Chapter 479 Woke Up? Not Pretending Anymore?
Thalia kept waiting. By the time it got light, Harper still showed no signs of leaving.
While marveling at how attentive this stepmother was to William, Thalia felt increasingly annoyed.
Wearing a bathrobe over her pajamas, she sat in William's huge bedroom watching everyone's move.
At nine o'clock, two hours later, Layla called again.
"The news is still up. Where's Mr. Brown? Get him to have some mercy! I've taken calls from over a dozen advertisers this morning. If this keeps up, do you know how much money you'll have to pay?"
Thalia took her phone and left the bedroom, closing the door behind her before telling Layla, "He's unconscious."
"Did you kill him?"
"Murder is illegal."
Layla's heart skipped a few beats. She knew this was all William's scheme, and Thalia might very well kill him.
With her personality, just killing him wouldn't be enough - she'd probably dismember him too.
"He has a cold, high fever."
"Is it serious?"
"104 degrees Fahrenheit."
Layla scratched her head, her headache was so bad that she wanted to bang it against the wall. "This bastard, what are the odds? He's definitely faking it. If he were conscious right now, you'd kill him for sure. Does he think having a little illness will make you let him off?"
Thalia suddenly became alert.
"Hold on." She hung up, took her phone back into the bedroom, and walked over to feel William's forehead. "I think his fever's gone down a bit. Why don't you go rest for a while? Amara and I can watch him."
"What if you catch it..." Harper looked at Thalia with some concern.
"It's fine, we're young, we're healthy."
Harper thought about it and nodded, not agreeing with Thalia's claim about being healthy, but thinking they needed some alone time.
"I'll go downstairs then. Call me if you need anything."
Thalia obediently said yes, blinking her eyes like a well-behaved little bunny.
As soon as Harper left, Thalia's gaze landed on Amara. "Are you going to stay here and spill everything you know, or get lost?"
"I'll get lost." Although Amara wanted to stay and watch the show, she didn't dare offend Thalia.
That look in her eyes just now - she was practically ready to grab a knife and start hacking.
But not being able to see William get hacked was so frustrating!
Amara left the bedroom and closed the door, but secretly left a crack open, standing by the door with her ears perked up, listening to what was happening inside.
In the room, Thalia was in no hurry. She poured herself a glass of water, sat by the bed, took out her phone, and scrolled through a few short videos to entertain herself.
After three to five minutes, she held her phone to her ear as if taking a call.
"Gregory? Secret marriage? You actually believe that? I don't even care about it."
"You're in Emerald City? Right now? Sure, I have time."
"Okay, wait for me. I'll change and come out."
After Thalia said this, the man lying in bed "unconscious" with a "high fever" coughed a few times.
Thalia added, "One of the servants at home has a cold."
Then Thalia got up to leave, deliberately making noise with the chair.
Just as her butt lifted from the chair, the man in bed opened his eyes.
Thalia thought to herself, 'Keep pretending, why'd you stop?'
"Honey, you're awake? Are you feeling bad?"
William tried to read Thalia's mood, swallowed, his voice low and hoarse. "I feel bad."
"You feel bad? I just saw a method online that says sudden fevers are usually from being scared, and cutting a gash on the inner thigh with a knife will fix it. Let me try it on you."
William was speechless.
Looking at how skilled she was with the knife, this probably wasn't something she just saw online - she'd probably rehearsed it in her mind a thousand times already.
Thalia pulled back William's blanket and was about to pull down his pajama pants when the man grabbed her wrist.
"Awake now? Done pretending?"
William blinked innocently.
Thalia wasn't angry either. She nodded. Not admitting it? No problem.
She picked up William's phone from the nightstand, turned it on, and dozens of missed calls and text notifications flooded in. Thalia wasn't interested in looking at them. She found Angelina's number and made a call.
As soon as it connected, Angelina said, "Still alive? Ms. Smith didn't kill you?"
Everyone knew he was scheming against Thalia. Only Thalia was dumb enough to feel sorry for him as a child unloved by his birth mother.
Thalia patted William's face with the knife. "Tell Angelina to take down the news."
Angelina was stunned.
She was done for - she'd said something she shouldn't have.
"Speak," Thalia said. Seeing William remain silent, she barked fiercely, "Do you believe that i can't kill you right now?"
Angelina sensed something was wrong. Without waiting for William to speak, she immediately hung up, not daring to get involved in their business.
Less than two seconds later, Thalia took a photo and sent it out.
In the photo, she held a knife to William's face, the man looking weak, as if seriously ill.
Right after viewing the photo, Thalia called again using William's phone.
"Did you see the photo?"
"I... I saw it."
"I'm giving you two choices. Either you take down the trending topic, or I send that photo to all the shareholders of the Celestia Group. I guarantee everyone gets a copy."
"Angelina, when the time comes, if William's life or death is unknown, do you think those branch company executives will come after you?"
Angelina's face fell. She was still sitting in the parking lot, hadn't even made it upstairs yet. "Ms. Smith, I'm just an employee!"
Thalia shrugged indifferently. "William's fever hit 104 degrees Fahrenheit last night; he wasn't even conscious. If I wanted to kill him, wouldn't it be pretty easy?"
"When the company has no leader, and you're a shareholder, tell me, what happens then?"
Angelina would be in deep trouble - those executives would tear her apart.
"I'll take it down, down, down. I'll use my connections right away."
William couldn't die. If he died, she was finished.
Thalia hung up and looked at William, his face pale and covered in cold sweat. "You're quite the actor, William. Was getting sick today part of your scheme, too?"
William coughed a few times and barely managed to answer Thalia. "No."
"No?"
"You think I'll believe that?"
"Really!"
Thalia threw the knife onto the nightstand and grabbed the blanket to cover William. "I could smother you. And to think I felt sorry for you. But you were scheming against me all along. Tell me, did you arrange the trending topic?"
"Mom, why did you come up?"