Chapter 9 Why Not

Silas frowned and pinched Luna's chin again, prizing her mouth open. He breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the pill melting on her tongue.

Luna's eyebrows were still bunched. She had no idea why Owen had become so unfriendly. This thought pushed her to tears.

Silas frowned imperceptibly at the tears leaking from the corners of Luna's eyes. He reached out with his gloved hand and roughly wiped them away.

Her cheeks were no longer wet, but her eyes had turned red because of his action.

Silas stood up and went to the living room. He brought back a fever cooling patch and put it on Luna's forehead.

Half an hour later, he checked her temperature again.

Silas breathed a sigh of relief as the thermometer told him that she was now at thirty-seven degrees centigrade. Taking care of Luna was turning out to be more tiring than running a marathon!

Silas took a long look at Luna before walking out of the room. He instructed the staff to cook a bowl of fish porridge for breakfast the next day before making his way to his room.

The banquet downstairs finally came to an end. Nina hung onto Lucy's arm and wondered what had happened.

She had seen Silas go to the lounge, Luna in his arms.

But to her surprise, he had returned to the party soon after.

At the sight of him, Nina had staggered backwards in terror, as if she had seen a ghost.

'What a loser Luna is!' she thought, cursing.

On the one hand, Nina was angry that Luna hadn't succeeded in seducing Silas; on the other hand, she felt strangely relieved that Silas hadn't slept with Luna.

Nina wanted to go to the lounge to look for Luna. She wanted to know who had sex with her.

Before Nina could move away, Lucy grabbed her hand and pulled her back into the crowd. And when she emerged eons later, Nina forgot about looking for Luna.

Since many guests had traveled long and far, the He family had prepared rooms for all of them well in advance.

All the guests who were not in a hurry to return could rest at the villa this one night and go home the next day. Rooms had been arranged for Jake's family in a nearby villa.

"Hasn't Luna come back yet?"

Jake was lying in the bed, Lucy in his arms, when he suddenly realized that he hadn't seen Luna.

"She must have gone to find Silas." Lucy turned off the bedside lamp and snuggled up to him.

"I hope she sleeps with Silas this time. Otherwise..."

Jake didn't think too much about Lucy's words and fell asleep with her in his arms.

The night was beautiful, with nothing to disturb the silence that lay like a blanket over the world.

When Luna woke up, it was already noon.

Her eyes were still drowsy, her lashes trembling as she opened them. She looked up at the crystal chandelier, blinking, confusion shrouding her mind.

Her gaze wandered around the room, before the memory of last night came back to her.

She paled and was about to stand up.

"Ahhh!"

Luna cried out in pain and fell weakly back into the bed.

She felt something on her forehead and reached out to touch it. Then, she found it was a fever cooling patch.

'Did I have a fever last night?' She searched her memory, and gradually, shocking details came back to her. Especially that of her grabbing a strange man's trousers. She was shocked.

'Was the woman last night really me?' she wondered. She still couldn't believe it.

She vaguely recollected Silas placing her in the bathtub. Then, she lost her consciousness. What had happened after that? Why was she here?

Confused, Luna sat up slowly, feeling a dull pain in her thighs. She looked down to check the wounds on her legs.

Her eyes widened in horror as she took in her clothes.

Her clothes! How had her clothes changed?

She was now terrified and on the verge of tears. She didn't dare think about what could have happened last night.

She got out of bed, trying to be gentle with her aching body.

"Ahhh!" A sharp pain shot through her right foot, as if something had pierced it.

She lifted her foot to examine it and saw blood oozing from the sole.

She squinted at the carpet to find shards of glass scattered around on it. She was even more confused now.

Who did this? Was it the mysterious man last night? 'He was so childish!'

Luna picked her way around the glass, shifting her weight to her left foot and tiptoeing on her right, and limped out of the room.

She spotted the mystery man sitting on the sofa, his back to her, and another stranger on the sofa opposite him.

"You are awake!" Malcolm exclaimed as he spotted Luna emerging from the bedroom.

"Good morning," Luna said, smiling embarrassedly as she limped towards the sofa.

It was not until Luna reached the sofa that Malcolm saw her injured right foot. He stood up quickly, helped Luna sit, and lifted her right foot to check the wound.

"Ahhh!" Luna screamed, trying to shrink back from Malcolm's probing hand, but he held onto her foot tightly.

Silas squinted as he watched Malcolm extract fragments of glass from the sole of Luna's foot with a pair of tweezers. It was then that he realized he had forgotten to ask the servant to clean the carpet last night.

Luna glanced at the masked man out of the corner of her eye, anger simmering within her. She muttered, "What a childish thing to do! How could you leave those shards of glass on the carpet?"

Malcolm burst into laughter. She was saying Silas was childish. That was funny.

"There is fish porridge on the table and clothes in the closet. Leave after breakfast," the masked man said, getting to his feet.

Luna was shocked, her gaze landing on the door behind the bookshelf in the corner.

There was a hidden door in this room! She thought, 'Who is this mystery man?'

"Thank you for what you did last night," Luna said before the man was about to leave the room.

Silas paused and smiled, but didn't say anything. He opened the door and entered the study.

Luna looked down at the bowknot that Malcolm had made at the back of her foot and smiled.

"What's your name? And thank you so much for doing this."

Luna shrank back into the sofa, stifling the urge to groan in pleasure at how comfortable it was.

"You're welcome. I'm Malcolm Lu. This is an ointment that I have developed. You should apply it to the wounds on your thighs and foot every night. There won't be any scars,"

Malcolm said, smiling, as he handed her a tube of ointment from his medical kit.

"You should have breakfast now. I need to go attend to something."

"Okay."

Luna waved as Malcolm walked through the door in the corner, medical kit in hand.

She was now alone in the living room.

She didn't want to stay here longer than she could, but knew she had to have breakfast now. Once she went back to the Ruan family, she would have nothing to eat.

She would never treat herself shabbily again. After breakfast, she changed into her clothes and left the villa.

Luna walked out to find a driver and a black Bentley waiting for her.

"Miss Ruan, Mr. Lu asked me to take you back to the Ruan family," the driver said.

Luna's eyebrows shot up. She turned to look at the villa behind her before getting into the car.

On the second floor, Silas stood in his room, his eyes following the car until it was a mere speck in the distance.

"Silas, who on earth is she?" Malcolm asked.

"My fiancee."

Malcolm's exasperation turned to shock.

"Do you want to marry her?"

"Why not?"