Chapter 1359:
He had barely finished saying her name before his body wavered, his arm trembling against the wall as though he might collapse at any moment.
Melany’s brows knitted together, her grip on the grocery bag tightening without thinking. She wasn’t convinced by his apparent weakness—it felt like a deliberate performance designed to earn sympathy.
Evelina looked up, her eyes moving between her mother and the man by the door. Her small face creased with concern. “Mommy, why is he standing at our door? He looks really pale!”
Before Melany could respond, Evelina slipped free from her hand and skipped over to him. She tilted her head back to look up at him and asked plainly, “Why are you here? Are you sick?”
Deandre looked down at the little girl who barely reached his leg and forced a faint smile, his voice weak and soft. “Evelina… I’m fine, really.”
“That’s not true,” Evelina said with a frown, folding her arms with surprising seriousness. “You look even worse than a classmate who had a fever yesterday. Mommy says you shouldn’t push yourself when you’re sick.”
She spun around and waved at her mother eagerly. “Mommy, hurry! He’s not well—we should help him!”
Melany didn’t move, her feet seemingly rooted to the spot, the grocery bag still hanging from her hand.
Y𝗼𝗎r 𝗻𝖾𝗑𝘵 𝖿𝘢𝗏o𝗿𝗶𝘵𝖾 r𝗲𝗮𝗱 і𝗌 𝗼𝘯 𝘨а𝗹ոov𝗲𝗹s.𝗰𝗈𝘮
She looked at Deandre with a cold, measured gaze and then raised her phone. “Give me your assistant’s number. I’ll have someone come and pick you up. This isn’t a hospital—you need to go back to one.”
Evelina glanced at her mother, then back at Deandre, confusion spreading across her face. She couldn’t understand why her mother sounded so distant, especially when this man had once helped them.
Still braced against the wall, Deandre watched Melany raise her phone, a bitter feeling rising in his throat.
“I don’t have an assistant,” he said quietly.
Melany looked up from the screen and gave him a skeptical look, making it plain she didn’t believe him.
“I mean it,” Deandre replied, his voice rough and low. “I told everyone to take the day off—my driver, my secretary, my assistant. All of them. There’s no one coming for me today.”
He paused briefly before adding, his tone edged with quiet resignation, “I arranged it that way.”
Melany’s fingers stilled over her phone. She studied him for a long moment.
“Deandre, are you a child?” she said through clenched teeth. “Do you really think this kind of act will make me sympathize with you?”
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