Lucas Lynch sighed.

’What a threat,’ he thought. ’Unbelievable!’

"That’s right! You’ve been by Kaden’s side for three years now!" Helen Sawyer’s manicured fingers tapped lightly on the table, radiating an oppressive aura. "That’s long enough for you to know what I’m like! Tell me where Kaden is, and I won’t make things difficult for you."

"Ma’am, Mr. Xavier is at his apartment. I even took some medicine over to him." A smile played on Lucas Lynch’s lips, but his back was drenched in cold sweat.

Helen Sawyer’s expression turned cold. She pulled out the apartment’s surveillance records and threw them at Lucas Lynch.

"This is what you call Kaden being unwell and resting in his apartment?"

Lucas Lynch gave an awkward laugh. "You see, perhaps Mr. Xavier went..."

BANG—

Helen Sawyer grabbed a decorative piece from the tabletop and hurled it. "I suggest you think carefully before you speak again. A high-paying job like this isn’t easy to find."

Lucas Lynch agonized for a moment before saying ambiguously, "Mr. Xavier went to Aferia."

Helen Sawyer exclaimed, "Aferia? Isn’t there a war going on there? What is he doing there?"

"He’s... he’s on a business trip..." Lucas Lynch was still trying to cover for him, but a sharp glare from Helen Sawyer scared the words back down his throat.

"The company has no business with Aferia. It’s impossible for Kaden to be there on a business trip!"

"He... he went to see Miss Wynter." Lucas Lynch secretly wrung his sleeves as he revealed the truth.

"What!"

"That little bitch Wren Wynter again!

"They’re divorced, and she still has the gall to lure my son to such a dangerous place! If anything happens to my son, I’ll have her head!" Helen Sawyer said furiously.

Lucas Lynch stood to the side, not daring to even breathe too loudly.

The more Helen Sawyer thought about it, the angrier she became. She took out her phone to call Kaden Xavier, but he hung up on her instantly.

’He actually hung up on me?!’

This made Helen Sawyer even more furious. She felt it was Wren Wynter who had driven a wedge between mother and son.

She glanced at Lucas Lynch beside her. "Get Kaden on the phone."

Lucas Lynch didn’t dare to disobey and dialed the private number Kaden Xavier was using in Aferia.

「Aferia.」

Kaden Xavier was helping Wren Wynter, but his phone kept ringing nonstop, making it difficult for Wren to concentrate.

She stopped what she was doing and said to Kaden Xavier, "Go take your call. I can handle things here by myself."

"It’s fine."

"What if it’s something urgent and important? Are you really planning to just be a hands-off boss?"

Kaden Xavier fell silent, then turned and walked out of the tent.

"Hello."

"Mr. Xavier, is it convenient for you to come back now?" Lucas Lynch’s voice was laced with anxiety.

’On one side is my benefactor, and on the other is my benefactor’s mother. I really can’t afford to offend either of them!’

"If you have something to say, say it."

"Your mother knows."

Kaden Xavier’s brow furrowed. The next second, Helen Sawyer’s angry voice came through the receiver.

"Kaden, come back immediately."

Kaden Xavier paused for a moment before calmly refusing, "I can’t."

"Kaden, have you lost your mind? Don’t you know what Aferia is like? There’s a war going on! A stray shell could fall at any moment and kill someone! What kind of love potion did that vixen Wren Wynter give you to make you this bewitched?"

"Stay out of my business."

Kaden Xavier struggled to maintain his politeness, but his voice grew cold.

He didn’t want to hear anyone slander Wren Wynter.

His gaze penetrated the gap in the tent flap. Inside, Wren Wynter’s focused profile, illuminated by the simple lighting, had an almost sacred, inviolable quality.

"Stay out of it? I’m your mother! Kaden Xavier, you have to listen to me!"

Kaden Xavier didn’t want to waste any more words. Right now, only one thing was on his mind: Wren Wynter’s safety.

He ended the call directly, and the world returned to silence.

Wren Wynter finally finished the last suture. She let out a long sigh of relief and straightened her aching back.

She turned her head. Outside the tent, Kaden Xavier stood under the sun, his expression obscured by shadows, but his piercing gaze was fixed on her.

Wren Wynter walked over, her voice tinged with a distant politeness. "If you have things to deal with, you should go back. Don’t waste your time here."

Kaden Xavier looked at Wren Wynter’s exhausted yet determined face, not wanting to involve her in the matter of the phone call.

Instead of answering, he asked, "Why are you trying to push me onto someone else?"

She knew he was talking about Catherine.

"She likes you a lot. For her, it was love at first sight."

"And what about you?"

Wren Wynter lowered her eyes, avoiding his overly intense gaze. "You’re a free man. Who pursues you is your business."

Her words were flawless and impenetrable, but they pricked Kaden Xavier’s heart like tiny needles.

"Then who I pursue is also my freedom, right?"

His voice was resonant, but the deliberately softened tone made Wren Wynter’s heart skip a beat.

Before Wren Wynter could respond, he suddenly took a step forward, closing in on her. "You’re free too, aren’t you?"

Wren Wynter instinctively retreated, but her back hit the tent wall. There was nowhere left to run.

She lifted her head to meet his gaze, her tone placid but firm. "I’m not in the mood for romance right now. I just want to focus on the work at hand."

"The work at hand? Is there no one who needs you back home? Wren Wynter, is the reason you won’t go back because of me?"

"Kaden Xavier, this is my choice. I’m not Mrs. Xavier anymore. I have my own things I want to do, and you can’t stop me, nor do you have the right to interfere."

As the two stood in a stalemate, Kaden Xavier’s phone rang again at the most inopportune time.

He glanced at the caller ID—it was Assistant Lynch—and irritably hung up again.

But the other party was persistent, calling for a third time.

Wren Wynter frowned. "Just answer it. It seems really urgent."

Kaden Xavier took a deep breath and answered the call, his tone extremely harsh. "Speak!"

On the other end of the line, Lucas Lynch sounded like he was about to cry. "Mr. Xavier, it’s bad! Your mother... your mother fell at the company! Now she’s making a scene, saying she won’t go to the hospital unless you come back..."

Kaden Xavier had seen this kind of trick since he was a child.

In the past, he would have frowned and arranged everything.

But now, listening to the faint sound of artillery in the distance and looking at the exhausted but bright-eyed Wren Wynter before him, the frustration and anger that had been building up inside him for years finally exploded.

"Let her find her own doctor. I’m not a doctor. I can’t cure what’s wrong with her."

With that, he hung up the phone. He turned to Wren Wynter, his eyes bloodshot, and grabbed her wrist. "Come back with me."

"Let go of me!" Wren Wynter was startled by him and struggled forcefully.

"Do you insist on staying here to die?"

"What’s it to you?"

During the struggle, a figure suddenly rushed over, shoved Kaden Xavier away, and pulled Wren Wynter behind him protectively.

It was Shaun Quinn.

He had just finished treating a patient and came over to check on things, only to walk in on this scene.

"Kaden Xavier, what do you think you’re doing now?" Shaun Quinn stared at him warily. "Show some respect! She has nothing to do with you anymore. Stop harassing her!"

Kaden Xavier stumbled from the push. After steadying himself, his expression was so dark it looked like storm clouds had gathered on his face.

Wren Wynter rubbed her red wrist, feeling utterly exhausted, body and soul.

"Captain Xavier, you should go back soon. Someone is waiting for you back home."

The title ’Captain Xavier’ was delivered with a particularly detached tone.

She had barely finished speaking when Catherine ran over anxiously. "Wren! Shaun, quick! Someone’s been poisoned!"

The poisoned patient was a local boy. When he was carried in, he was already semi-conscious. His lips were purple, his body twitched intermittently, and there was even black, frothy blood seeping from his mouth and nose.

Several experienced doctors gathered around to examine him, only to shake their heads one after another.