The Billionaire’s Secret Quartet (Thalassa and Elowen)

Lydia, seeing Alaric shake his head, decided not to get up to answer the door.

The doorbell rang for a while and then stopped.

Just as Lydia was about to breathe a sigh of relief, her cell phone buzzed in her pocket.

Checking the caller ID, she saw it was Thalassa calling and quickly answered.

"Lydia, did you swing by Alaric's place to check up on him?" Thalassa's concerned voice came through the phone.

"Yeah, I did. Gave him a shot," Lydia replied.

"Have you left yet?" Thalassa inquired.

"No, still here," Lydia said.

"We're at his doorstep, rang the bell but got no answer," Thalassa explained.

that was you ringing? Hold on, I'll

up and headed for the

been a bit spooked earlier by Angelina and Georgia, instinctively fearing it might be them again

out, it

saw Thalassa and Hertha standing there. She was briefly surprised but quickly stepped

Hertha entered, Thalassa

survive. It's just a nasty flu. Not like it's the end of

Hertha's voice, felt a jolt in his heart and excitedly sat up in

barely a whisper, too soft for those in

then he remembered the disdainful look Hertha

impatient tone.

speak, then swallowed the words back down, a

She had made it clear; she found him repulsive, believing there could never be anything between them. With that thought, Alaric's briefly recovered energy faded, and he slumped back onto the bed, disheartened. "You've got it all wrong. Alaric genuinely almost kicked the bucket this time," Lydia explained to Hertha. "What? It was that

Alaric quickly lay back down and closed

he did, footsteps approached closer to