Ethan was in a foul mood, but he still walked inside. This was his house. There was no way he’d let someone else’s presence keep him out.
Natalie was lounging on the living room sofa, scrolling through her phone, texting someone. On the coffee table in front of her sat two boxes of bird’s nest, the cheapest ones she could find after a lot of searching.
As soon as she heard his footsteps, Natalie put down her phone, stood up, and turned to greet him.
“Ethan, you’re back. How’s Isabella?”
She’d come over pretending to be worried about Isabella, so she had to at least ask.
Ethan didn’t answer right away. He walked over, sat on the sofa, and waited for Susan to bring him a glass of water. He took a slow sip before finally responding, his voice flat.
“She’s awake.”
Natalie scooted over to sit next to him.
“That’s good. Is she badly hurt?”
Ethan turned to look at her. His eyes were sharp, colder than she’d ever seen.
“Ethan, why are you looking at me like that?”
Natalie softened her voice.
“You’re scaring me when you look at me like that. It makes me so nervous. Feels like I must have done something wrong.”
“Natalie, do you really care about Isabella?”
“Of course. As soon as I heard you guys had an accident, I came over. I wanted to check on her.”
Ethan pressed his lips together for a moment, then spoke in a low voice.
“She’s in the hospital. If you wanted to see her, why didn’t you go there?”
Natalie was caught off guard and didn’t know what to say. After a few seconds, she replied,
“I heard you were coming back from the hospital, so I thought I’d stop by here first to see you, then go visit Isabella.”
“How long have you been here?”
“Maybe half an hour.”

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