Zoe Rhodes wondered if her "coming back to life" had scared Zane Hawthorne.
"D-d-d-don't cry!"
"Don't be scared! I'm alive! I wasn't completely dead... No, that's not right!"
"I didn't die. I time-traveled here from ten years ago. It sounds a little unbelievable, but it's the truth."
"Oh, let's talk about the details later. I can't explain it all in a minute, anyway. You go ahead and do what you need to do. I'll wait for you here."
Zoe Rhodes was very understanding.
She knew that right now, the most important thing was Zane Hawthorne's engagement party.
"I'll go over there..." She pointed to the stairwell, but before she could finish, she was cut off.
The man grabbed her hand and led her away. "Don't go! Come back with me."
"Back? B-back where?" Zoe Rhodes was forced to keep up with him. "Hey, hasn't your engagement party started? Is it really a good idea to leave now?"
"It's canceled."
"What?!"
Zane Hawthorne thought she hadn't heard him, so he repeated, "The engagement party is canceled."
"..."
"Get in."
'He looked like he was about to take her to a mental hospital.'
Zoe Rhodes wanted to say something more, but when she turned back and saw Zane Hawthorne's pale face, she decided against it.
Just as the car started, someone seemed to run after them. Zoe Rhodes pressed against the car window to get a closer look. "I think that's Mr. Vance. Are you sure it's okay to just leave like this?"
She and Zane Hawthorne were childhood friends, so of course she knew Vance. Especially back in high school, Vance had always been the one to handle Zane Hawthorne's parent-teacher conferences, while Ethan Rhodes had always attended hers.
A few times, Ethan Rhodes was away on business and couldn't make it back. Since she and Zane Hawthorne happened to be in the same class, Vance simply attended for both of them.
At the thought of Ethan Rhodes, Zoe Rhodes sighed to herself.
The truth was, she and Ethan Rhodes weren't related by blood at all. She'd only survived this long because her brother had been both a father and a mother to her.
As she recalled, Ethan Rhodes was the stepson of a distant uncle. Due to his awkward position, after something happened to that uncle, her parents took Ethan in to live with their family.
After her parents passed away, the two siblings were left to rely on each other. This continued until just before her college entrance exams, when someone suddenly came to their door and told her that Ethan Rhodes was actually the son of the richest man in Porten, and not her brother.
They insisted on taking Ethan Rhodes back to Porten.
Ethan Rhodes didn't want the matter to affect her college entrance exams, and she, being distraught at the time, didn't want to deal with him. The two fell into an unspoken cold war.
That is, until that night ten years ago. After a month had passed, the two siblings were finally ready to make peace.
But as it turned out, before she could even send the message, she was struck by a car and sent flying.
She now suspected her brother had already gone to Porten.
However—
She repeatedly searched for a few key phrases: "The Kingsley Family of Porten," "the richest man in Porten," and "Ethan Rhodes, son of Porten's richest man."
She came up with nothing.
The figure outside the car window receded into the distance. Zoe Rhodes pulled her gaze away and looked at Zane Hawthorne, who was driving.
Only then did she notice that his hands were trembling slightly as he gripped the steering wheel. The veins on the backs of his hands stood out, as if he were desperately holding something back.
"Zane, are you sick?"
Zoe Rhodes quickly tightened her grip on her seatbelt.
Zane Hawthorne gripped the steering wheel tightly, his eyes fixed on the road ahead, trying to keep his voice steady. "I'm fine."
Zoe Rhodes studied him carefully. Only after making sure his hands weren't shaking as much did she get to the point.
"I went by my house just now. It looked like no one had lived there in ages."
"That's why I came looking for you."
At her words, Zane Hawthorne's Adam's apple bobbed. Amid the clamor of the night, he could even hear his own heart pounding.
His gaze remained fixed on the figure in the passenger seat out of the corner of his eye. He didn't dare blink, terrified that she would vanish into thin air the next second.
A moment later, Zoe Rhodes's next words hit him like a bucket of cold water.
"Um, am I bothering you?"
They hadn't seen each other in so long. Her childhood friend had grown into a capable, independent adult. Zoe Rhodes felt a sense of unfamiliarity, unsure of how to gauge the proper social distance between them now.
"Of course, I didn't plan on finding you today, of all days. Really, it was a complete coincidence."
"I haven't been able to get in touch with my brother since I woke up."
As she spoke, she leaned closer to him, blinking her large eyes, an expectant look on her face. "I just wanted to ask you, do you have my brother's new number?"
"Is he in Porten now? Has he been well all these years? Have you two been in touch lately?"
"..."
The man's breath hitched. As she finished speaking, a sinister coldness flashed through his already bloodshot eyes.
Zoe Rhodes waited for a long moment, but he didn't reply.
She scratched her head, confused. 'Why is Zane back to looking half-dead again?'
"We haven't been in contact."
Perhaps her stare was too piercing. As much as Zane Hawthorne hated to mention Ethan Rhodes, he still responded.
Zoe Rhodes frowned. "Then can you tell me what happened after my car accident ten years ago?"
Zane Hawthorne seemed lost in his memories. After a long while, he replied succinctly, "I couldn't reach you by phone. When I came out of the restaurant to find you, I saw you'd been in an accident."
"The driver was drunk. He received the death penalty."
Zane Hawthorne left out many key details.
For instance, that night, the very first thing he saw upon leaving the restaurant was Zoe Rhodes crossing the street.
She was on her phone, messaging someone, and didn't notice a car suddenly run a red light...
But he had.
And so, he was one of the few witnesses to that car accident.
"So, what about my brother?"
"I scraped my knee at a track meet once, and he was beside himself with worry. He must have been devastated," Zoe Rhodes murmured to herself.
A scoff. An expression Zoe Rhodes couldn't decipher suddenly appeared on Zane Hawthorne's usually emotionless face.
It looked like derision, mixed with a hint of mockery and a sinister chill.
Zoe Rhodes gave him a strange look. She saw his thin lips part as he said coldly:
"Devastated? Perhaps. I heard he's the young master of the Kingsley Family of Porten. After your accident, he didn't hold a funeral for you. He left for Porten a few days later and never came back."
"..."
'It sounded like Ethan Rhodes had abandoned her.'
But Zoe Rhodes didn't feel sad. On the contrary, she was relieved that she hadn't left Ethan with any lasting trauma.
She suddenly fell silent, and Zane Hawthorne started to feel uneasy.
He glanced at her face from the corner of his eye, studying it carefully. Seeing her looking so lost, Zane Hawthorne began to regret his words.
'Right. She cares a great deal about Ethan Rhodes. He'd always known that.'
"Are you... going to look for him?" He gripped the steering wheel, his voice hoarse and flat, as if squeezed from his throat.
Zoe Rhodes nodded. "I have nowhere to go right now. I can't just keep being a 'dead person,' can I?"
'Ethan Rhodes was the only family she had left.'
'For her own sake, and for Ethan's, she had to find him.'
For the rest of the drive, Zane Hawthorne said nothing more. He took Zoe Rhodes to his place.
"You can stay here for now. I..." Zane Hawthorne's brow furrowed slightly, then he quickly added, "I'll figure out a way to help you contact Ethan Rhodes."
"Oh, I couldn't possibly impose." Zoe Rhodes said with a cheeky grin, but her actions betrayed her words as she began to survey her new territory.
"Zane! Can I have the room with the floor-to-ceiling windows? I like looking at the night view before I go to sleep!"
She had always been the type to make herself at home. Especially after confirming Zane Hawthorne was still as kind-hearted as he used to be, she dropped the polite act with him.
After she'd picked her room, Zoe Rhodes realized she was hungry.
Zane Hawthorne's gaze followed her closely. He naturally didn't want to be separated from her right now.
"What do you want to eat? I'll order take—"
He felt around in his pockets, but they were empty.
He took a deep breath, rubbed his clammy palms together, and stood up. "I'm going to the car to get my phone."
Pausing, he turned back, his gaze locked onto her, scorching hot like a summer wildfire. "Don't go out. Just stay here."
"I'll be right back."
"Just sit here and wait for me, okay?"
'He seemed so worried about leaving her alone, as if he wished he could draw a circle on the living room floor and order her to stay inside it.'
Zoe Rhodes was fiddling with the TV remote. At his words, she waved her hand impatiently and urged, "Yeah, yeah, just go and come back quickly! I'm seriously starving!"
Ten minutes later, Zoe Rhodes heard the sound of the door lock and instinctively looked toward the entrance.
"Zane?"
There was no response.
Hesitantly, she got up and walked over.
The entryway light was off. Zoe Rhodes used her phone for light. Before she could see anything clearly, she felt a sudden pain on the back of her neck.
The next second, she passed out.