Chapter 163: Misread Connection When Ares finished drying my hair and walked to grab something, I took his shirt from the chair and put it on. I was in the middle of rolling it down when Ares faced me, holding my lingerie. He paused, eyeing as his shirt stopped mid-thigh. He stood there for almost a minute, not saying a word, and his face was hard to read. I did something wrong, didn’t I? "I can take it off..." I was about to do that when his words stopped me. "Leave it." My hand dropped to my sides, pulse racing when he came closer, tossing the lingerie on the bed. "You’re not mad?" I asked. "I’m sure no one has worn your um..." I cleared my throat. "Clothes before." "No one has." I exhaled heavily. "Am I an exception?" "Yes, you’re." I smiled as my heart skipped a beat. Realizing I was showing far too much joy over this, I dropped it. "Food!" Ares blinked at my outburst. "Better get those hands to work, honey." Ares scoffed, walking to the door. Wait, was that—! ~☆~ A plate of food was placed in front of me. "Wow! This looks good." "Finish that..." Ares instructed as he took a seat. "Where’s yours?" I asked when I didn’t see his plate. "I’m not hungry." "That sounds a lot like me..." I took some eggs with the spoon and brought them to his lips. "Say Ahhh!" "..." "Nevermind." I brought it to my lips and took a bite. Ares was really serious when he said he had no appetite. He watched me eat the entire time until I grew uncomfortable with his stare, probably because I was a mess of nerves. "Can I ask a question?" I began. "It has to do with our earlier disagreement." Ares frowned. "That conversation is over." I felt my annoyance lock in, but I did my best to set it aside. "Yes, it is. Can you at least tell me why you set that rule? I get it that you want control, but it’s starting to feel that this is more personal, and I want to understand..." I trailed off when his expression turned icy. I felt stupid for bringing this up again, but I actually thought that we had a connection and that somehow it would—! God, what was I thinking? I had clearly got ahead of myself there, and now it seemed like I was a desperate bitch. Did I honestly think Ares King would actually make use of his heart rather than his brain? That for a moment there was... hope? I misread him then... that moment we shared may have been everything to me, but to Ares it was always about the sex contract. My phone rang, distracting me. I hadn’t realized it was on the table until now. I grabbed it. It was Granny calling. I picked without a moment to waste, stepping out for privacy. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎 "Granny?" I heard sobs, and my heart dropped. "G-Granny, what happened?!" ~☆~ "Catherine." I broke out of my thoughts and moved my gaze to Ares. "We’ll soon get there." "How soon?" I asked, my legs bouncing up and down impatiently as I looked out the window. "Very. You need to relax." "I can’t..." I admitted, trying to keep my panic from skyrocketing. "Thanks for the lift. Using the airlines would have made me lose it. There’s no need to wait around when you drop me off, I’d just find my way back after—" "Catherine." He cut me off. "I’m not letting you go alone." "You don’t have to..." I whispered, on the verge of tears, but crying wasn’t gonna help me right now. "I want to." I sobbed, looking away, bidding the time we would be at Rosevale. It was torturous, and when we finally got there, it was already dark. The drive to the hospital was worse for me; I didn’t even know when the tears started falling, and I’m already crying. The instant I felt Ares’ hand slip in mine, I gripped tightly. When we pulled up at the hospital, I rushed out, hurrying up the stairs and pushing through the door straight to the nurse’s station. "I-I’m here for Walter Lane, he was brought in yesterday..." I said, sobbing, and trying to speak properly without stuttering. The nurse typed on her computer. "He’s in room 312." I released a breath before rushing out to the room. I passed about two lobbies before I found the room, and pushed open the door. Granny turned her head to me. "Oh, pumpkin!" She rose and embraced me tightly. "I’m so so sorry, I got here as fast as I could." "You’re here now, that’s what matters. I’m sorry I pulled you out like that and—" "No, no, no! I’d drop everything, you hear me? Everything." "Will you two stop? I’m not dead." I moved my teary gaze to Gramps. I used the back of my hand to dry my tears as I neared him. "You nearly gave me a heart attack, I thought—" "Thought what, huh? That I was gonna leave the love of my life and my precious granddaughter alone?" I ran a hand through my hair. "You’re okay..." "Yes, I’m fine. Maggie panicked too much. I only fainted, and the doctor says I just need rest." "He’ll be on medication now..." Granny said, wrapping her knitted sweater around herself more. "Don’t worry, I don’t need those. I’m as healthy as a horse." "Healthy as a horse? Gramps, you strapped to those machines like a lab rat and—" "Did you just call me a lab rat...?" I gave him a look. "You know what I mean." "Firstly, this body won’t do any good to science even if they hook me to these things. Darling, what was that movie we watched again? About human experiments or something." "Don’t remind me about that. I told you I don’t like that movie." "The point is, I’m too healthy to be used for science." He tried to sit up. "Ah, dang it!" "Gramps!"