The Billionaire's Rental Wife Is A Hot Shot

Evelyn’s eyes widened in shock. She’d expected him to be resentful, angry to see her here—certainly not this. The weight of his request crashed over her, making her heart clench as it wasn’t just a matter of business; it was a plea from a man who had been a significant part of her life, who had been both her mentor and tormentor.

A silence fell over the room, heavy with the weight of William’s words. Sophia quickly came out of her shock and stepped forward, pushing Evelyn to the side, away from William’s eyes.

"You must have mistaken her for Anna, honey," Sophia said, taking a seat beside him while Evelyn stumbled behind, Elias quick to support her. Holding onto his hand, she continued, "Anna is right here. She will take over the company, your daughter will fill your place, don’t worry."

William’s eyes shifted to Annabelle standing by the edge of his bed and then to Evelyn beside his son. For a fleeting second, he felt like he saw Gracia in Evelyn, his heart expressing the worst fear he had on his deathbed. Sophia quickly leaned even further, blocking Evelyn completely out of his sight, and forced him to wear the oxygen mask, coaxing him to sleep again.

Zevian who had just returned, leaving the transfer process in Damien’s hand walked to Evelyn and stood beside her. "What’s wrong?" He asked, gently holding onto her hand.

His touch brought Evelyn out of her daze and she slightly shook her head. It must be because of the medications, she thought watching as William closed his eyes. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

"Dr. Stacy said his first attack was mild unlike what his personal doctor exaggerated." Zevian gave the good news, his low voice sending a shiver down Sophia’s back. "He would be able to recover well under proper care."

"That bastard must be riling for money," Elias fumed in frustration, not aware that his mother was the bitch behind all this mess, pretending to have put William’s life at stake to reach her goal quickly.

Annabelle simply stared at Sophia, who had no intentions of leaving William. This would not help what seemed like a reconciliation between the father and his adopted daughter. Though William despised Evelyn because of all the strings they had pulled, he still had a soft spot for her, which Sophia hadn’t let him open up about for years.

"Why don’t you go home and rest, Mom? You must be devastated and we will take care of Papa," Annabelle suggested, her words making Sophia grit her teeth.

Sophia rejected the offer with a small smile and added, "No, darling. You should be the one resting at home. You are pregnant and we can’t afford any more risks."

"Why don’t you both go and rest?" Elias suggested, feeling like these women should be at home rather than here, ready to pick on Evelyn again. When Sophia stubbornly shook her head, he forced her to get up and pushed her toward the door.

"I and Evy are here to take care of him, Mom. You should go home with Annabelle!" Elias repeated, gesturing Annabelle to tag with his mother.

"And since you argued so much that he ended up collapsing, I don’t think it’s a great idea to be here when he wakes up." He babbled, creating a perfect opportunity for Evelyn to be alone with William, even if she hated it.

"But, what if he gets angry seeing her?"

"Oh, I will handle it! Don’t worry!" Elias replied to Sophia, pushing her out with Annabelle’s help. Once they were out, he locked the door and sighed out loud.

"Ah, it feels nice to not have pests around," Elias murmured, dusting his hands off and turning around to smile at his sister. Evelyn broke into a small smile and shook her head at his antics. Her eyes shifted to William fast asleep on the bed, his earlier thoughts, the affection in his voice still reeling in her mind.

"He will be fine, don’t worry," Zevian murmured, pressing onto her hand gently.

Elias walked back to them and nodded in agreement. "Yeah! I hope he does recover quickly and takes over his position. I can’t handle that boiling volcano."

"It’s way easier than sitting and playing games all night, Eli," Evelyn replied sarcastically, causing Elias to sneer at her.

Zevian broke into a smile as the siblings started bickering among themselves. Evelyn seemed to be feeling a little lighter, and he just hoped things to work out between the two so she could openly ask him about her birth secret. Damien had suspicions about what Farah said, and everything seemed to fall just like she had mentioned, and only William could confirm if Evelyn was truly his fake daughter, adopted to replace his dear one.

Damien returned just then with the doctors’ team from Berina Hospital. They quickly briefed the patient’s children about his condition, on how his health had been deteriorating because of getting treated with the wrong medications.

"But Dad had been under his care for years," Elias grumbled, still blind to his mother’s true face. He could only further curse the doctor whom Damien assured them had his license canceled and they have also filed a report against him.

"It will be better if we move him to our hospital, we will be able to be more cautious and help him recover completely."

Evelyn nodded in response, feeling the need to keep William right under her eyes. Zevian’s team would always be surrounded by the hospital and she would make sure Sophia didn’t try anything funny on him again.

At her permission, Zevian quickly asked his team to go with the transfer process and shift William to Berina. Since it was one of their affiliated hospitals, he would make sure nothing would go wrong again.

———

The next morning, William slowly woke up after what felt like a long sleep. For some reason, he felt a lot lighter, unlike the past few weeks when his brain would explode the moment he opened his eyes.

His eyes scanned around the unfamiliar room and fixed on a cute little girl standing right beside him. She had propped her hands, her little head resting on them as she observed him with her bright doe-eyes.

"Oh, you are up!" Kiana murmured with a smile, her ginger voice soothing William’s heart.

"Who are you, little girl?" William asked, slightly turning toward her, His hand was still pricked with the IV, instruments attached to his chest to monitor his vitals.

Kiana grinned at his question and replied, "Your granddaughter."

William broke into a small smile as the girl cutely introduced herself, tilting her head to meet his eyes.

"And what’s the name of this granddaughter of mine," William asked with a small smile.

"Kiana Reign. Everyone calls me Kia, and you should too." Kiana replied, her smile never leaving her eyes.

William’s smile faded as he heard the surname but it lifted her when she demanded him to call her Kia. So, she was Zevian’s child, he thought in his head.

Just then, the door swung open and Evelyn entered with Avery beside her. She stood in her spot, her eyes locking on William who was awake, and the familiar awkwardness built between them.

"Doctor!" Avery beside her shrieked, running out of the room to fetch a doctor though they could ring the bell using the button.

"Mommy!!" Kiana cheerfully said, jumping down the chair and running to Evelyn.

Evelyn squatted down and hugged her daughter, a smile spreading on her face as Kiana talked about how she had been taking care of her grandfather while Zevian had gone out for a minute.

The doctor with his team quickly walked inside, Zevian following behind closely. Evelyn had gone home to freshen up and prepare something as doctors had said he would wake up soon, while Elias who was up all night was resting in another room, soundly asleep.

"Glad to see your vitals are normal, Mr. Wright." The doctor said with a beaming smile, having seen a slight improvement ever since they changed the medications.

William simply nodded, a little awkward just like Evelyn as the doctor briefed him on what happened since his collapse in his room.

"We are still finding the right cause for it, but you should be thanking your daughter. She noticed something was off and asked us to change the treatment plans completely." The senior doctor said with a smile, explaining how Evelyn had pressed them to take care of him well.

Once the team left after checking his vitals, Avery realized the need for just the two of them to talk and nudged Zevian to walk outside.

Zevian nodded and scooped Kiana from Evelyn’s arms. "Let’s go and grab something to eat, Kia."

"But I want to spend more time with my new grandpa!" Kiana grumbled with a small pout, her words bringing a smile to William’s face.

"Well, you can spend the entire day with him, sweetie. Let’s fill our tummy first so you have the energy to talk with him," Avery coaxed and Kiana nodded eagerly. Zevian nodded at Evelyn before walking out and closing the door behind them.

A tense silence filled the room, both were awkward on how to start a conversation. Evelyn clutched the box in her hand tightly, wondering if he would even eat the porridge she had made, trying her best to make it like her grandmother.

"Thank you." William finally spoke, his tone rather gentle unlike the rage filled voice she had been used to from the couple of months. It felt like her papa who used to be nice to her when Gracia was still alive was back.