Xavier blinked.
She?
For a second, he couldn’t process whom Damian was referring to.
Then, in the next instant, realization dawned upon him, and he quickly answered, “Mrs.
Callahan is still downstairs in the living room, standing where she was before.”
Damian’s expression changed.
The furrow between his brows deepened as he turned to glare sharply at his secretary.
“She is still in the living room?” he repeated.
Xavier immediately tried to explain.
“Sir, you asked me to bring Dr.
Adler here as soon as possible.
As for Mrs.
Callahan, without any specific instructions, I wasn’t sure where you wanted me to take her.”
“If you don’t even know something as simple as that, Xavier,” Damian said, his voice laced with quiet frustration, “…then I think you need to undergo your training all over again.”
Xavier was dumbfounded.
Undergo his training all over again?
Over something like this?
“My apologies, sir,” Xavier said, accepting his mistake without arguing.
“I’ll go and rectify it right away.”
He quickly turned and strode down the stairs once again.
Damian’s fingers clenched.
His jaw ticked, but he said nothing.
He simply turned around and walked back into his mother’s room.
By the time he stepped inside, Dr.
Adler had just finished examining Helena.
The doctor straightened and turned toward Damian.
“Damian, how did your mother get so worked up all of a sudden?” he asked in a somber tone.
“Hasn’t she been doing fine all these years?”
Damian’s expression hardened.
He didn’t answer.
And his silence like that only made the doctor sigh.
He shook his head lightly before continuing.
“Damian, I’ve told you this before.
Your mother has suffered enough psychological distress over the years that her health has become extremely fragile.
She cannot take any more stress.
Even a little emotional shock can turn into something serious.”
Damian didn’t look surprised.
He had watched his mother live with the consequences of that trauma for years.
Of course he knew what she had suffered.
“For now,” Dr.
Once she gets enough rest, she should be fine.
Just make sure she takes her medication on time.”
Damian nodded.
After Dr.
Adler left, Matilda stepped closer to Helena.
However, before she could touch her, Damian spoke.
“I’ll stay here with Mother.
You can leave first.”
Matilda wanted to say something.
But, when she saw the sternness in Damian’s expression, she didn’t dare to voice another reason.
Instead, she lowered her head and said quietly, “I’ll ask the kitchen to prepare something light for Madam.
She might want to have it when she wakes up later.”
She waited for a response.
However, even after several seconds, Damian neither looked at her nor replied.
In the end, Matilda quietly turned and left on her own.
Meanwhile—
Xavier guided Evelyn to the second floor.
He didn’t say more than necessary.
He simply led her to the room and stopped at the doorway.
“Mrs.
Callahan, you can rest here for now.
I’ll have someone bring you dinner later.”
Evelyn didn’t respond.
Instead, she looked up at him and asked, “What happened to Madam Callahan?”
Xavier was already turning to leave when her question made him pause.
He didn’t turn around immediately.
And when he finally did, his expression gave nothing away.
“Madam Callahan fainted.
The doctor has been checking on her.”
Evelyn stared at him.
Her gaze was soft, yet probing, as though she could sense that he was deliberately leaving something out.
She didn’t let him get away with the vague answer.
Instead, she asked him directly what she wanted to know.
“Did she know my family?”
Even though it didn’t quite make sense to her, Evelyn hadn’t forgotten how Helena had reacted earlier.
She strongly suspected that the woman’s reaction had nothing to do with her name alone.
But then, hadn’t the Callahans only recently established themselves in Maridia?
How could Helena possibly know her family?
But then —
If not her name, her family, then what else was it?
This time, her gaze grew slightly unfocused as she tried to make sense of it herself.
Yet no matter how hard she thought about it, she couldn’t find an explanation.
The Callahans had only recently arrived in Apex City.
A feud between their families shouldn’t have been possible.
So if that wasn’t the reason, then what else could have caused Madam Callahan to react that way?
She looked at Xavier again, silently waiting for him to answer.
However, Xavier offered her nothing.
“Mrs Callahan, don’t overthink it.
I still have quite a few things to take care of, so I’ll leave you to rest.”
And with that, he turned and walked away.
Evelyn watched him go.
The furrow between her brows only deepened.
She knew she might be just overthinking it.
But … something in her gut told her that Helena’s reaction hadn’t been without reason.
There had to be something more.
Something she didn’t know.
Her gaze slowly moved around the room.
She had assumed she would be taken to a guest room.
However—
Her eyes darted around once more.
This didn’t look like a spare room.
And it certainly didn’t feel like a guest room.
The room was enormous, yet somehow, it didn’t feel excessive.
Everything was dark.
Deep charcoal walls.
Dark walnut panels.
Black marble surfaces that caught the warm glow of concealed lighting.
Even the furniture seemed chosen to disappear into the shadows rather than stand out from them.
And yet, nothing about the room felt gloomy.
It felt controlled.
As though every single object had been placed exactly where it belonged.
Such precise thought wasn’t something one put into decorating a guest room.
It was the kind of space designed to reflect the person who lived in it.
Could this be his room?
The thought crossed her mind.
However, when she looked around, she couldn’t find a single obvious hint.
The Damian she had known was never real.
So she didn’t try to search for traces of him in the corners of the room.
But there wasn’t even a photograph of Damian.
Nothing.
Nothing that could confirm it for her.
Just as she was about to take another step forward and look around, a sharp —almost rude knock at the door made her halt.