"What are you staring at, Ethan? There is someone at the door," Shikera chuckled, walking towards the door to open it. Her eyes widened when she saw the person standing there.

"Leonard? What are you doing here?" 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"Will you turn me back at the door if I say nothing?" Was Leonard’s reply, as he pushed the door open and stepped in. He removed his shoes at the doorway and slipped his legs into one of the slippers placed there.

"Good day, Mr DeLoach," he greeted and took his seat directly opposite Ethan.

Ethan didn’t answer him, as he was occupied with looking from Shikera to Leonard with a scrutinizing gaze. The two equally stared back at him, their eyes reflecting their confusion until Ethan went to meet Shikera and pulled her away from the living room.

"What’s wrong?" Shikera whispered.

"You. You are not hurrying to change even when he’s here?" Ethan asked.

"Change what?"

Ethan sighed exasperatedly, raking his hand through his hair as if the matter was a really serious one.

"Don’t make me spell it out, Kera. You are showing my properties to another man," he pointed out shamelessly, looking down at Shikera’s breasts before looking back up at her.

"Your properties, Ethan?" she could not keep herself from laughing, but she composed herself soon after. "I grew up with Leonard and he and Krystal even slept over at my house for some days, so it’s pretty normal between us. Plus it’s not like I am not wearing clothes. You are the perverted one that can make out the real shape of my body beneath my clothes!"

When she saw that Ethan was now speechless, she added,"What is Leonard doing here though?"

"Why? You are not happy to see your childhood friend," he retorted.

Shikera shook her head,"It’s not that. I just don’t know why you keep letting my friends see your face when you were so secretive about it before. I hope I am not the one discomforting you."

Shikera knew inwardly that that was not the entire reason she had asked why Leonard was here. She was partly worried that he had come to tell Ethan of her condition.

"It’s not that. He’s here to train me so you can excuse yourself and go back to your room."

’Back to my room?! You must be joking,’ she laughed inwardly. How would she dare leave those two without trusting Leonard entirely.

"Train you on what?" she asked.

"How to be a doctor," he deadpanned. He walked away from her, and went back to the living room while letting her stay rooted to one spot in shock.

He half expected her to follow him stubbornly but when she didn’t, he shrugged and continued on his way.

On the other hand, Shikera was surprised when she heard Leonard wanted to train him to be a doctor. There was no one worthy of being Ethan DeLoach’s patient and he also wasn’t someone who admired doctors, so she knew without anyone telling her that he was training because of her.

"Why does he like doing so much for me? When I don’t even deserve half..."

The selflessness he displayed whenever anything concerned her always invoked a kind of emotions within her, and they would break all walls of resolve in her heart. Instead of following after him, Shikera turned and walked towards the stairs to go back to her room.

’Just this once...’ she said inwardly, ’If Leonard does not tell Ethan today, then I will take it that fate is backing my plans up.’

★★★

"She is the one! That is Natalia," Liam confirmed, his eyes brightening up at the video that Mrs Mason sent to him. He faced the assistant that was in the room with him and ordered, "Find out where she lives and make sure she is not able to relocate from there until I return."

"Yee Sir!"

He waited until the assistant walked out of the room before releasing a pent up sigh of frustration. His wife, Natalia, was back now but he was still feeling uneasy because he didn’t know why she suddenly came back now. He had searched the nook and crannies of their country and other countries surrounding it for the past 24 years but had failed to find her and now, she was suddenly back and hovering around his family.

"It doesn’t matter why she came back, as long as she can still forgive me," he murmured under his breath. "This is just fate giving me a chance to repay for the sins I have committed against her and her daughter, and I will properly utilize it well."

A determined look on his face, he picked up his phone and dialled Mrs Mason’s number.

"Lu, when next she appears before you, approach her and don’t act surprised that she is alive. Act like you have really been searching for her for a long time..."

★★★

Three hours had passed since Shikera left the two men downstairs, and she was beginning to wonder what they were doing up until this time. It was not like Ethan wanted to be a doctor in one day, right?

"A minute, Esther. I will just go check up on daddy," she excused herself and stood up from Esther’s bed, where the both of them had been huddled together to watch an animated movie.

She went downstairs with a shaky heart, forgetting the resolve she made earlier about not interfering in their training for today. She just wanted to see Ethan and be assured that Leonard was yet to tell him anything.

On getting downstairs, she found them sitting at the kitchen table. Each with a glass of wine and a laptop placed before them, on which they seemed to be watching a movie.

Shikera tiptoed closer to them and listened in on Leonard who was the one talking.

"Since we have gone over some harder techniques today, let’s just round it up with this. Cardiopulmonary resuscitation," he stated.

"Can’t I just watch the video and grasp how to do it?" Ethan asked, and that was when Shikera walked into the kitchen. She went to pick a glass of water before coming back to sit beside Ethan. None of the two men even behaved like they saw her.

"I will prefer that I teach you physically after you are done watching the video. With that," Leonard said, pointing towards a mannequin which was resting against the countertop.

The mannequin had not been here earlier so Shikera presumed it was brought when she was upstairs.

"Ethan," she whispered, frowning when she received no reply from the man. Has Leonard told him already?

"Ethan..." she called again, but was greeted in silence. She would have concluded that Leonard had told him, if Ethan did not suddenly grab her hand under the table while still keeping a straight face as he watched the video on the laptop.

Shikera looked up from their interwined hands under the table to his straight face above, and a mischievous idea suddenly popped into her head. She decided she would act on it, but why was her face suddenly heating up and her palms sweating?

’You can do it, Shikera. He did it for you too that day, right?’ she encouraged herself.

With that, she removed her hand from Ethan’s and placed it on his thighs. He was still wearing his office wears so she could feel the skin under immediately she touched his legs.

Ethan was not shocked as he thought that she was simply placing her hand on his thighs, but he knew how wrong he was when her hand trailed down to the middle of his legs.

His head snapped towards her and without lowering his voice, he asked, "What are you doing, Kera?"