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.

was you ringing? Hold

quickly got up and headed for

and Georgia, instinctively fearing it might be them again at

it

saw Thalassa and Hertha standing there. She was

Hertha entered, Thalassa asked, "How's

It's just a nasty flu. Not like

voice, felt a jolt in his

was hoarse, barely a whisper, too soft for

call out louder, but then he remembered the disdainful look Hertha had given him when theydast parted,

impatient tone.

opened his mouth to speak, then swallowed the words back down, a look of dejection

would only deepen her disdain for him. 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.

on him, Alaric quickly lay back

as he did, footsteps approached closer to the