The Billionaire's Secret Quartet

"Oh man, Lydia might have gotten the wrong idea. This could be a huge misunderstanding," Ethan muttered to himself, feeling the weight of the situation.

He quickly called out to the room, "Alaric, man, you're sick, and I was just trying to help by getting a doctor. And now you're giving me grief?"

It was his roundabout way of clearing the air, stressing that Alaric's illness wasn't his doing.

"Ethan, come on, dude. I bust my butt every day for you, and you hit me with this cold talk. Have you got no heart for me anymore? Cough, cough..." Alaric, delirious from the fever, starving and miserable, had been lying in bed waiting for Ethan to come back for what felt like forever.

His feelings of neglect were mounting.

After years of being tight as brothers, Ethan wouldn't just leave him in the lurch, would he?

Thinking about their long-standing friendship only made him feel worse.

Alaric's heart was a wasteland of disappointment.

couldn't help but

a wave of embarrassment. Alaric's accusations were getting more outrageous

explanation in sight, he stepped aside

she shot him a look filled with amusement and

just walked straight into

utterly downcast. Great, first branded a

already by Alaric's bedside, asking, "What's making you feel so

opened his eyes and saw Lydia, he was shocked. "Lydia! Dr. Funke's apprentice! Ethan,

with you?"

all over, anxious, feverish, my stomach's growling but I can't eat..." After

seen

a thermometer out of her medical bag and handed

He said to Lydia, "He's just been fighting with Hertha, and then he fell sick. Sounds like lovesickness

was trying to make sure Lydia understood Alaric's sickness stemmed from a quarrel with a girl, not from anything Ethan had done. He was

disdainful glance, "I'm talking to the