Filed to story: The Regretful Billionaire: An Unpredicted Reunion
Although he was not Evan’s confidant, he probably was aware of the strange situation, more so after learning about Evan’s intentions from Eustace. Many things that were previously incomprehensible to him finally made sense. He explained everything in detail to Danika without hiding anything.
Danika went completely silent as Trey’s story was too shocking for her to refute.
After a while, she looked at Eustace in a daze and asked, “How do I know he’s not one of your men?”
The T ruth
Eustace smiled bitterly, feeling uneasy. ‘Danika, do you think I would do something like this? You could have easily investigated and found out about everything. Would I do something like this?”
If Trey were indeed working for him, with Danika’s current abilities, it wouldn’t be difficult to uncover his true identity.
“Miss Zellweger, I have a few photos here that should convince you of my identity.” Trey handed his phone over, his main objective now being to prove his identity.
Danika took the phone and looked through the photos one by one. They were all pictures of Trey and some other people, presumably his comrades, as he’d mentioned before. Shortly after, Danika saw a familiar person in the photo-Howard.
Trey and Howard seemed to have a good relationship, as there were several photos of them together. In the last picture, Danika saw Evan. Of course, it was just a back view, but she could recognize it was him.
“Evan doesn’t like taking pictures and doesn’t like others leaking his identity, so I took this photo of his back without him knowing. But if you’re familiar with him, you should be able to recognize him,” Trey explained.
Danika didn’t say anything, but her eyes were already reddened. She didn’t want to believe that this was the truth. Though she could say that the evidence presented by the doctor before couldn’t prove anything significant, what about now? Could she continue to be blind to the facts and say it had nothing to do with Evan?
Eustace waved his hand at Trey, signaling that he could leave. After he left, Eustace said, “When I first found out that he’d saved you and would have to spend the rest of his life in a wheelchair, I was actually very grateful to him.
I had no doubts about him then. It was only when he suddenly asked you to take care of him later on, coupled with him asking you to move to his villa, that I found it strange. Then later, when I brought in Dr. Gaarder, Evan refused to be examined. That was when I became even more suspicious.”
After saying that, Eustace paused for a moment before recounting what had happened that fateful day. ‘Now that I think about it, when Evan called me over that day, he was probably trying to set me up.”
“Set you up? For what reason?” Danika asked as she came back to her senses.
“For one, it could make you hate me even more, and…” Eustace paused for a moment before continuing, “It’s to prepare you for going abroad. He knows very well that he is disadvantaged in the country, and it’s very likely that I will secure incriminating evidence against him, so he wants to leave. But you definitely wouldn’t want to leave the country with him just like that, so he planned that scene, killing two birds with one stone.’
By then, Eustace had understood everything. Evan was wrong to assume that he could outsmart everyone else.
The whole matter that came to light was too shocking for Danika, and she couldn’t accept it for a very long time. “Why did Evan do this?”
“You should know.” Eustace looked at her with a complex expression.
Danika was stunned and understood instantly. Had he done all that just to be with her? She smiled and found it ridiculous.
“If you still don’t believe me, observe Howard closely. He came to kill Trey last night, but I hit his right arm. You can see if there’s a wound on his arm.’ Eustace provided another piece of evidence.
Danika nodded. Not only would she observe Howard, but she would also investigate on her own. She had never doubted Evan before, so the thought of investigating him had never crossed her mind, even if Eustace kept suggesting it.
But now, the seed of doubt was planted. If she didn’t look into it thoroughly, she wouldn’t be able to sleep at night.
The Human Heart Is Hard to Fathom
On the way back, Danika leaned against the car window without saying a word. Eustace looked at her with concern and asked, “What are you thinking about?”
“It’s nothing. I just feel that the human heart is really hard to fathom,” Danika sighed. The Evan she remembered seemed to have completely disappeared. What stood in front of her now was the leader of a notorious mercenary group from abroad. She’d finally learned about Evan’s true identity from Eustace.
How could she not have known that he was the leader of mercenaries? Danika struggled to come to terms with how she’d never noticed something so major about him before.
Suddenly, the car stopped, and Eustace looked at her with a serious expression. “Not everyone is like him. At least I will always be sincere with you.”
Danika looked at him and smiled slightly. “Maybe.”
She suddenly felt like she couldn’t trust anyone.
Eustace was unhappy. He reached out to hold Danika’s face and kissed her without hesitation. ‘This is punishment for not trusting me.”
Danika tried to push him away a few times, but it didn’t work, so she let him do as he pleased without resisting. The kiss lasted for a long time, and both of them blushed.
“Now that this matter is resolved, let’s get married.” Eustace didn’t want to wait any longer. He was afraid that something else might happen in the future.
Shocked by his sudden proposal, Danika said, “I’m not even your girlfriend yet, and you want to marry me? Eustace, you’re moving too fast.”
She thought that even if Eustace confessed his love, he should at least ask her to be his girlfriend. But he went straight to marriage.
“I think we know each other well enough to skip the dating phase and go straight to marriage. This way, no one will ever covet you again in the future.” Eustace thought doing that made a lot of sense, but Danika was hesitant.
“If you asked me to be your girlfriend, I might consider it, but as for marriage…I’m not considering it at the moment.” They got married right away last time before ever getting to know each other better. Danika had been bothered that she’d never gotten to experience how it felt to date someone for real.
Now that Eustace wanted to do the same thing all over again, she wasn’t keen on that idea. She wanted to enjoy being in love and dating someone. After all, she was quite envious of Jade’s public display of affection on social media.
Eustace chuckled and asked helplessly, “So, does that mean you agree to be my girlfriend?”
Danika was stunned and was a bit slow to react.
“Danika…will you be my girlfriend?” Eustace asked.
After keeping mum for some time, Danika gave an ambiguous response, not exactly rejecting Eustace. “Let’s wait until Evan’s matter is resolved first.”
She had to make sure that all of it was indeed Evan’s plan. What if his injuries were real?
Eustace wasn’t discouraged, as he was confident in himself. “Okay.”
“Where are we going?” Eustace restarted the car and looked at Danika.
“Bardoff Hospital,” Danika uttered slowly. She would figure out whether everything was true or not.
Eustace started the car and quickly drove to the hospital entrance. He wanted to tag along, but Danika refused him. “There’s so much going on with the Quinceys, so you should take care of that. I’m not that weak. I can handle this myself.”
“Sure,” Eustace agreed, ‘but please don’t get into an argument with Evan, especially not with Howard.’
He was afraid that Danika might be in danger. Even though Evan wouldn’t harm her, the same couldn’t be said for Howard. Danika’s expression became serious; she understood the meaning behind Eustace’s words. “I understand. You should go now.”
After watching Danika enter the hospital, Eustace got back in the car, started it up, and left. Danika was right; there were still many things that he needed to take care of with the Quincey family. He had to deal with them first before he could have the energy to deal with Evan.
He was sure that Evan wouldn’t give up so easily after being exposed.
There might be a tough battle ahead, but this time, Eustace believed he would emerge as the winner.
Sorry for Making You Worry
In the hospital room, Danika pushed the door open and found Evan leaning against the bed with a pale face. In the past, Danika would have felt very sorry for him, but now, she didn’t feel guilty for the state he was in as she knew he was pretending to be ill. She even had the urge to expose his pretense then and there. However, she restrained herself and glanced at Howard standing beside him. She had to come up with a way to test him.
“Danika, weren’t you busy with something? Why are you here now?” Evan asked and smiled at her.
Danika suppressed her emotions and walked toward him. ‘I finished my work, so I came to see you.”
“Sorry for making you worry,” Evan said with a guilty expression.
His words moved Danika. She couldn’t believe that the person in front of her was pretending. If he was acting, he was excellent at it. In her opinion, he was even better than the top actor who won the academy awards.
Danika walked to his bed and said with a faint smile, “Evan, don’t say that. You’re in this state because you saved me. If anyone should apologize, it should be me.”
Neither of them mentioned the issue of going abroad. Both Danika and Evan were able to remain calm about the matter, but Howard couldn’t.” Miss Zellweger, have you thought about it? Will you go abroad with Evan? The doctor has said that the sooner he gets the treatment, the better it will be for his condition.’
Evan looked at him disapprovingly and ordered, “Shut up and get out.’
“But-” Howard was unwilling to leave.
“Get out!”
Seeing that Evan was a bit annoyed at that point, Howard had no choice but to leave for the time being.
As soon as he took a step forward, Danika suddenly grabbed his right arm, causing him to feel a sharp pain and break out in a cold sweat. However, he didn’t cry out in pain but instead looked at Danika and pretended as if nothing had happened. “What are you doing, Miss Zellweger?”
“I was delayed in the morning and didn’t have breakfast. Could you please help me buy some food?” Danika then let go of Howard’s arm, smiled at him, and turned to face Evan as she added, “Evan, I don’t think you’ve eaten either.”
Howard looked at Evan, who nodded. “Okay. I’ll go now.”
After he left the ward, Danika took the opportunity to sit beside Evan. “Do you feel any discomfort anywhere?”
“No, I’m fine. Don’t listen to what Howard said. Even if I don’t go abroad, there won’t be any problems.” Evan shrugged nonchalantly, trying hard to act like nothing was wrong.
But Danika’s heart sank tremendously upon hearing his words. If there was nothing wrong, why bring up going abroad? He was reminding her about it discreetly on purpose.
Thinking back now, Danika found Evan was constantly trying to manipulate her with his words. It was just that she’d trusted him too much before and didn’t think too much about it. But it was different now.
Do You Think She Didn’t Notice?
The result was obvious. Danika didn’t see any guilt on Evan’s face. Instead, she saw happiness. “Danika, thank you,” he said.
Danika looked at him, feeling somewhat unfamiliar. “Evan, you don’t need to thank me. You got injured because of me. Even if that wasn’t the case, I wouldn’t just sit back and do nothing. You’ve been so good to me and never lied to me. How could I not agree to this, right, Evan?”
Danika was testing him. Evan’s expression faltered visibly, as if he had sensed something amiss but wasn’t sure of it. “Of course, how could I lie to you?” he replied.
“Really? You didn’t lie to me at all?” Danika scoffed internally and couldn’t help but smile bitterly. At that moment, she would rather follow Evan abroad willingly than believe he’d been deceiving her all along.
Howard came back with breakfast shortly after. He didn’t know what the two had talked about, but Evan instructed him, “Go get prepared.”
“Prepare for what?” He was a little confused.
“For going abroad,” Danika answered him.
Howard was stunned again as he wondered, “What? I thought Danika hadn’t agreed yet when I went out. What did they talk about when I wasn’t here?”
