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.

that was you ringing? Hold on, I'll come

up and

and Georgia, instinctively fearing it might be them again

out, it was

door, Lydia saw Thalassa and Hertha standing there. She was

and Hertha entered, Thalassa asked, "How's

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

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

voice was hoarse, barely a whisper, too soft for those in the living

to call out louder, but then he remembered the disdainful look Hertha had given him when they fast parted, along with her impatient

then swallowed the words back down,

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 serious?" Hertha was

him, Alaric quickly lay back down and

he did, footsteps approached closer