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.

you ringing? Hold on, I'll come open the

got up and headed

Angelina and Georgia, instinctively fearing it might

out, it was

Hertha standing there. She was briefly

Hertha entered,

flu. Not like it's the end of the world,"

in his heart and excitedly sat up in

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

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

opened his mouth to speak, then swallowed the words back

out to her? It 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. "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 shocked. "Where is he?

on him, Alaric quickly lay back down

did, footsteps approached closer