Chapter 4
Tiffany pouted playfully: “Mrs. Claire, you really need to scold him! He keeps distracting me when I’m trying to cook!”
Ethan chuckled and booped her nose: “How was I distracting you? You seemed to be enjoying yourself.”
“Oh my God, don’t say stuff like that! Mrs. Claire’s gonna get the wrong idea!”
Claire’s voice was flat: “Wrong idea about what?”
“That… that you and I have that kind of relationship.”
“When did you two not have that kind of relationship?“Claire suddenly cut them off.
Tiffany’s smile vanished instantly, her eyes welling up: “Mrs. Claire, yeah, I’m poor and I work as your nanny, but you can’t just attack my character like that!”
Ethan immediately pulled her into his arms, his voice gentle: “Hey, don’t cry, sweetheart.”
“How could she say I have that kind of relationship with you? I’m a good girl–I’ve always been completely respectable! If I’m close to you, it’s just because you’ve been so kind to me and I want to show my gratitude! Just because I’m a nanny doesn’t mean I don’t deserve respect, does it?”
Ethan tenderly wiped her tears with a tissue: “What can I do to make you feel better?”
“I’m just a nanny–I wouldn’t dare be mad at Mrs. Claire. I’ll be happy if she just drinks the soup I made for her.”
Ethan opened the thermos and handed it to Claire: “Claire, drink up.”
The moment the lid came off, the overwhelming smell of seafood hit her.
Claire pushed it away: “I can’t drink this.”
She was severely allergic to seafood–had nearly died from anaphylactic shock once.
But Ethan just gave her a meaningful look: “I said, drink it.”
“Ethan, you know damn well I’m allergic to seafood!”
“We’re in a hospital. The doctors and nurses can handle it–pump your stomach if they need to. You won’t die.”
There’s something about being completely speechless that actually makes you laugh.
And Claire did laugh.
How could someone change this completely? Or maybe this was who he’d always been, and she’d just been too blind to see it.
Tiffany was still crying, and Ethan kept patiently comforting her.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a few pearls, holding them out: “How about this–will you drink it now?”
Claire snatched the pearls immediately, clutching them protectively against her chest. “Where are the rest?”
“Drink the soup, and I’ll give you one more.”
22:01
Two Chances, One Bullet: How His “Next Life” Promise Failed
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stead, he hold it out the window, dangling at in misir.
Forside the hospital room was a small river if that pearl dropped, it would be gone forever.
Claire practically rolled off the hospital bed, stumbling frantically to the window: “Please… don’t…”
an helped her back onto the bed and placed the thermos back in her hands, his voice sickeningly gentle: “Claire, Tiffany’s just trying to help you get better. Don’t hurt the poor girl’s feelings.”
The allergic reaction was already kicking in fast.
She could feel her throat starting to swell, making it harder and harder to swallow.
But for her mother’s pearls, she forced herself to keep going.
Tears mixed with the seafood soup as she choked it down, everything blending together in a salty, bitter mess.
She threw the empty thermos aside and managed to rasp out: “Give…. give it to me.”
Ethan just smiled at Tiffany: “See? She finished it all. Now stop crying, okay sweetheart?”
Tiffany finally smiled through her tears: “Okay, I’ll listen to you.”
The suffocating feeling lut Claire like a tidal wave. She gasped desperately for air, using her last bit of strength to grab onto Ethan’s pant leg: “The pearl… give it to me.”
“What’s the rush? I never said I wouldn’t give it to you.”
At that moment, a nurse walking by the room and saw Claire’s condition. She screamed: “Code blue! Someone’s going into anaphylactic shock!”
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