Dorian knew exactly how Sully operated. If you were useful to him, he treated you like royalty. But the second you betrayed him or messed with his money, he would destroy you without a second thought.

With Hawthorne around, Dorian had felt untouchable. But Hawthorne's sudden departure left him deeply unsettled.

"Your uncle has been based in Greenvale this whole time, and his wife is pregnant. Why would he suddenly take off?"

Dorian's anxiety spiked, but Leonie was entirely oblivious.

"I'm not really sure. I asked him, and he just said there's a major project in another city that requires his personal attention. He'll probably be gone for two or three months."

She had gotten the timeline from Mr. and Mrs. Everhart, but she hadn't pried into the details. She was already stressed out over Connor and exhausted from taking care of Dorian; she simply didn't have the bandwidth for anything else.

Dorian looked weighed down by a heavy anxiety. Leonie noticed it but just kept quietly feeding him fruit.

"I talked to your doctors. They said your recovery is going great, and you should be discharged in about two weeks. What are your plans after that? If you don't have a place to stay, I can set something up for you."

Dorian didn't move a muscle. He was paralyzed with fear. When Leonie offered to handle his living situation, he didn't dare turn her down.

Right now, Leonie was his only lifeline. He had no idea if Sully had already caught wind of Hawthorne leaving town.

If the news hadn't reached Sully yet, Dorian might be able to scrape by a little longer. All he could do was pray for Hawthorne to come back early. Two or three months was a dangerously long time, and there was zero guarantee Sully wouldn't come looking for blood before then.

"Thank you," he replied politely.

Leonie couldn't help but study him for a moment. Dorian had always carried a streak of fierce pride, often resisting her help in the past.

His immediate acceptance this time made a faint smile touch her lips.

Dorian, having spent his life navigating the moods of wealthy women, instantly read her expression and forced a smile.

"Do you think I'm a coward, Leonie? Because honestly, I'm terrified right now. Sully

is absolutely ruthless. Are you going to laugh at me for hiding behind you?"

Hearing him admit that actually made Leonie happy.

"Of course not. I'm more than happy to have your back."

She said it with breezy confidence, but Dorian's heart felt like lead. Her casual reassurance did nothing to quiet the panic screaming in his head.

He had no idea what Sully's next move would be. Since Sully had explicitly demanded three million dollars, Dorian knew that if that money didn't materialize, Sully would hunt him to the ends of the earth.

swnowe I

After making sure Dorian was comfortable, Leonie grabbed her bag. "I need to run by The Greenvale Playhouse. I'll come check on you later tonight."

Dorian looked at her, his eyes filled with a desperate longing, but he forced himself to play the perfect, understanding companion. "Go ahead. I'll be right here waiting for you."

He watched her walk out the door. A moment later, it pushed open again. Assuming Leonie had forgotten something, he peeked out from beneath the blankets.

Still half-dazed and speaking with a nasal, sleepy voice, he mumbled, "Leonie, what did you forget?"

Felicia heard him perfectly. Her expression didn't change.

"It's been too long since I saw you, and I missed you. So I came to check on you. How are your injuries?"

A massive basket of luxury fruit was dropped onto his nightstand. Through his groggy vision, Dorian slowly registered Felicia's silhouette.

At first, he thought it was just a nightmare. But as his vision cleared, he saw the slightly gaunt, heavily made up face of the older woman staring back at hirm Reality crashed; down on him like a bucket ofice water.

Felicia was standing right there, looking at him with a sickening blend of twisted obsession and disappointed maternal anger. Dorian's blood ran cold.

"F-Felicia. What are you doing here? You shouldn't be here, this is a hospital... I'm

so injured, I can't even get up to greet you. Please forgive me."

The sight of her jolted him so violently his soul nearly left his body.

He knew exactly

who Felicia was.

She and Sully operated like a

well-oiled machine. Their businesses

were deeply entangled, which was

exactly why Sully was so enraged about Dorian trying to walk away from her.

Dorian had been Sully's golden ticket to keeping Felicia happy. Because Dorian had pleased her so well, Sully had raked in massive favors and lucrative deals from her over the years.

The moment Dorian left Felicia, Sully stood to lose tens of millions. If it hadn't been for the looming threat of Hawthorne, Sully would have beaten him to death in that alley.

"Seeing you like this breaks my heart. When did the doctors say you can leave?" Dorian stared at her, taking in her expression of feigned sympathy. He wasn't an idiot. He knew Felicia wasn't nearly as forgiving as she was pretending to be.

He chose his next words with agonizing care, terrified that one wrong syllable would bring disaster crashing down on his head.

"Felicia, me being here has nothing to do with Sully. I was riding a motorcycle, took a bad spill, and ended up here."

He didn't dare utter a single complaint about Sully in front of her. Sully was Felicia's attack dog. No matter what Sully did, she would just turn a blind eye.