Chapter 504 - A Bad Omen

"Young Master Xi is suffering from fatigue and stress but he will be fine with enough rest. I advise that he should refrain himself from overworking and avoid stress." A middle-aged man doctor said, darting his eyes from Paul to Zoey who were standing in front of him.

Paul heaved a sigh of relief upon hearing what the doctor said. "Are you sure? He wasn't poisoned or anything?" Yet, on the other hand, Zoey was still worried and queried almost immediately.

"Fortunately, it's not." Despite the odd question, the doctor remained calm and shook his head lightly. 

"Gosh…" Upon hearing the reassurance from the doctor, Zoey finally heaved a sigh of relief before turning her head towards the bed. Her eyes softened, flickering with worry as she bit her bottom lip.

"Doctor, this way please." While Zoey was staring at Matthew, Paul perked at the doctor and gestured to him the way. From there onwards, Paul, as usual, would take care of other matters like the prescription and medicines needed.

As they leave the room, Zoey strode towards the side of the bed. When she reached the side of the bed, she swallowed a mouthful of saliva as her eyes were fixed on his face. 'Inigo, don't touch him.' were the words he had said before passing out.

"Why…?" She muttered, her gaze never left his figure even once. Why would he say such things despite being in a bad state? 

Although Matthew's situation wasn't that severe, Zoey wondered why he would say such a thing? Not that she planned on touching Inigo now, but Matthew sounded as if what he was about to say bore great urgency. Couldn't he wait until he recovered? What compelled him to say and 'warn' her not to touch the very person she despised?

"Darling…" Zoey whispered, slowly perching on the edge of the bed. "What's going on?" Her eyes glinted with worry and bitterness. There were just too many questions in her mind right now. Yet, she couldn't get an answer as he was resting.

*****

Hours later, Zoey finally went out of the room where Matthew was resting. Matthew, of course, was still sleeping peacefully. Good thing, his temperature went down drastically unlike this morning. 

"Sis," As soon as she reached the lobby of the mansion, she saw Ivan lazing around. "I heard what happened." He said, not beating around the bush as everyone in the mansion was worried about their boss's condition.

"Where's Angelo?" Yet, Zoey ignored his previous remarks and looked around. Since Matthew was sick, she decided to cancel all her meetings. Fortunately, there wasn't any important meeting for today but there would be in the next few days.

Thus, considering that she needed to tend to Matthew until he was well, Zoey needed to talk to Angelo to brief him on what to do. Yet, by the looks of it, he wasn't around. The only person in here was Ivan, the useless Ivan who knew nothing about Z Image Group's affairs.

"He went out." In a matter-of-fact tone, Ivan answered as he tilted his head to the side. "Sis, are you alright?" He asked, noticing the different vibe emanating from her. 

Slowly, Zoey dragged her feet towards one of the couches and perched across Ivan. "My beloved is sick; do you think I'm fine?" Laced with sarcasm, Zoey answered as she leaned her back against the couch.

"Uh… you're not the one who is sick." Ivan replied, shrugging his shoulders nonchalantly. "Why do you care about him so much? I don't recall you dating him before that bastard Tang guy." Ivan looked around to see if there was someone around. When he was certain no one was eavesdropping, he asked.

Zoey didn't answer immediately. She just glanced at him before tilting her head back and stared at the chandelier. "You wouldn't understand." She muttered under her breath.

"Hmm… I wouldn't, probably." Upon hearing her reply, Ivan nodded his head in understanding. Indeed, no matter what Zoey would say, Ivan wouldn't understand her reasoning. After all, Zoey wasn't as kind as other people think. She was initially selfish and would only bother about things which benefited her.

Ivan would understand it if Zoey was using Matthew's powers, wealth, and influence to her advantage. But, so far, he hadn't seen her taking advantage of the man. If anything, she had been relentlessly rejecting his offer over and over again.

Only now that she was accepting things from Matthew. But all those things were rather simple things and unrelated to the bigger picture. "Say sis," Just then, Ivan's lips parted once again and turned his eyes towards her.

"Hmm?"

"Now that you know that he's involved in such dealings, why don't you tell him more about your plans? He'll be a good ally to make your plans more effective, you know." As usual, Ivan didn't beat around the bush as he spoke his mind. 

To him, if Zoey dragged Matthew into her own affairs regarding Inigo and Cecil, Zoey would be at an advantage. After all, considering that Matthew was a man who stood above others, it would be an easier feat to catch the cunning Inigo.

Talking about two heads was better than one. If Matthew and Zoey worked together, she wouldn't have to worry about her enemy. Things would be a lot better than before. Not to mention, with Nikolai's reinforcement, everything would be easy.

"I know…" This time, Zoey paused as she admitted that Ivan had a point. It was not that she didn't think about it before. However, she knew that one should know less to protect them from the dangers lurking around her. That was her initial plan before she came to know about Matthew's crazy activities.

"So, why aren't you telling him about it?"

Once again, the entire living area fell into nothing but silence. Zoey didn't answer immediately while Ivan patiently waited for her response. 

"I planned to, last night. But…" Her words trailed off as a heavy sigh slipped past her lips. "It seems there's a problem that suddenly resurfaced..." She added, closing her eyes as Matthew's last remarks before losing consciousness repeated in her mind. '.... out of fucking nowhere."