Don't Be a Tease, Mr. Blackwood

Chapter 174: Chapter 174: He’s Fine, He Won’t Die

Nina Halloway was terrified.

"Ethan, what’s wrong?"

Her first instinct was to call for an ambulance.

"The medicine..."

With his last shred of consciousness, Ethan Austin stared intently at the box of medicine on the coffee table—the one Nina Halloway had given him.

"The medicine?"

Nina Halloway quickly looked at the box. "There’s nothing wrong with the medicine! It’s for stomach problems!"

The angle of the box on the coffee table allowed Ethan to see the expiration date perfectly.

It was five years out of date.

’This woman is impossible!’

’Maybe check the expiration date before feeding someone medicine next time, huh?’

’This is going to be the death of me...’

Ethan’s body twitched twice before he passed out, knocked unconscious by the sheer exasperation he felt toward the scatterbrained young miss who had the makings of a stone-cold killer.

The moment his eyes closed, Nina Halloway burst into tears. "Ethan, don’t die! Please don’t die!"

She sobbed as she dialed the emergency hotline.

The paramedics arrived quickly and loaded Ethan onto a stretcher.

Forgetting everything else, Nina Halloway followed the paramedics downstairs and climbed into the ambulance.

Ethan was wheeled into the emergency room, and she sat alone outside, waiting anxiously. Her makeup was ruined by her tears, and she kept trying to call Anne.

But the call wouldn’t go through.

Anne had long since passed out drunk.

Sophie Shaw was in an even deeper sleep than Anne. Nina’s calls to her rang, but no one ever picked up.

In her haste to leave, Nina Halloway hadn’t grabbed a hat, a mask, or even a coat. She was still wearing a pair of indoor linen slippers.

A passerby filmed her sitting dejectedly outside the emergency room, crying while on the phone, and uploaded the video to the internet.

Before Ethan had even come out of the emergency room, a huge crowd of reporters had already swarmed the hospital.

Nina Halloway was surrounded by the sea of people, camera flashes going off as they shoved their lenses right in her face...

Faced with the unusually excited group of reporters, she felt helpless to resist, simply letting them point their cameras at her.

A moment later, she asked a few of the reporters crowded at the front, "Are you done taking pictures?"

Her tone was surprisingly polite.

Her question left the reporters stunned for a second.

The chaotic scene gradually quieted down after Nina Halloway spoke.

"If you’re done, can you leave now? This is a hospital. Don’t cause a scene and disturb other people. If you continue to block the way, I’m going to call the police."

The reporters looked at each other. They had gotten all the footage they needed; maybe it really was time to go.

"Miss Halloway, can you please tell us who is being treated in there?"

"Can you reveal anything at all?"

Nina Halloway fell silent. She had no comment.

Seeing that she wasn’t going to talk, the reporters cleared out of the hallway in no time.

She hesitated, wondering if she should call Alaric Blackwood, but it was already very late. After thinking it over, she decided against it.

The other bodyguards Alaric Blackwood had assigned her only worked the day shift. At night, Ethan was her only personal bodyguard, and she didn’t feel right summoning everyone in the middle of the night.

She wiped at her tears, smearing her face into a mess.

After what felt like an eternity, the light above the emergency room door went out, and a doctor walked out.

Nina Halloway quickly got up and ran over. "Doctor, how is Ethan?"

"We pumped his stomach. He’s out of danger, but he’ll need to stay for a day of observation. You can go handle the admission procedures for him."

Nina Halloway let out a breath of relief. Her knees went weak, and she nearly collapsed onto the floor.

’As long as he’s not dead.’

When she saw the medical staff wheeling Ethan out of the emergency room, she happily trotted off to take care of the admission paperwork.

Thankfully, it was late at night and the hospital wasn’t crowded. She managed to get Ethan admitted without causing any more major disturbances.

Ethan woke up in a daze. Outside, the sky was already beginning to lighten.

He found himself in a hospital bed—in an incredibly expensive private room. Startled, he was about to sit up when he noticed Nina Halloway slumped over the side of the bed, clutching his hand.

She had fallen asleep. Her makeup was a mess on her small face, which was still streaked with dried tears.

Remembering what happened last night, he thought, ’The young miss must have been terrified, huh?’

He glanced around. They were the only two in the room, with no guards at the door. He was a little surprised. ’Wouldn’t someone of Nina Halloway’s status cause a huge commotion by showing up at a hospital?’

The truth was, Nina Halloway had been a trending topic since two in the morning.

The "unflattering photos" of her with cameras shoved in her face and her makeup ruined by tears had already hit the headlines of every major entertainment news site.

Nina Halloway couldn’t care less, and neither could her manager or the agency whose contract with her was expiring in a few days. They had no intention of doing any PR for her, letting the topic ferment online.

By now, the topic had reached the top of the trending list, sparking heated discussions.

The irresponsible headline read: [Nina Halloway Appears at Hospital ER in Early Hours, Sobs Uncontrollably, Close Relative Suspected to Be Critically Ill]

Ethan was wearing a hospital gown and couldn’t find his phone, completely unaware of the public outcry the trending topic had stirred up online.

He gently nudged Nina Halloway’s shoulder. "Wake up."

"Hmm?"

Nina Halloway blinked her drowsy eyes open. When she looked up and saw he was awake, her eyes immediately reddened.

"Ethan, are you still feeling sick?"

Ethan was tough as nails. Aside from a slight discomfort in his stomach, he didn’t feel any other ill effects.

He gave Nina Halloway a helpless smile. "I’m fine. Not dead yet."

"You scared me to death! I thought you were about to kick the bucket."

Seeing that she was about to cry again, Ethan quickly tried to soothe her. "It’s no big deal. I just took the wrong medicine, that’s all."

Speaking of medicine, Nina Halloway still didn’t understand why Ethan had been foaming at the mouth. The doctor had only said they’d pumped his stomach, without giving a specific reason.

"It couldn’t have been a problem with the noodles I made, right?"

She had eaten the same noodles, and she was fine, despite not being in the best of health. How could a bowl of noodles take down a guy as sturdy as Ethan?

Her mention of the noodles made Ethan think back carefully. He realized that while they had eaten from the same pot of noodles, there was one thing she hadn’t eaten.

The fried chicken in the noodles.

She had said it was too greasy and picked it out, putting it in his bowl. So he had eaten a double portion of fried chicken.

Thinking about how the fried chicken was leftover and had been in the fridge, he figured it was probably spoiled and had given him an upset stomach.

"It wasn’t your fault."

Ethan reassured her again.

The more he insisted it wasn’t her fault, the worse Nina Halloway felt.

She stood up and threw herself into Ethan’s arms. "I’m sorry. I won’t make you noodles anymore."

"..."

’It really wasn’t the noodles’ fault.’

"The medicine from last night was expired." Ethan patted her slender back, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "You have to be more careful next time. It’s a good thing you weren’t the one who took it."

Given Nina Halloway’s delicate constitution, if she had accidentally taken medicine that was five years expired, she probably would have been half-dead.

"The medicine was expired?"

Nina Halloway looked up at him, her face a mask of shock.

"By five years."

"..."

"It’s not a big deal. I’m tough. I can handle it."

"I didn’t do it on purpose."

After saying that, Nina Halloway hugged Ethan again.

She was so close, her soft body pressed tightly against him. Ethan’s heart began to beat uncontrollably fast.

"Boss."

"I told you to call me sister."

"Ahem, sister..."

’He had his own sister, and there was also Sophie, whom he called sister. The word came to him so easily with them. But why, when he said it to Nina Halloway, did calling someone ’sister’ feel so... different?’