Chapter 396: Bennett Was Waiting

The doctor’s stare cut through the room, bringing everything to a sudden halt.

Lyra felt the impact of it last. The overwhelming joy, the crushing wave of relief, the long and unguarded embrace she had just initiated, all of it collapsed instantly into a single, sharp realization.

She was standing in the middle of a hospital room wearing almost nothing above the waist save for a thin bra. A fierce heat rushed up her neck and into her cheeks as she quickly pulled back from Lucas, crossing her arms tightly over her chest and angling her shoulders away as if that small movement could somehow undo what had already been seen.

The doctor’s confusion only deepened as he took in the scene.

"What is going on here?" His eyes darted from her flushed face to the empty, rumpled bed, and finally settled on Paul. "She should be resting in bed right now. Earlier this morning, she could barely even..."

Paul cut him off before he could finish the thought.

"She’s fine." The words came out rough, still thick with the raw emotion he hadn’t quite managed to bury. "My sister is completely fine. In fact, she’s perfect. Check her over yourself if you don’t believe me."

The doctor stared at him as though he had lost his mind.

"That can’t be possible."

He had been the one treating her for years, and he knew the grim weight of her medical file better than anyone in the building. More than that, he knew exactly what her ongoing care had meant to this facility. The sheer amount of money her brother poured into endless diagnostic tests, extended inpatient stays, and round-the-clock monitoring had practically kept certain sections of the hospital financially stable when other private wards were thinning out. It wasn’t the kind of thing any staff member ever said out loud, of course, but everyone who handled her chart understood the unspoken reality. Simply keeping her alive had been the only realistic goal. A genuine cure had never once been on the table.

It wasn’t for a lack of effort. He had tried everything he knew, and the outside specialists had tried everything they knew, yet the illness simply refused to yield. The absolute best they could do was hold the line by managing her chronic pain, catching the physical collapses early, and buying her brother a little more borrowed time with the sister he refused to lose. For a very long while, that small mercy had been enough for a desperate man who measured success in terms of another week of her still breathing.

Now, out of nowhere, Paul was standing here telling him she was completely healed.

The doctor’s mouth tightened into a thin line. It wasn’t out of anger, but rather the sudden, disorienting vertigo of a medical professional whose entire understanding of the world had just stopped making sense.

Lucas noticed the lingering embarrassment still locked tightly in the young woman’s posture and quietly took a step back, giving her the breathing room she needed without making an awkward show of it. At that exact moment, a fresh notification lit up his phone screen in his hand. Bennett’s name rested quietly against the dark glass. He glanced down at it once, registering the alert, before locking the device again. The situation in this hospital room still needed to be wrapped up properly first.

He raised his eyes and looked directly at the stunned physician.

"Run the scans," Lucas said evenly. "Do a full checkup from top to bottom. See for yourself if anything is still wrong with her."

With that settled, he turned his attention back to her brother.

"I’ll be on my way now. We’ll meet up again soon."

Paul gave a heavy nod, his chest still too full of overwhelming gratitude to shape a longer, more coherent answer.

Lucas moved toward the exit. Just before he stepped out into the hallway, he glanced back and left Lyra with a small, reassuring smile that was brief, steady, and entirely free of pressure. As the door clicked shut behind him, the air in the corridor felt noticeably cooler and lighter after the thick, suffocating emotion of the ward.

Only when he had walked a few paces away did he unlock his phone to read the message properly.

Bennett’s text was short and to the point.

’I’m back.’

---

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, Bennett sat in the quiet backseat of a luxury sedan as the familiar streets of Silvermont slid past the tinted windows.

The long journey back from Itary had been exhausting and ugly in the specific way that only immense wealth could make travel ugly. Her exhaustion had nothing to do with delayed flights or lost luggage, and everything to do with the people she had been forced to deal with. It had been an endless parade of rich, spoiled men who treated every polite conversation like an invitation, alongside older executives who held their smiles a few seconds too long and tried to disguise their obvious advances as standard business networking.

There had been offers for partnerships that were never real deals to begin with, and luxury cars she didn’t need presented to her as if polished steel and heavy price tags could somehow purchase private time alone with her.

In the end, she had simply cancelled all of it.

Naturally, they had kept calling anyway.

One after another, her screen had lit up with numbers she recognized mixed in with dozens she didn’t. After a certain point, she had stopped bothering to read the caller IDs altogether and shut the phone down completely, letting the sudden quiet settle around her like a heavy, locked door.

It wasn’t until the car finally crossed the city limits into Silvermont, leaving the last of that irritating noise far behind her, that she powered the device back on just long enough to send a single update to Lucas.

’I’m back.’

---

Lucas read the brief text a second time as he walked across the concrete toward the hospital parking lot, his car keys already resting in his palm.

He quickly typed back a reply letting her know he was on his way, slipped the phone into his pocket, and kept walking.

Behind him, the automatic glass doors of the main entrance slid shut. The evening air had settled over the open lot, feeling much crisper than the heavy, stagnant quiet of the upstairs room he had just left. The BMW sat waiting exactly where he had parked it earlier, the dark paint catching the bright glare of the overhead streetlamps. He hit the unlock button, pulled the driver’s door open, and paused for a beat with one hand resting on the metal frame.

Rechelle.

He had told her she would follow him for the car inspection. The plan had been simple at the time ~ pick her up, go together, let her give her recommendation in person. Now the route unfolded in his head whether he wanted it to or not. Drive back to the mansion. Find her. Explain the delay. Turn around again and cross the city to Hanky Panky Bar.

Too long.

Bennett was already waiting. Her message had been short and clear: she had arrived in Silvermont, and she was at the bar. Whatever had come before that, she had not explained it over text. Making her wait while he ran a full extra leg across town for an inspection that could be handled later was more than slow. It was rude.

Lucas dropped into the seat and shut the door.

He would call Rechelle when he reached the bar. Apologize. Ask for her recommendation over the phone if she still wanted to give it. She would understand, or she would not, but Bennett had arrived first in time if not in schedule.

He started the engine.

The low growl filled the cabin. He reversed out of the space, joined the exit lane, and pulled into the evening traffic with the hospital shrinking in the mirrors. The route to Hanky Panky Bar was clear enough in his mind. No detour. No mansion. Straight through the city.

Bennett was waiting.

That was enough.