Chapter 178

Cassian and Anastasia strolled down the hospital hallway together, both looking kinda lost.

“What exactly do they expect us to do—have some romantic hospital date?” Cassian said, shaking his head with a grin.

Anastasia was just as confused. Though it hit her that she and Cassian had basically skipped the whole dating thing and gone straight to “I do.” Maybe the parents were worried their relationship needed more foundation, so they were trying to give them some bonding time.

Honestly, Anastasia was into having this one-on-one time.

“I think it’s actually pretty sweet,” she told Cassian.

Cassian smiled. As long as Anastasia was happy, he was down for whatever.

Suddenly, Anastasia caught sight of someone familiar rushing into the maternity wing.

"Hold up, isn’t that Narissa from design?"

“What’s got your attention?” Cassian asked. He’d been totally focused on Anastasia and missed whatever had caught her eye. But he could tell something had shifted in her expression.

Anastasia shook her head. This was someone else’s business–she needed to mind her own.

“Nothing important, let’s keep walking.”

“Sure thing.”

Just as Anastasia was about to move on, she spotted another familiar face hurrying into the maternity ward. She could swear she heard them mention Narissa’s name.

Anastasia tugged Cassian behind a column.

Cassian couldn’t believe they were ducking behind hospital furniture like they were in some spy movie. He looked at her with total amusement, wondering what the hell she’d witnessed that had her acting like they were on some secret mission.

“You know what, forget it. Let’s go,” Anastasia said, shaking her head. She had no idea why she was being so weird about this. She was the one who’d accidentally stumbled into someone else’s drama–why was she more freaked out than the people actually involved?

After another lap around the hospital, Anastasia and Cassian headed back to Elisabeth’s room.

Chapter 24: Wadding to a Tycoon (88.59)

Lancey glanced at her watch. “I should probably head out, but I’m definitely coming back for another chat soon.”

“I’d really like that,” Elisabeth said warmly.

They were acting like old friends who hated saying goodbye.

Anastasia stayed behind with Elisabeth. She asked with genuine curiosity, “Grandma, what were you two talking about for, like, three hours straight?”

She’d figured they’d run out of small talk and things would get awkward pretty fast.

Elisabeth paused, thinking. “You know, I honestly can’t even remember how we got started—we just kept going and going.”

Anastasia assumed Elisabeth and Lancey were from totally different worlds and probably didn’t have much common ground. They were probably just being super polite to each other.

Over the next few days, Anastasia camped out at the hospital with Elisabeth. Cassian had to get back to running his empire, so she was mostly flying solo.

One afternoon while Anastasia was working through her lunch, someone pushed open the door.

Garthan walked in.

“Lunch break? Man, that smells incredible.” Garthan took this exaggerated deep breath, looking like he was about to start drooling.

Anastasia looked up. “Did you eat yet?”

“Nah, been in surgery since, like, 6 AM. Just wrapped up.” He wasn’t exactly being subtle about it.

Anastasia totally caught his drift, but she wasn’t about to take the bait.

She smiled and said, “Oh cool, well I’m actually finished.” She snapped her takeout container shut.

Disappointment flickered across Garthan’s face. “I just wanted to check on your grandmother’s progress.”

“She’s doing really well. Taking a nap right now,” Anastasia replied.

She was basically telling him to bounce, and Garthan was way too smart not to get the message.

He gave this awkward laugh and started heading for the door.

That’s when Elisabeth’s voice drifted over from the bed.