You Want Me Back? Sorry, Request Rejected Chapter 14

You Want Me Back? Sorry, Request Rejected Chapter 14

Evan couldn’t help being a little surprised. Was Calvin actually asking about Elise? That had never happened over the years.

He’d heard there’d been an attack at the hospital two days ago and that Elise had almost been stabbed. Could it be that Calvin was feeling guilty because of that?

Evan didn’t have time to dwell on the matter. On the other end of the line, Calvin’s voice cooled slightly. “Keep an eye on her. Don’t let her die out there.”

Evan instantly got it. What Calvin really meant was that if something happened to Elise and the paparazzi dug it up, the Fulton family would get dragged into the mess.

Right now, Fulton Group was in a critical stage of expansion in Halston. They couldn’t let their reputation get ruined over a woman.

Even though Calvin and Elise’s marriage was a secret, the upper crust was extra sensitive about this sort of thing. One careless misstep, and their competitors would seize the chance to tear them down.

Calvin was just being strategic. It wasn’t about concern, and it certainly wasn’t about guilt.

Once Evan figured that out, he secretly let out a breath of relief. It meant he’d been right to side with Sabrina all these years.

“Understood, Mr. Fulton,” he said.

He planned to personally swing by the hospital to go through the motions and have Elise transferred to Crestwood Hospital. He could tell she’d been devoted to Calvin for years; if he helped her out a little here, he might even earn himself a favor.

Evan had just ended the call with Calvin when Fulton Group’s front desk called his internal line. “Mr. Lloyd, there’s a local courier here for Mr. Fulton. The sender’s last name is Stanton, and the document is from the Greenstone area. Should we send it up to you?”

“No need. Just file it in the archives room.”

Lately, as Fulton Group expanded in Halston, various small companies had been trying their luck by mailing unsolicited cooperation proposals. Evan didn’t think much of it and headed straight for the hospital.

When he arrived, the hospital informed him that Elise had already been discharged the day before.

A flicker of doubt crossed his eyes. Based on Elise’s past behavior, she would’ve reported even quick trips out to Calvin. Yet this time, she hadn’t told him about her discharge?

But since she’d already left, that meant she was in stable condition. Evan decided not to go out of his way to report this to Calvin.

…

Elise carried a food container and the neatly folded suit jacket as she took the elevator up to the top floor of Crestwood Hospital, where the premium VIP ward was.

Before going upstairs, she specifically asked the nurses about the daily room rate. Jordan had been admitted here, and she wanted to do something to repay him. After thinking it over, the one thing she could do right now was help pay his medical bills.

“Miss, the tenth floor is for gold-card patients. You don’t need to worry about the fees,” a nurse said.

In other words, Elise couldn’t pay, even if she wanted to. Her plan fell through.

As soon as she stepped out of the elevator, a woman crashed into her head-on, nearly knocking the hot soup right out of her hand.

The woman snapped, “Are you blind or something? You—Wait, Elise? Why are you here?”

Elise narrowed her eyes slightly. The woman before her wore a seemingly innocent white dress with a V-neck that dipped dangerously low. Her hair was tied up in a messy bun, and her slightly round face was caked in a strange, washed-out “no-makeup” look that somehow still felt off.

She was Jenny Langdon, the stepdaughter of Elise’s uncle, Gregory Stanton. On paper, Jenny was Gregory’s stepdaughter, but in reality, she was his illegitimate daughter from his affair.

Gregory’s first wife had passed away from illness when Elise’s cousin, Liam, was 15 years old. Barely half a year later, Gregory had married Jenny’s mother, Sylvia Langdon.

Arthur had been so furious that he’d ended up hospitalized for half a year. Heartbroken and disappointed, Liam had chosen to study abroad.

Later, when Elise’s parents died unexpectedly, Gregory was the first to step up and take her in. At first, she thought he was doing it out of family loyalty. She never imagined he had ulterior motives.

Her father, Graham Stanton, had been a highly respected professor at Arva’s top college. Because his death was so sudden, the college didn’t have time to find a suitable replacement.

From that point on, Gregory—who had only been an associate professor—slid neatly into Graham’s tenured position.

As for the fashion brand Elise’s mother, Amelia Vaughn, had left behind, Sylvia had “temporarily” taken over, claiming she was helping to manage it.

Around the same time, a painting Elise had created with Arthur was submitted by her school to a national art competition. It ended up winning a notable prize that year and even came with an acceptance offer from the Royal Academy of Arts.