Shikera realized immediately that her lies were not going to convince Ethan, so she just did what came to her mind next and opened the car door to sit beside him.

"I missed you, honey," she whispered seductively.

The parking lot fell eerily silent and Ethan and Raymond seemed to have stopped breathing. The latter walked away from the car, giving his boss and his wife the privacy they seemed to need at that moment.

"I uhm...I will just call Cyprian and speak to her for a while," he gave an excuse, walking away from the car.

Ethan waited until Raymond had gone a considerable distance away from the car, before talking.

"You said something, Kera?" he asked.

"It’s Shikera, Ethan, whenever we are out," Shikera commented teasingly, delighted that she had distracted Ethan successfully.

"What’s your view on car sex? You want to—"

Shikera placed a finger on his moving lips, stopping him from speaking any more words. She knew what kind of person Ethan was and was also aware that if she did not stop him, he would probably go on and continue speaking without minding how explicit his words sounded. Sometimes, she wondered if it was his no dating experience that actually gave him that daring confidence he always exuded whenever he was talking, or if it was just his nature. Well, she would not know since she never dated anyone either.

Ethan removed her hand from his lips while staring straight into her brown eyes.

"What are you thinking? If you want to experience that then it would be on another day and another location. Not in a reporter’s den," he stated.

Shikera nodded slowly, feeling a little disappointed even without knowing the reason. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

"What are you doing here though?" she asked, remembering the main question she had wanted to ask since she saw him.

"I came to pick you up," Ethan answered simply.

"Pick me up for what?"

"To take you somewhere."

"Where?"

Ethan stared at her face disbelievingly before answering this time, "To the hospital for your check up. I haven’t learned enough from Doctor Leonard so you still have to go to the hospital."

"Ah..." Shikera trailed off. "Can’t we go tomorrow instead? Since it’s Saturday, it should be perfect, right?"

Ethan shrugged,"It should but since we both are not busy today, we should go now instead. Except you have somewhere to be urgently?"

"No. Not at all," Shikera replied, waving her hand in front of him while knowing she had been defeated. She waited silently for Ethan to call Raymond and when he arrived, he got into the driver seat and drove them out of the parking lot.

The car headed in the direction of Lucian Rays group of hospitals with each of its inhabitants absorbed in their own thoughts. With Shikera thinking of how she had just missed the chance to get the answers she had been yearning for, Ethan was mulling over the report Enoch had given him that morning.

They soon got to the hospital and Ethan alighted together with Shikera, leaving Raymond alone to park the car. They walked through the large revolving doors and headed straight to the elevator at the far end of the lobby, the one which lead straight to the top floor.

Few minutes later, they were sitting in front of Krystal’s desk and waiting for her.

"You said Doctor Leonard is not available too?" Shikera asked the nurse who had just informed them to wait for Krystal for a few more minutes.

"Yes. Actually, all cardio thoracic surgeons are occupied at the moment. You might have to wait for a while before even an intern is free," the nurse replied.

Hearing that, Shikera sighed in relief that her prayers had been answered. She turned to Ethan with a faked reluctant smile on her lips.

"Ethan, why don’t we come back tomorrow? I still need to pick Cyprian up at work so..."

"We will wait, and Raymond will pick your friend up," Ethan opposed, his tone firm.

’Fuck! Why is he so persistent today?’ Shikera screamed inwardly. However, she maintained a stoic expression on the outside and sat back on her chair.

Shikera had thought they would have to wait for long before seeing Krystal, but ten minutes had not passed when a doctor walked into the room. A doctor she was not familiar with.

"Is Doctor Alexander done yet?" she asked.

"No, Doctor Alexander is currently very busy so she asked me to attend to you in her stead. Would you mind following me—" the doctor was replying, when Ethan interrupted her with a question.

"And who are you?"

Shikera tugged at his arm, glaring meaningfully at him before smiling apologetically at the doctor. The lady didn’t seem to mind though as she simply smiled and answered, "Doctor Valerie Racney. It seems you do not believe me because of your status, and I would have called Krystal to confirm but like I said earlier, everyone is busy. She only asked me to conduct the check up for Miss Anderson and then return as fast as I can."

Her long speech had already caused Shikera to be impatient so as soon as the doctor was done speaking, Shikera stood up and walked over to her.

"Let’s just get this over with. You are busy and we are too so let’s not waste each other’s time," she stated, her words directed at the other woman.

"She will be back in ten minutes since it’s not an in-depth check up," Doctor Valerie said to Ethan, leading the way out of the room.

Shikera followed her to the room directly opposite Krystal’s office like she had always done at the previous times when she had come for check up.

"What will we be doing first?" she asked blandly so as to withhold herself from giving off any friendly vibes that might cause the start of a conversation between her and the doctor. For Krystal to have sent the woman here without telling her anything apart from Shikera’s name, then it meant that she could not be completely trusted.

Therefore, Shikera was surprised when she turned to see the doctor offering her a glass of juice. She waved her hand to decline, thinking of excuses she could give.