?Chapter 499:

    Outside the emergency room, Ste turned to Shaun with a guilty look. “I’m sorry, Mr. Smith. Looks like dinner’s not happening after all.”

    Shaun gave her a calm smile and shrugged. “No worries. We’ll try again tomorrow.”

    Ste stood frozen in front of the emergency room doors, her mind whirling with worry about how William was doing inside.

    While she was lost in thought, a nurse stepped out and called, “Who’s here for Mr. Briggs?”

    Without hesitation, Ste stepped forward. “That’s me!” she blurted.

    The nurse gave her a quick once-over. “Come along—he needs someone to assist with his medication.”

    As she started walking behind the nurse, she looked over her shoulder at Shaun. “You should go, Mr. Smith. No need to wait around. I’ll catch up with youter.”

    Ste disappeared into the ER, leaving Shaun behind for a brief moment. A faint, wry smile tugged at his lips as he finally turned and walked away.

    In the emergency room, Ste looked at William’s scratched forehead. The sight made something inside her twist ufortably.

    She turned to the nurse nearby and asked softly, “Is he going to be okay?”

    “It’s nothing serious,” the nurse replied casually. “Just a small scratch. A bit of ointment and he’ll be fine.”

    Ste frowned. “Then why did you call me in?”

    The nurse hesitated, then nced over at William with a helpless look. “He refused treatment unless we got you here.”

    Ste blinked,pletely caught off guard. She didn’t know what to say. Just then, William opened his eyes, his gaze immediately locking onto hers.

    “What were you doing with Shaun?”

    The question caught Stepletely off guard. “Are you seriously asking me that right now?” she said, disbelief written all over her face.

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    He had just been in an ident, yet the first thing on his mind wasn’t his injury—it was her and Shaun?

    William’s face remained calm, unfazed by her reaction. “Why wouldn’t I ask?”

    There was a time, back when she had no idea how he felt about her, when Ste would’ve brushed this off as peculiarity, maybe even borderline insane. But now that she knew how he felt… she just couldn’t bring herself to snap at him like before. Notpletely.

    Ste let out a quiet breath, feeling cornered. “Mr. Smith and I are nothing more than business partners. That’s all,” she said, keeping her voice even.

    William’s brow furrowed. “What sort of work are you doing together now?”

    Hadn’t the whole Nixon fiasco taught her to be more cautious? That was what he wanted to say.

    “Just the project we’ve been working on,” she said. “I happened to run into him today. There was a problem with the gallery, and he happened to know the painter who could help. He introduced us. I was going to buy him dinner as a thank-you, and then we saw your crash before we even made it to the restaurant.”

    Sheid out the entire sequence like a checklist, her tone clipped. “So now you know. Satisfied?”

    William raised a skeptical eyebrow. “Choria’s a huge city. And yet you and Shaun keep bumping into each other… what are the odds?”

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