The Wife He Forgot to Marry (Winona and Yule) novel Chapter 549

Mr. Zeller had absolutely no interest in kissing up to Sylvan.

The man had never brought his business any real value, and the restaurant certainly wasn't desperate for his money. Why waste breath flattering him?

Seeing the owner blatantly brush him off, Sylvan let out a furious sneer. "I will never set foot in this establishment again."

With that, he stormed out, dragging Giselle with him.

Giselle walked in silence, completely taken aback by how much respect Winona commanded from the owner. She was absolutely certain it was all because of Stefan's influence.

It just proved how transactional the world really was.

A woman's status was entirely dependent on the power of the man she stood next to.

Her mind immediately started spinning. If she could somehow steal Stefan for herself, that power would be hers.

*

That night, Winona came home from the lab.

She ate dinner, took Biscuit for a walk, and got ready for bed. Stefan still wasn't home.

She tried calling his phone, but it went straight to voicemail.

A cold spike of anxiety hit her, so she dialed his assistant's number.

The assistant answered smoothly, "Mr. Goddard had to catch a last-minute red-eye to Meridia Country for business. He's probably in the air right now and can't answer."

Winona didn't buy a single word of it.

Stefan never took off on a trip without telling her first. This sudden, total silence meant something had gone wrong.

She cut the assistant off. "I'm booking the next flight to the Capital. Tell me exactly where he is."

Caught completely off guard by her intuition, the assistant caved. "He's in the hospital."

Winona hung up, bought a ticket on her phone, and rushed straight to the airport.

She landed in the Capital at 3:00 AM.

Stefan's assistant was waiting to drive her straight to the hospital.

When she pushed open the door to his room and saw Stefan lying completely still in the bed, it felt like a knife had been driven straight into her chest.

"At the banquet tonight, someone slipped a massive dose of Triazolam into his glass," the assistant explained quietly. "He collapsed immediately. We had his stomach pumped, but the doctor said he's going to be completely out for at least three days."

Winona recognized the drug. It was a heavy sedative that forced the body into a deep sleep but usually didn't cause permanent physical damage. That realization finally let her breathe again.

"I'm staying with him. You go get some sleep."

The second they saw Winona, their faces twisted with disgust.

"Winona, you have absolutely no right to be here," Margaret spat.

Winona calmly hit save, closed her laptop, and stood up. Her voice was perfectly steady. "Stefan is unconscious. I have no interest in screaming matches with you right now, Ma'am. I suggest you keep your voice down."

Furious at being spoken to like a child, Margaret's voice rose. "Who do you think you're talking to?"

Karina immediately jumped in. "Even if Stefan is supposedly dating you, you're just a plaything. You are not family. You have zero right to disrespect my aunt like that!"

Margaret snapped her fingers, ordering her bodyguards to drag Winona out of the room.

But Stefan's security detail instantly stepped between them, forming a solid wall around Winona.

Margaret's face went purple with rage. "Are you telling me I can't even dictate what happens in my own son's room?"

Just then, a sharp, elegant voice echoed from the hallway.

"Margaret, who exactly are you screaming at?"

It was Stefan's aunt, Renie Reynolds.

Trailing gracefully behind her was her daughter, Cheryl Goddard.