Queen of Wild Cards novel Chapter 578

She barely had a second to breathe, let alone call Julius. She managed to fire off a few fragmented texts here and there just to confirm she was still alive.

But the grueling hours paid off. After a week of relentless testing and data restructuring, the Embryonic Stem Cell Research Project finally shattered its bottleneck. They mapped out a viable new trajectory and were no longer spinning their wheels in the dark.

Exhausted to her very bones, Stella dragged herself back to her apartment, ran a hot bath, and sank into the water to soak.

She was so bone-tired that she literally fell asleep in the tub.

When she woke up, she was tucked under the covers in her bed—without a stitch of clothing on.

She bolted upright, clutching the duvet to her chest.

What the hell? She explicitly remembered falling asleep in the bathtub. Everything after that was a complete blank.

Had she sleepwalked out of the bathroom, dried off, and crawled into bed naked?

She really had worked herself into a state of delirium.

Just as she was about to reach for her clothes, a tall, familiar figure strolled into the bedroom.

Her jaw dropped. "Julius? What are you doing here?"

Wasn't he supposed to be running a corporate empire in the capital?

Why was he suddenly in Bay City?

"I waited at home for a whole week for my wife to call. I texted you, and you took hours to reply. I was starting to think you didn't want me anymore, so I had to come find you myself."

The man's voice carried a distinct, sulky edge.

"Darling, I was buried in data this whole week. I didn't ignore you on purpose, and I did text you back."

Julius walked over to the edge of the bed and helped her slip into her loungewear. As he buttoned her top, he muttered, "Your texts were so aggressively brief I thought I was getting dumped. One word, maybe two. It was like you were being charged per letter."

"Don't think just because you're young you can abuse your body. You'll regret it when you're older."

"We promised we were going to grow old together. You aren't allowed to break that promise."

He had fully transitioned into overprotective-dad mode, lecturing her with relentless affection.

Ever since that night in the sky garden at the Hilton Hotel, where she forbade him from dying before her, he had become a borderline health freak. He even made Sean Cahill swap the office coffee for herbal wellness tea.

"Yes, Mr. Blackwood. I realize the error of my ways. I'll stick to a strict eating and sleeping schedule from now on. Now eat before it gets cold."

Unable to handle him acting like Errol, she quickly dropped a piece of braised pork ribs onto his plate to shut him up.

"Wait, how did you even get into my apartment?"

The penthouse required a secure keycard for elevator access, let alone opening the front door.