Private Marriage, Secret Love-Chapter 117: Lure Him Out

Raina made eye contact with the person who entered. Ethan Lancaster walked to the door and left without a backward glance.

"Are you okay?"

Raina shook her head.

"I was worried the whole way here."

Raina remained silent.

"Were you terrified?"

Raina saw someone peering in from the doorway. "I have patients to see."

"Raina, I’m out now. I’m okay."

Raina picked up the pen on her desk and gripped it. "I saw the news."

"If you saw it, why... why didn’t you even ask me about it?"

Raina lowered her gaze and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "Do you think I should be the one to apologize?"

"That’s not it..."

"I’ve only ever done what I believed was right."

Someone knocked on the door. "Excuse me, is the doctor ready to see me?"

"Yes."

Miles Hawthorne seemed reluctant to leave. He couldn’t stop himself from taking a step forward. "Raina, why were you transferred over here? Was it Ethan Lancaster’s doing?"

"Didn’t you think about the consequences when you did what you did?" Raina’s tone was cold. "I have patients to see. I’ll ask anyone who isn’t a patient to leave."

Things had been turbulent in Stoneworth recently. The Sterling and Lynch families had suffered one heavy blow after another, but the attack on the Lancaster Family hadn’t been a fatal one. Ethan Lancaster was no pushover; over the next two months, he launched a frenzied counterattack.

Miles Hawthorne had achieved some success in recent years, but it was nothing compared to the Lancaster Family’s century-old foundation. Furthermore, the Lancasters had allies, while he was fighting alone. First, Aristor Hall was shut down. Then, the companies under his control ran into one problem after another until they finally declared bankruptcy.

After Mrs. Lynch recovered from the shock, she joined forces with her side of the family. It was said they were searching for Miles Hawthorne everywhere.

As for Miles Hawthorne, it was as if he had vanished into thin air.

A warm breeze blew away the last of Stoneworth’s biting cold, ushering in the bright warmth of spring, yet the relationship between Raina and Ethan Lancaster remained at a freezing point.

After Miles Hawthorne disappeared, May Sullivan also stopped appearing.

Raina was faintly worried. ’Her body can’t hold out for much longer. If she’s stopped her chemotherapy, her condition is bound to be much worse.’

After getting off work, Raina went to the parking lot. When she first caught sight of Ethan Lancaster’s car, she thought she was seeing things.

She walked to her own car and was just about to open the door when the window of the car in the adjacent spot rolled down.

"Get in."

Raina saw Ethan Lancaster sitting inside. The sight left her in a bit of a daze; it had been nearly half a month since she’d last seen him.

"What for?"

"To get dinner."

The three words floated into Raina’s ears, just like old times. She remembered when she was at Mercy Seas, Ethan Lancaster would wait for her after work just like this, willingly squeezing into her little car to decide where they should go for dinner.

Raina knew she should have gotten into her own car, stepped on the gas, and left him in the dust. But her hand seemed to have a will of its own, reaching out and pulling open the door of Ethan’s car.

The man shifted over, making room for her.

"What do you want to eat?" Ethan Lancaster asked, a rare question from him.

"Anything is fine."

Ethan Lancaster chose a restaurant specializing in Hangzhou cuisine and picked a table by the window. He handed the menu to Raina. "Go ahead and order."

Raina simply ordered three dishes and a soup. Ethan Lancaster glanced at her choices without comment, merely adding an order for a pitcher of corn juice.

The two of them had little to say. Once all the dishes arrived, Raina picked up her chopsticks and began to eat.

Ethan Lancaster poured her a glass of the corn juice. Raina stared at the glass, her gaze involuntarily drifting to the man across the table.

"What are you looking at?" Ethan asked softly.

"Nothing."

"Not used to me being this nice to you?"

Raina was, in fact, very much not used to it. She nibbled at the food in her bowl. The housekeeper at The Verdant Garden was gone, so she ate almost all her meals at the hospital cafeteria.

’I really have no appetite today. I was just planning on passing by the university district to grab some takeout vermicelli soup.’

Ethan Lancaster noticed she was barely eating. Now that she was out of her heavy winter coat, she looked so thin she was practically a skeleton. "Why are you eating so little?"

"I’m full."

The fish soup she’d ordered was almost untouched. Ethan Lancaster picked out the best piece of fish and placed it in her bowl. "You’re so thin. Don’t get to the point where you can’t even hold a scalpel steady."

The steam rising from the hot soup blurred Raina’s vision. This warmth felt so surreal, as if she were in a dream.

Her heart fluttered with unease. ’If this is a dream,’ she thought, ’I hope I don’t wake up for a little while longer.’

Raina ate in small bites, and Ethan Lancaster picked out slices of meat from another dish for her.

"I can’t eat anymore, really."

"Fish and meat are the best combination."

Raina couldn’t help but smile. "I’ve only ever heard that meat and vegetables are the best combination."

It had been a long time since Ethan Lancaster had seen her smile like that. Their eyes met, and Raina quickly suppressed her smile.

’She was afraid he would think even her smile was a transgression.’ Raina glanced at Ethan Lancaster’s bowl. "Why aren’t you eating?"

"I’ve eaten plenty."

As Raina continued to eat, her stomach began to feel uncomfortably stuffed. ’But if I put down my chopsticks,’ she wondered, ’will we go right back to that cold, icy silence?’

’Some feelings you only become greedy for after you’ve had a taste.’ When Raina looked up, she saw Ethan Lancaster staring out the window, his eyes sweeping over the passing crowd as if he were looking for something.

"I’m finished."

Ethan Lancaster glanced at her. "Let’s go, then."

Once they were outside the restaurant, Raina didn’t follow Ethan. "I can just get a cab back."

The man glanced back. "I’m going back to The Verdant Garden, too."

Raina hesitated for a moment before following him.

Inside the car, the window was down, and the night breeze felt wonderful against her face. Raina’s fingers dug into the seat beneath her. She opened her mouth to speak several times but never knew what to say.

She stole a glance at Ethan Lancaster from the corner of her eye and saw him staring intently into the rearview mirror.

Suddenly, as if a thought had clicked into place, Raina’s expression changed. Her lips trembled. "Ethan Lancaster, don’t tell me you’re..."

"What?" When she failed to finish her sentence, Ethan Lancaster finally turned his head to stare at her.

"Don’t tell me you’re trying to lure out Miles Hawthorne?"

The expression on Ethan Lancaster’s face didn’t change in the slightest, but Raina felt the possibility becoming more and more real. He had been distracted during dinner.

The thought struck Raina, and her first instinct was to reject it. She gripped the leather seat beneath her hand. "Is it true?"

It was as if Ethan Lancaster couldn’t see the grief and sorrow in her eyes. "Raina, you know I won’t—that I *can’t*—let him get away with it."

It felt as if a knife had been dragged across her heart. The cut wasn’t wide, but it was deep. Raina quickly turned her face away, taking two deep breaths to force back her tears.

"Then you’ve really got the wrong person. Miles Hawthorne has never contacted me, and I have no idea where he is."

Ethan Lancaster’s gaze returned to the rearview mirror. "He’ll contact you sooner or later. He’s hiding in some dark corner right now, and the person he wants to see most is undoubtedly you."