I Faked My Death—Now I Have to Tame the Crazy Men I Left Behind-Chapter 51 - 49: Unbuttoning Her Buttons

Hayes Hughes was crying.

When Mia Grant realized this, her first instinct was to see it with her own eyes.

She tilted her head.

’Hm? Is he really crying?’

’No way.’

Mia excitedly rubbed her hands together, struggling to get a look at his face.

"Brother... are you crying?"

’Let me see!!!’

"Don’t."

The man’s voice was flat, as if he were trying his hardest to suppress the tremor in his words.

Her vision suddenly went black. He had reached around from behind and covered her eyes.

Mia blinked instinctively.

Her long lashes fluttered restlessly, brushing against the man’s palm, sending a ticklish sensation not just across his skin, but into his very heart.

With the light gone and her sight blocked, her other senses became infinitely sharper.

She could clearly hear the man’s ragged breaths as he tried to stifle his sobs. The steady warmth on her neck was further proof that he was truly crying.

A stifling silence filled the room, broken only by the sound of their breathing.

Mia didn’t like the quiet.

The air seemed to thin, making it hard to breathe.

This was why she usually liked hanging out with Ian Sinclair.

Ian could be a bit clingy and loud, but for her, that was just about right.

In environments that were too quiet, she couldn’t help but fall into a state of panic.

It couldn’t be helped. The trauma from her time in that basement was just too great.

Before that, she had lived by the philosophy, ’Life is full of shadows? Great, free shade!’ Her days had been pretty pleasant.

But after transmigrating into the book, she realized that the "shadows" she had encountered in her previous life were nothing at all!

In this novel world surrounded by lawless degenerates, she, a law-abiding citizen, was so normal compared to these psychos that it was almost conspicuous.

Mia frowned and raised her hands to grab Hayes Hughes’s hand, trying to pull it away from her eyes.

But her strength was insignificant compared to a grown man’s.

Mia sighed. ’I guess I’ll just wait for him to finish crying.’

’Such a fragile man.’

’I made him cry, so I have to be the one to clean up the mess.’

If the situation weren’t so inappropriate, she really would have wanted to say, "Can you please stop crying? I’m begging you, don’t let the teacher see."

It made her feel like some little brat who’d annoyed his female deskmate into tears after class.

An unknown amount of time passed—maybe a minute, maybe less.

After a few deep breaths, the feeling of discomfort in Mia’s chest didn’t ease. It was still intense.

Sensing her breathing becoming unsteady, she spoke again.

"Brother... can you say something...? I’m starting to feel a little sick."

An unconscious tremor was in the girl’s voice.

In an instant, the weight on her shoulders vanished, and light returned to her eyes.

Hayes Hughes had no time to compose his disheveled self; he couldn’t worry about that now.

He grabbed her shoulders and spun her around. Her face was pale, and a fine layer of sweat beaded on her forehead despite the early autumn air.

He quickly checked her pulse and found its rhythm was abnormal.

Hayes’s expression changed drastically. He swept her up into his arms and carried her to the bedroom.

He kicked open the partially closed door, startling Mia so much her expression went blank for a second. Her breath hitched.

’Whoa, what an eye-opener.’

’The way Hayes Hughes has been reacting today... I’ve never seen any of this from him before.’

While she was still stunned, he placed her on the bed.

By the bedside, the man produced a first-aid kit from somewhere.

Before Mia could react, she heard Hayes Hughes apologize, and then the buttons of her top came loose.

The pads of his cool, slender fingers lingered over the row of clasps on her small vest.

Through the final thin layer of her blouse, he did his best to warm the cold stethoscope with his body heat before placing it on her chest.

"Brother..."

She wanted to say something, but her breathing was too rapid for her to form a complete sentence, and she was forced to swallow her words.

"Mia, don’t talk for a moment."

Hayes’s expression was focused as the stethoscope in his hand roamed over her body.

’Why would her heart suddenly start beating so fast?’

’There was no warning at all.’

"Did something happen to your body after you jumped into the sea two months ago?"

"Mia, I’m a doctor. You might not want to tell me, but you can’t hide things from your doctor. It will affect my diagnosis and could lead to disaster."

"I know it might be hard to talk about. You can just tell me the general area. Where, roughly, do you feel uncomfortable? I can figure out the rest, okay?"

Even at a time like this, he was still trying to reason with her.

If he encountered such a stubborn patient at work, one who didn’t take their own health seriously, he wouldn’t keep insisting if he couldn’t persuade them.

He was a doctor, but he could only try to save those who wanted to live.

Beyond that, he was powerless and had no right to interfere.

But Mia was different.

He couldn’t bear the thought of something happening to her.

"No matter what’s wrong with your body, I will definitely cure you."

"Mia, you can trust me."

Mia didn’t know what he was saying. All she heard was a constant chirping in her ear.

He just kept talking.

After a short while, her breathing calmed slightly, and she opened her eyes to look at him.

By the bed, the man’s complexion wasn’t much better than hers.

His eyes were bloodshot, his lashes were damp, and his hair and shirt were a mess. 𝚏𝐫𝚎𝗲𝕨𝐞𝐛𝕟𝚘𝐯𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝗺

He looked even more of a wreck than she did.

Hayes Hughes felt her heart rate slow down a bit.

He looked up and saw the girl staring at him unblinkingly with her big eyes.

Her gaze was like that of an observer studying something.

He even thought that, in her eyes, he must look like an animal in a zoo cage.

She was standing outside the glass, like a small child, marveling at the creature inside.

Hayes knew what she was looking at.

He also seemed to understand why her heartbeat had suddenly become erratic, and then just as suddenly returned to normal.

’I must look so pathetic and ugly right now, no different from an animal.’

’But it doesn’t matter anymore.’

’As long as it distracts her, it’s fine.’

He listened carefully to her heartbeat, only retracting his hand after confirming that she was okay.

Mia was still staring at him blankly.

’He’s so beautiful.’

A single teardrop still clung to his eyelashes like a small pearl, waiting to be plucked.

Mia, completely captivated, stared like a fool.

A beauty in tears... it was devastatingly effective on her!

The original novel mentioned that Hayes Hughes had refined, scholarly looks, but it never said he’d be this stunning when he cried!

In the bedroom, the two of them were lost in their own separate thoughts.

Neither of them noticed the sound of a keypad being used at the entryway outside.

As soon as Silas Grant returned from Portia, he couldn’t wait to see Mia Grant.

For some reason, she wasn’t answering her phone. The phone he’d given her had a locator, but it kept showing her location as the dorm.

He went to the dorm to look for her, but she wasn’t there.

Her roommate said that Mia had been picked up by her brother two hours ago.

He was right here. What other brother could Mia possibly have?

Suddenly, he remembered the one person he had been overlooking: Hayes Hughes.