s bedroom.
Only the two women in the hall heard.
Yvonne’s expression did not change, as if she had failed to understand the deeper meaning at all. She only nodded. "Mm."
When Liora turned to head downstairs, the eyes behind Yvonne’s glasses narrowed slightly.
Back on Westbridge’s campus that day, Yvonne had already guessed some of this.
Now the guess had proof.
Roughly counted, there were already four women connected to Elias.
That was really...
Playful.
[Yvonne Quinn’s favorability has increased. Current value: 45%.]
Inside the bedroom, Serena walked to the corner and bent to pick up the clothes Elias had thrown across the floor.
"Put these on," she said. "What does it look like, letting other people see you like this?"
Elias had been enjoying the favorability notice in secret.
No need to think too hard. That was definitely Liora’s assist. The woman had played support well. Next time, he would reward her again.
Then Serena spoke, and Elias’s attitude remained firm.
"Get out," he said coldly.
Serena looked at his wide eyes, bright and dark as black gemstones above the blanket, and found it difficult to keep the harsh face she had prepared.
Her voice cooled by a few degrees instead. "I brought a doctor to check whether you have frostbite. Don’t keep someone waiting."
The words lit Elias up at once.
"Serena Blackwood, stop pretending." His anger burst out like a volcano cracking open. "Don’t think I don’t know what you actually want checked."
So that was why he was angry.
Understanding that made Serena feel a little better.
It meant Elias hated her over a specific thing. It did not have to mean he felt nothing toward her at all.
The distinction was pathetic.
Serena knew that.
The old Serena would have laughed at anyone who relied on imagination to comfort herself. Now she had become exactly that kind of ridiculous person.
She sat at the end of the bed and crossed one long leg over the other. The black stockings pulled tight over her thigh, turning the movement into something controlled and deliberately unhurried.
She looked at Elias with a faint smile. "Check what? Say it."
Elias pressed his lips together. "That."
"Which that?"
"Serena!"
His voice rose sharply. His teeth clenched as if he wanted to bite through the word.
Serena stopped teasing before she truly pushed him too far. Calmly, she said, "If I had brought a doctor here to check what you mean, why would I have touched you last night? Wouldn’t that be asking to die?"
Elias’s temper went out as if someone had dumped water over it.
His momentum weakened at once.
He realized he had misunderstood her.
He refused to admit it.
So he turned his face aside and said coldly, "You were too worked up to think that far. I’m telling you, if I really caught something and you touched me, you won’t get away either. Wait to die with me."
Serena only smiled and lifted a shirt. "Get dressed."
"No."
Serena’s voice sharpened. "You can throw your temper at me. Are you planning to make the doctor keep waiting outside too?"
Elias sneered inwardly.
So now she remembered he was supposed to have a kind, well-behaved student persona?
Still, he began dressing unwillingly.
On his own.
He drove Serena out of the room before he did it.
Inside, Elias mourned silently.
Dr. Quinn, this is not my fault. I wanted to give you benefits. The vinegar jar outside is too sour to let me walk out bare.
[System Theta: Another nickname...]
Knock, knock.
"Are you dressed?"
"Done," Elias said coldly.
Serena clearly did not trust him. She opened the door only a crack first and looked inside. After confirming he was covered properly, she nodded in satisfaction and pushed the door open.
Three tall women entered together.
The bedroom, large as it was, suddenly felt smaller.
Serena Blackwood, with her ruined control and possessive exhaustion.
Liora Voss, composed and watchful, her smile carrying secrets that did not belong to the room.
Yvonne Quinn, calm behind gold-rimmed glasses, professional enough to make danger look like an appointment.
Elias looked at the three stunning women in front of him.
Light sparked in his eyes.
"What a shame," he thought. "If their character settings allowed it, all three of them joining me in bed would be amazing."
[System Theta: Host, please have some self-respect!]
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