Hold On Mr.! Your Sweetheart is a Real Queen-Chapter 773: His male chauvinism is simply to the point of paranoia.
"What’s wrong?"
In the car, the man slowly lit a cigarette, then turned his head, giving her a glance.
Charlotte sat in the shadow of the carriage, her snow-white face appearing somewhat faintly confused at the moment.
He reached out with fingers tinged with a slight scent of smoke, lightly pinching her delicate chin, examining her expression intently.
Charlotte slapped his hand away, softly saying, "It’s nothing."
"Still worrying about that little brat?"
Charlotte glanced at him.
A slender cigarette was clenched between the man’s lips, thin smoke enveloping his sharp brow ridge; the lazy rogue air on his refined aristocratic face still made him quite alluring.
Charlotte softly said, "I’m really fine."
But Ilisa Lyons’ words had somewhat shocked her.
She didn’t have any special feelings for her parents, because she had been sent to the man’s side since childhood, and could only go home a few times a year.
Ilisa Lyons’ completely cold-blooded words today still made her feel a bit faintly upset.
Returning here, she had no parents, no children, and in the future, no lover either. She really didn’t know how to live well in the days to come.
Thinking of this, she couldn’t help but glance at the dignified man sitting beside her.
If he allowed her to go to school, she would have the chance to interact with classmates and might even meet a good friend;
but this man simply wouldn’t allow her to have any contact with the outside world.
His domineering male chauvinism had reached an obsessive level.
If she complained about these to her family, Ilisa Lyons would only tell her to bear with it, completely forgetting that her daughter was only eighteen, an age where she should normally be in her senior year of high school.
Robert Stephens sensitively sensed the complaints of the woman beside him.
He took a puff of his cigarette, feeling somewhat inexplicable.
He hadn’t offended her today, had he?
Even when she gave the black card he gave her to that little one, he hadn’t lectured her. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶
After pondering for a moment and observing Charlotte’s gloomy expression, the man slowly said, "Want to go to the hospital?"
Charlotte was slightly stunned, raising her eyebrows to look at Robert Stephens’s defined brows and eyes: "Go to the hospital for what?"
"Don’t you want to check on your brother?"
Wasn’t she just worried about her cheap brother’s safety?
Charlotte thought for a moment.
She wasn’t familiar with Ryan now, and later, she wasn’t too familiar either. If the future of the Smith and Stephens families were changed, would Ryan’s future be changed by her too?
She hesitated and said, "Then let’s go see him..."
Robert Stephens glanced at her, stubbed out the cigarette butt in the ashtray, swiftly turned the car, and drove towards the hospital.
The Stephens’ private hospital only allowed access to the Stephens’ relatives and Chicago’s dignitaries. When Charlotte and Robert arrived, little Ryan was eagerly waiting outside the operating room. Seeing the two adults approaching, he stood up in a fright.
Ryan was the product of her father’s one-night stand; that woman was also just a normal decent housewife, but the family was conservative and kicked her out after she gave birth.
Charlotte walked over to look at this skinny boy. His features resembled hers a bit; the two of them took after their father a little more.
"Have you eaten?" she softly asked.
"...Yes." The boy’s pitch-black eyes shimmered with a wild animal-like light, a mix of caution and faint fear.
Charlotte knew he didn’t want to leave while his mother was having surgery. She said to him, "I’m a bit hungry. I’ll go buy some cake, and we can have some together, okay?"
She spoke in a soft, girlishly tender tone that was hard to arouse others’ suspicion.
Robert Stephens stood calmly behind Charlotte, scrutinizing the boy with a cold and indifferent expression.
Charlotte called for someone to buy bread and milk, which she shared with him. Ryan started eating slowly at first, but as his appetite kicked in, he began devouring them ravenously.
Charlotte gave him her portion too.
After eating, Ryan hugged his legs and squatted silently in the corner.
Charlotte walked over, squatted in front of him, and looked at the young boy.
"I am your sister."
"...I have no sister."
"The same father but different mothers," Charlotte explained to him, "Sorry, this is our first meeting. If I had known you earlier, you wouldn’t have suffered so much."
She truly meant that statement.
Later, when the Smith family fell, and Ryan took charge, he was the only one who hadn’t turned his back on her.
If it weren’t for Ryan being considerate towards her, her life in the Smith family would have been even more difficult.
The siblings had no affection, and Ryan still acknowledged her after growing up only because during those years of being frightened and bullied by the Smith family, Charlotte never bullied him.
She never bullied him, but she also never helped him.
After all, at the time, she herself was in dire straits, unable to escape the calamity.
"..." Ryan’s wild eyes stared intensely at the delicate young girl before him.
At that time, he was still too young to understand pretense. His eyes were yet unconcealed by cynicism, sharp and wary when looking at people.
"You don’t hate me?"
Every time he went to the Smith family for money, he was driven out. He was a disgrace to the Smith family’s strict conduct, and his father saw him as a stain.
Charlotte: "Why would I hate you? We’re actually the same."
Just as she was talking, the operating room door opened, and Ryan immediately stood up, his youthful pale face reflecting tension: "Mom!"
He ran over to see the woman being wheeled out.
The nurses pulled him away and wheeled the woman into the ICU.
Robert Stephens asked the doctor about Ryan’s mother’s problems for a while in the office. When he came out, his expression was indifferent, addressing the big and small at the door: "Your mom can’t be discharged now. Do you want to go home with me or sleep on the floor here at the hospital?"
Ryan immediately said, "I want to stay at the hospital!"
The man scoffed lightly, "It’s so dirty here; if you stay in the hospital, who will disinfect you?"
Ryan’s face flushed with shame, feeling inferior in the presence of this dignified man.
Seeing Robert Stephens unwilling to speak properly, Charlotte stepped out to shield Ryan, saying to him, "Ryan, you come home with me and take a shower; someone will take care of your mom here."
Ryan looked at her with red eyes. He was only twelve, still a child. Although mature for his age, he still felt out of place before Robert Stephens and her.
Charlotte softened her tone and reached out to take his hand. Robert Stephens watched her overture, his eyebrows involuntarily furrowing a few times, ultimately saying nothing, just giving a cold snort.
In the end, Ryan was picked up by Robert Stephens’s people and driven away.
Returning home with the man, Charlotte lightly asked him, "Robert, how is Ryan’s mother now really?"
The man stared straight ahead, his expression cold and calm: "Late-stage stomach cancer, beyond saving. Prepare for her final arrangements."
