Bacchus Sherwood was right in the middle of a blind date when he got the call. He immediately cut the evening short and rushed to the hospital.
The moment he stepped into the room and saw his younger brother lying in the bed—his face scraped up, dried blood clinging to the corner of his mouth—his heart seized. Kingsley had been perfectly fine when they saw each other last night.
Seeing him enter, Thurston immediately stood up and greeted him respectfully. "Bacchus!"
Bacchus nodded, his gaze never leaving his brother. His voice was grim. "What happened?"
"He went to the boxing gym. I guess he hadn't trained in a while and got rusty."
Thurston explained in a low voice, "The doctor diagnosed him with a concussion and kept him for observation."
"Was he fighting his romantic rival?" Bacchus asked point-blank, skipping the pleasantries.
Thurston shook his head. "No, it was Wyatt Sterling."
He knew that with a man of Bacchus's caliber, there was no point trying to hide the truth.
"His father is the police commissioner, right?" Bacchus asked, his tone unreadable.
"Yeah." Thurston paused before adding, "They claimed it was just a sparring session..."
"You don't get beaten like this from sparring. He was clearly going in for the kill."
Bacchus cut him off, his eyes resting on Kingsley's unconscious face. He couldn't hide his heartache.
Thurston didn't dare argue. He said softly, "Bacchus, you'll have to ask Kingsley for the full story when he wakes up. By the way, Lucy is covering all the medical expenses for this."
What he didn't say out loud was that if they blew this out of proportion, the Sterling family wouldn't necessarily come out on top, and whatever fragile threads were left between Kingsley and Lucy would snap permanently.
At the mention of Lucy's name, Bacchus simply nodded. He turned to Thurston. "I'll take over from here. You can head home."
Thurston rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. "Bacchus, I actually got kicked out of my house tonight, so I don't really have anywhere to be. I might as well stay here and keep Kingsley company."
Bacchus gave him a look, a hint of amusement in his tone. "What, does your wife have you on that short of a leash?"
"She's playing the long game," Lucy sighed with a helpless smile.
"She doesn't have any malicious intentions."
Jane sealed the envelope back up before something else crossed her mind.
"By the way, did that scumbag give Seven anything?"
"Two bank cards, and a black card," Lucy replied.
Jane nodded, her tone resolute. "Since you can't stop him from seeing Seven, you might as well take the money. Otherwise, you're letting him off way too easy."
Lucy nodded in agreement, leaving it at that.
They waited for over an hour before Seven and Molly finally dragged themselves out of the playground, thoroughly exhausted but reluctant to leave.

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