Taken By My Fiancé's Uncle - Chapter 71: Chapter 71

The sounds outside the hospital room gradually faded away.
Lorraine was still blushing hard from Eugene's enchanting words. She polished off the dinner, and then flopped onto the bed and pretended to sleep. Her heart pounded fast.
It took Lorraine a while to finally calm down. Her mind replayed the scene in the elevator. Eugene saved her, and Elsie had been right there with him. She thought, 'Wasn't he even a little worried his girlfriend would get jealous?'
She kept turning that question over in her hazy mind, and before she knew it, she'd actually fallen asleep.
When she woke up, it was already dark outside. Eugene hadn't come back, but Sheila was there, leaning over the bed, studying Lorraine's face intently. When she saw Lorraine wake up, she reached out and touched Lorraine's cheek with a sigh.
Lorraine frowned, "Why the sigh? Is there something on my face?"
Sheila grinned and said, "Hey, you've got a pretty cute face. But what's up with the bad luck? You're always in the hospital."
Earlier, Sheila had tried to find Lorraine. The teacher told her Lorraine was at the Moore Group. So Sheila went there herself, partly to ask Lorraine to come over for a casual dinner.
The other thing was, Sheila was scared Lorraine couldn't handle Eugene alone and might fall for him all over again.
Lorraine had worked so hard to get over Eugene. Sheila didn't want to see her dragged back into that mess. And sure enough, Eugene was hurting her again.
Lorraine was a little speechless. "It's not about being cursed, okay? Don't be so superstitious."
"How can I not be? Every time you cross paths with Eugene, you end up in the hospital. Isn't that lesson enough? Are you really going to risk it again next time?"
"It's not like I did it on purpose. The dean asked me to deliver some documents. I couldn't exactly say no, could I?"
Sheila snorted, not bothering to call her out. Delivering documents wasn't exactly torture—no one was forcing her. Lorraine only went because, well, there was a certain someone at the Moore Group.
"You're cleared for discharge. I just checked. Ready to go?" Sheila asked.
"Now?" Lorraine instinctively glanced toward the door.
"Who are you looking for?" Sheila was instantly on alert.
"No one." Lorraine quickly looked away.
"If you're hoping to see Eugene, don't bother. I saw him leave just now. He got in the car with Elsie."
Lorraine's breath caught, her heart twisting uncomfortably. "I know he's with Elsie. I wasn't looking for him."
"Really?"
"Of course. They're basically a couple now." Lorraine's voice was barely above a whisper, thick and muffled.
Sheila eyed her, not quite convinced. "Elsie, huh?"
"The Shaws are helping Eugene out, and Elsie's had a thing for him forever. Of course they'll end up together." Lorraine looked away. "Why'd I even look for him? Just checking if anyone was outside. Can I go home now?"
"It's all done. Let's go," Sheila urged.
"Okay."
They packed up their things and left the hospital room. In the elevator, they bumped into Lorenzo. For once, he didn't say anything when he saw Lorraine leaving.
He seemed lost in thought, and as soon as his phone rang in his pocket, he answered right away. Whatever the caller said made his face change instantly.
He hung up in a rush, turned to Lorraine, and blurted out, "Eugene hurt his arm on a piece of metal in the elevator when he saved you today. They just called me to check on him, but I've got surgery. Lorraine..."
Lorraine's heart clenched, and she almost lost her balance. "How did he get hurt? Why didn't I notice?" It was because of her that he got injured, but he hadn't shown any sign of it when he visited her earlier.
"You know how he is. He never talks about it when he's hurt," Lorenzo said, looking genuinely worried. "Now he's running a high fever. I tried to get him to come to the hospital, but he refused. Can you go check on him for me?"
Lorraine's face went pale. She stood in the elevator, biting her lip, her mind spinning. But reason told her she couldn't get involved. "You should ask Elsie. She's probably a better choice than me right now."
"Who told you that? You're the one I trust most," Lorenzo insisted. "Please, Lorraine. Eugene won't even go home. He's insisting on working overtime at the office."
Lorraine couldn't help but wonder if Eugene thought he was Superman.
Seeing her hesitate, Lorenzo quickly added, "He's hated shots and medicine since he was a kid. I'm really worried he'll get tetanus."
"Don't try to scare her. I just saw him leave with Elsie," Sheila cut in. She suddenly found Lorenzo really annoying.
Lorenzo looked a bit embarrassed. "I swear, Lorraine, I'm not making this up. If you don't believe me, call and check."
Lorraine didn't even know who she could call, or if she had any right to ask. Before she could react, Sheila had already pulled her out of the elevator and out of the hospital doors.
"He's obviously making things up. Lorraine, you can't just believe whatever people say, okay?" Sheila walked quickly, but soon noticed Lorraine's steps slowing down behind her.
Lorraine stopped in her tracks, looking a little flustered. "He got hurt because of me, Sheila."
"Calm down. Who even knows if he's really hurt? What if he's just making it up?"
"But what if it's true?" Lorraine, for once, pushed back.
"Lorraine, you wanna see him, right?" Sheila's face dropped. "Remember what I said? Two months since you left. Has he ever come knocking? That tells you all you need. Why keep torturing yourself?"
Her words were harsh, but Sheila knew all too well the difference between Lorraine and Eugene. That gap was a chasm that nothing could cross.
Sheila had grown up with the children of powerful families. She knew that for people like Eugene, marriage could mean every kind of benefit, except love. She just didn't want to see Lorraine get hurt again.
Lorraine went quiet at that, standing there as her bright eyes suddenly dimmed. She looked exhausted. After a moment, she slowly opened the car door and got into Sheila's car without saying a word.
Sheila knew there was nothing more she could say, so she quickly got in and drove them out of the hospital. The whole way, both girls sat in silence, each lost in their own thoughts.
Just as they were about to reach the Stuard residence, Lorraine's phone suddenly rang. It was the Shaw residence's landline. She hesitated for a second, but still picked up.
"Lorraine, Dad wants you to come home when you have time. Don't forget." With that, the call was abruptly cut off. It was Elsie.
Lorraine stared at her phone for a second, and then snapped back and looked at Sheila. "He's not with Elsie. She's at home, and he's working late at his office. He's got a fever," she muttered, stubborn as ever.
Sheila had already parked the car. Seeing Lorraine like this, her heart softened for no reason. She sighed, "Alright, I'll wait for you downstairs. Go up, but don't stay too long. Just take a quick look, okay?"
"Okay." Lorraine nodded hard. "I'll just take a look. That's all." She wasn't asking for much. She just wanted to see him once.
"He saved me, and now he has a fever because of it. So going to see him is only reasonable," Lorraine told herself, trying to justify it.
Sheila turned the car around and headed toward Moore Group.
What none of them realized was that not long after they left the hospital, Lorenzo's worried face instantly broke into a grin. He wasted no time calling Eugene. "Heads up, Lorraine might be showing up at your office soon."
Eugene was in the middle of an international video conference when he heard this, his eyes narrowing. "Why? Isn't she still at the hospital?"
"She insisted on being discharged, and I couldn't stop her. So I told a little white lie—said you were hurt and running a fever."
Eugene was speechless.
"Good luck, Eugene. That's as much as I can do for you." With that, Lorenzo cheerfully hung up, whistling as he headed to the locker room to change out of his white coat and go home.
"Eugene, are you even listening?" one of the foreigners on the video call finally spoke up.
Eugene snapped back to reality, set his phone down on the table, paused for three seconds, and then gave a polite nod. "Sorry, something urgent came up tonight. Let's pick this up tomorrow."
The clients couldn't imagine what could be more pressing than a multi-billion dollar deal, but they didn't argue and simply hung up.
Eugene stood by the conference room window for a moment and spotted a red SUV slowly pulling up next to the Moore Group building.
From the 27th floor, the cars below looked like matchboxes, but he could still clearly tell that the person getting out was Lorraine.
After watching her walk into the building, he made a quick decision in his mind. He turned around and called Isaac, "Bring me some bandages and fever medicine. ASAP. Also, no one's allowed to stay late or come back for overtime."
Isaac was baffled. He'd worked with Eugene for years and never got a request this weird, but he took it seriously anyway, even throwing in a few extras on his own.
Within five minutes, bandages, medicine, and fever reducers were all set out on Eugene's desk. There was even a box of condoms among them.
Eugene quietly unwrapped the bandage and wrapped it around his arm, leaving the rest of the medicine on the desk. The box of condoms, though, he tossed into a drawer.
A moment later, he took the box out again, opened it, and slipped a few into his pants pocket—just in case.