Chapter 39
Without another word, Xavier turned away from the others and placed the thermos he’d brought down on the table.
“You haven’t eaten yet, have you? I brought breakfast.”
“Thank you,” Sharon said softly, her voice touched with quiet gratitude.
Nate, seeing that a stranger had come to visit her, couldn’t resist a sneer.
“Well, well, well. You haven’t even divorced Carter yet, and you’ve already lined up your next guy? This is a hospital, you know. No matter how eager you are, maybe try to keep things discreet?”
He paused, glancing at Carter, and held back from saying anything too crude. Still, his tone dripped with contempt. “Sharon, do you even have any shame left?”
Xavier didn’t look at him. Instead, he turned to Carter with a faint, ambiguous smile.
“Mr. Biggs, even if you don’t care for Sharon, is it really necessary to team up with your lady friend-and her companion-to bully your own wife while she’s lying in a hospital bed, weak and recovering?”
Carter’s face darkened, as if a shadow had fallen across his features. “Since you know she’s my wife, Mr. Cooper, what exactly are you doing here at the crack of dawn, doting on a married woman?”
Xavier-current heir to the Cooper Group-had been living abroad in a country called Leistre. He had a five-year-old child, though no one knew who the mother was. Rumors said the boy was illegitimate. No one had ever heard of Xavier getting
married.
The Cooper Group was powerful, on par with the Biggs family in terms of influence. In recent years, it had been leaning toward partnerships with companies in this country, Zachemaine, clearly eyeing expansion there.
Xavier met Carter’s gaze with calm, unflinching ease and a faint smile.
“You know she’s your wife, yet you didn’t think to ask if she’d eaten, or how she’s recovering. Instead, you brought your girlfriend here to put on a show? Interesting.” 1
He let the words hang before adding lightly, “If you don’t care for Sharon, someone else will.”
Nate couldn’t take it anymore. His voice rose, sharp with accusation. “We’re here to question Sharon-this murderer-about why she tried to run over Kelly! She nearly killed her!”
Xavier cast him a glance, slow and almost indifferent.
“You’re not the police. You have no right to interrogate her. If there’s a problem, let the police handle it. Right now, Sharon
needs rest. All of you, please leave.”
Nate’s temper flared. “Hey, who the hell are you to kick us out?! She kicked me and Kelly down just now. I haven’t even settled the score with her!”
“She kicked you down?” Xavier looked amused, as if someone had just told him a joke.
“Maybe ask the doctors if Sharon is even capable of getting out of bed, let alone kicking anyone.”
His words were directed at Nate, but his eyes never left Carter.
“Her bones are fine, but she does have a mild sprain. She’s not supposed to get out of bed or put weight on her leg for at least three days.”
A trace of a smile curved his lips.
1/2
Chapter 39
+25 BONUS
“Mr. Biggs, do you really believe a woman who can’t leave her hospital bed has the strength to harm this perfectly healthy man and your girlfriend? In fact, if they didn’t want to be kicked, they could’ve stepped aside, couldn’t they? It’s not like your girlfriend injured her leg-only her hand.”
“Oh, right.” Xavier added, as if just remembering. “If you don’t believe me, Mr. Biggs, we can have a doctor come in right now to examine Sharon’s leg. Then you’ll know whether or not I’m lying.”
Carter’s gaze darkened. His eyes, sharp and unfathomable, suddenly turned toward Nate.
2/2
