Chapter 571:

🍙 🍙 🍙 🍙 🍙

Elsewhere, the so-called “temptress,” Renee, was scrolling through her social media.

Ever since she’d returned to teaching, she’d reconnected with a lot of her former juniors on WhatsApp. Most of what she saw was about the night’s Top Ten Singers competition, and quite a few posts mentioned her.

“Ran into Renee and her husband! They were so cute together—sharing whispers and kisses through their masks!”

“Didn’t get to see Renee and Mr. King at the Top Ten Singers show. I’m so disappointed!”

“Ahhh! Performing tonight felt like I was singing for Renee and Mr. King’s magical romance! I was over the moon!”

“At 23, Renee already had her master’s degree, was thriving in her career, and had a handsome, loving husband. I’m 23, stressing over my thesis, worried about finding a job, and still single!”

“I saw Renee and Mr. King leaving early! I managed to snap a photo. Haha! It was like a love story straight out of a TV drama!”

One post had a picture attached. Renee paused on it.

𝗡𝘦w ch𝗮р𝗍е𝗋ѕ 𝘦𝗏е𝘳𝘆 𝘸𝗲𝖾𝗸 𝗈ո 𝗴𝗮𝘭𝘯𝗼𝘷𝖾𝗅𝗌.𝘤оm

“Check out this photo!” she said, hoping to lift Marcelo’s mood by showing it to him.

The picture captured Renee slipping away, tugging Marcelo by the hand as they hurried toward the exit. Her face was clearly visible, while Marcelo was caught in profile. She was smiling at him, and he remembered how, in that moment, it had felt as if her eyes held no one else but him.

Marcelo looked at her, his expression soft.

“Send it to me,” he asked.

Renee lifted her phone out of reach, teasing. “No way. This belongs to someone else. You can’t just mooch off them, Mr. King.”

Marcelo appreciated her gentle attempt to cheer him up. Even though she tried to make it sound casual, he could still sense the awkwardness—and the sweetness—behind it.

When Andrew came back in, he found Renee talking and laughing with Marcelo, her charm unmistakable.

She had never acted like that around him.

Andrew was caught between jealousy and irritation.

Just then, the light outside the operating room went out.

“The surgery went fairly well,” the doctor said. “But he’s still not out of danger. We’ll be moving him to the intensive care unit shortly, and whether he wakes up will depend on how he progresses. There was significant bleeding, which put pressure on several nerves, including the one related to speech. We can’t be sure how much function he’ll recover.”

The doctor’s tone carried a trace of reassurance, but Renee understood what it really meant. If the hemorrhage had compressed the nerve involved in speech, Paul might wake up unable to talk. And if other nerves had been affected, there was a high chance he could be left partially paralyzed.

Gary and his family exchanged looks, a quiet relief flickering between them.

After all, they were the ones who had brought him to the hospital. If he didn’t wake up—or if he woke up with severe disabilities—they wouldn’t be held responsible.

Renee caught the faint gleam of happiness in Andrew’s eyes and frowned.

Paul was soon transferred to the ICU.

Marcelo and Renee went to an office one floor above. Wyatt had just arrived. He was still dressed casually, without his white coat, and was reviewing medical files.

Renee remembered then that the Moore family were shareholders in the hospital. It made perfect sense that Marcelo had called Wyatt in.

She and Wyatt exchanged a brief greeting.

“Marcelo, something isn’t right with your grandfather,” Wyatt said bluntly. “He always had people around him. If he’d been found the moment he collapsed, given the distance from the King residence to the hospital, he should’ve been here much sooner. Someone delayed getting him help on purpose.”

Wyatt tapped the file in his hands. “I also checked his previous records. He was in good health, but his blood pressure spiked suddenly over the past month. It looks like someone tampered with his medication or what he was eating. High blood pressure is a major trigger for cerebral hemorrhages.”

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