The Billionaire's Secret Quartet

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 on, I'll come open the

up and

been a bit spooked earlier by Angelina and Georgia, instinctively fearing

out, it was

there. She was briefly surprised but quickly stepped aside, saying,

Hertha entered, Thalassa

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

in his heart

whisper, too soft

look Hertha had given him when they fast parted, along with

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

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.

to check on him, Alaric quickly lay back down and closed his

did, footsteps approached closer to