Chapter 168: The Sick Child and Two Dads
Evelyn didn't answer Ryan's question directly. She just said quietly after Elias finished his pasta and got sleepy, "The guest room is ready."
Ryan's eyes brightened. Without a word, he took Elias from her and carried him expertly to the bedroom.
From then on, over the next several days, the weather in New York stayed nice.
Ryan seemed to really embrace being that "homeless guy." Every day he showed up at the apartment on schedule, starting by taking Elias to school and ending by cooking dinner for the mother and son.
Evelyn didn't push him away.
She watched Elias smile more and more. She watched Ryan fit seamlessly into their lives. Her heart, so deeply wounded, seemed to slowly be warming again.
She even started to get used to waking up each morning with breakfast already made in the kitchen, and to Ryan waiting for her outside the studio when she got off work.
This kind of peaceful happiness felt almost too good to be true.
Until Saturday, when a sudden storm swept across all of New York.
Evelyn had just finished a video conference.
"Mommy... it hurts..."
Elias was curled up under the blankets, his little face flushed red, his forehead burning hot. His eyes were squeezed shut, his small hands flailing in the air like he was having a nightmare.
"Uncle Ryan... I want Uncle Ryan..."
Evelyn's hand shook as she held the thermometer.
103.6 degrees Fahrenheit.
She poured a glass of warm water to give him, but Elias pushed it away crying, spilling water all over the bed.
"Don't be scared. Mommy's here." Evelyn held him tight, panicking.
She grabbed her phone and dialed the number at the top of her contacts with trembling hands.
The phone rang for a long time before it connected. The background was noisy and chaotic, filled with heated arguments and the sound of documents being slammed.
"Evelyn?" Ryan's voice sounded exhausted, his breathing heavy. "What's wrong?"
"Elias has a high fever. He keeps crying for you." Evelyn looked at the struggling child in her arms, tears welling in her eyes. "I know you're busy, but..."
"Damn it!"
Ryan swore under his breath. Then someone shouted on his end, "Mr. Lawrence, the board is voting. You cannot leave now!"
"Evelyn, listen to me. My uncle Marcus, that old bastard, secretly got some shareholders together to make a move against me. I'm trapped in the conference room. Security is everywhere downstairs. But I'll have Vincent bring a doctor over right now. Twenty minutes tops, okay?"
"It's fine, handle your business first." Evelyn forced herself to calm down. "I'll try cooling him down physically."
She hung up and rushed to the bathroom to wet a towel.
Just then, the doorbell rang.
Thinking it was Vincent, Evelyn dropped the towel and ran to open the door.
But it wasn't Vincent standing there.
Damian Green stood soaking wet, his suit drenched and wrinkled, plastered to his body. Water still dripped from his hair.
He clutched a waterproof bag tightly in his arms. He looked as pathetic as a stray dog.
"Get out." Without thinking, Evelyn slammed the door.
But a hand shot into the gap. Damian didn't make a sound as the door crushed his hand, pushing hard against the door.
"Let me in, Evelyn." Damian's voice was hoarse, barely audible over the rain. "I know the kid is sick."
"This has nothing to do with you!" Evelyn pushed harder, trying to break his hand. "He's my child!"
"I've been watching from downstairs for three days."
Damian didn't pull his hand back. He let the door crush his already bruised skin. "I saw the ambulance didn't come. Ryan isn't here. In rain like this, you can't get a car."
He held up the waterproof bag, his eyes full of desperate pleading. "This is children's fever reducer."
From inside, Elias suddenly cried out, "Uncle Ryan! I want Uncle Ryan!"
Evelyn's grip weakened.
She looked at her child's flushed face, then at the rain-soaked man outside.
Finally, she let go and ran to the bedroom, no longer blocking him.
Damian stumbled inside, not even pausing to take off his shoes. He threw his soaked jacket in the entryway and rushed to the bedroom with the medicine.
"It's okay, don't cry. I'm here."
Damian knelt by the bed, clumsily getting the fever reducer into Elias's mouth.
He'd never taken care of a child before.
"Ryan..."
Elias's eyes fluttered open, his vision blurry. All he could see was a tall figure by his bed.
The little boy reached out with his burning hand and grabbed Damian's fingers tight. "Daddy Ryan... don't go..."
Damian's whole body went rigid.
Evelyn stood in the doorway, watching coldly. "Let go of him."
Damian didn't move. He lowered his head and gently held that small hand. "I'm not leaving."
His voice was barely a whisper. He had no choice but to answer to his rival's name, comforting another man's child. It was the only way to win Evelyn back.
"Daddy Ryan is right here. Go to sleep."
It was a very long night.
Like he was trying to atone, Damian knelt beside the bed, changing the cold compress on Elias's forehead every ten minutes. He didn't even dare sit down, afraid of dirtying the sheets, afraid Evelyn would kick him out.
He just knelt there, reading fairy tales he'd hastily searched up on his phone, his voice gentler than it had ever been.
Evelyn sat in the armchair in the corner, gripping pepper spray, awake all night.
She watched Damian being so pathetic and careful. There was no feeling of being moved. Only a sense of absurd sadness.
If only he'd figured this out back then. Things wouldn't have come to this.
By the time dawn was breaking, the storm finally stopped.
Elias's fever had broken. His breathing was steady again.
Damian had collapsed on the floor in exhaustion, his chin resting on the edge of the bed, his eyes bloodshot.
Just then, the front door was violently forced open.
BANG!
Ryan stormed in, fury radiating from every inch of him, heading straight for the bedroom.
"Evelyn! How's the kid..."
His voice cut off.
Ryan stood frozen in the bedroom doorway, staring at the man kneeling by the bed, holding Elias's hand.
In that moment, the temperature in the room dropped to freezing.