Holding Eira in her arms, Adelyn tried to remember.
However—
Except for a deep, fragmented dream, she remembered nothing.
Even those scattered fragments were so vague and so incomplete that they made no sense at all.
If she had really been running such a high fever last night ...
Shouldn’t she remember something?
Anything ...
How was it that her entire memory of the night seemed like a perfectly clean slate?
Eira’s sniffles gradually subsided, and she slowly lifted her head to look up at Adelyn from within her embrace.
"Mama ... you’re really alright now?"
Adelyn lowered her gaze to the little girl. Seeing that petite face still filled with worry, she smiled gently.
"Of course, sweetie." She lightly tapped the girl’s nose. "Didn’t you just press your forehead against mine to check my temperature?"
Little Eira paused for a second before recalling what she had done.
Mama’s temperature really did feel normal now ...
... Which meant she wasn’t sick anymore.
But ...
The little girl’s eyes suddenly shifted downward toward Adelyn’s hand, which was still wrapped neatly in white gauze.
She reached for it and held it carefully with both of her tiny hands before asking softly, "Then what about your wound, Mama? Does it still hurt?"
Adelyn raised a brow slightly before her lips curved into a smile. She slowly shook her head. "This wound stopped hurting last night the moment my baby started taking care of me."
She smiled warmly.
"So no ... it doesn’t hurt anymore."
"Really?"
The little girl blinked.
Adelyn gently adjusted Eira until they were sitting face to face.
"What do you think?" she asked with a playful smile.
Then ...
Her eyes drifted toward the bowl of water and the neatly folded damp towels resting beside the bed.
The evidence of last night’s warm care was impossible to ignore.
"Baby ..." she called softly, a hint of disbelief slipping into her voice. "Did you ... stay awake the entire night?"
For a brief moment, Eira looked confused.
She didn’t understand what Adelyn meant.
Adelyn smiled and asked again,
"Did you spend the whole night taking care of Mama?"
Only then did Eira glance toward the glass bowl on the bedside table. She shook her head honestly.
"Eira wanted to stay awake and take care of Mama ..." Her little voice gradually became softer, carrying her secret guilt.
"But after a while ... Eira fell asleep."
The innocent way she admitted it made Adelyn instantly realize something.
The little girl was blaming herself.
Almost instinctively, she reached out and gently cupped Eira’s face.
"It’s alright." Her voice was soft enough to soothe the child’s heart.
"You aren’t old enough to stay awake the whole night taking care of someone."
She smiled lovingly.
"So it’s perfectly fine that you fell asleep. Otherwise..." She lightly tapped Eira’s forehead. "Mama would’ve ended up blaming herself instead."
"You aren’t upset, Mama?" Eira tilted her head to one side.
Adelyn couldn’t help pinching her soft little cheek.
"Why would I be upset?" She chuckled quietly.
"I’m actually happy to see that Little Eira knows damp towels help bring down a fever."
"Eira didn’t know that."
The little girl’s honest confession came so quickly that it caught Adelyn completely off guard.
"Huh?"
Eira shook her head again before patiently explaining, "Eira didn’t know damp towels could help lower Mama’s temperature."
She pointed toward the damp towels.
"Eira was only copying what Dada had been doing all night."
Adelyn blinked.
Surprise slowly spread across her face.
"Your Dada ..."
She looked at Eira.
"He stayed here the entire night taking care of me?"
The little girl paused briefly before nodding.
"Mhm."
She immediately pointed toward the chair beside the bed —a chair that had been there the entire morning but had somehow escaped Adelyn’s notice.
"Dada sat there." Her tiny finger remained pointed at it. "He stayed with Mama all night. He kept changing the towels. He didn’t leave. He only went out this morning."
The girl thought for another second before adding,
"And only after Dada left did Eira wake up."
A lump slowly formed in Adelyn’s throat.
She didn’t know what to say.
Her getting sick like that ... was understandable.
But his staying beside her throughout the entire night ...
Personally taking care of her ...
Wasn’t that going a little too far?
He didn’t have to do any of that.
Yet ...
He still did.
Why?
She was supposedly his girlfriend.
But apart from that one drunken night ...
They had never truly shared anything meaningful that was worth devoting oneself like this.
They weren’t like ordinary couples.
They didn’t spend their days together.
They didn’t go on dates.
They barely even knew each other.
Even if she had lied and claimed she had feelings for him ...
The distance she had maintained ever since that night should have been enough for him to realize there wasn’t much for him to hold on to.
Then ...
Why was he still treating her so well?
Shouldn’t someone like him have kept his distance instead?
Wouldn’t that have been the logical thing to do?
He was the President of The Warren Corporation. Someone responsible for an enormous corporate empire.
Every passing minute of his day should have been worth millions ...
Perhaps even billions.
A man like him shouldn’t have had the time to fuss over something as trivial as her catching a fever.
Yet ...
Leaving behind work that countless people depended on, he had chosen to sit beside her bed ...
Changing damp towels one after another ...
Watching over her like a devoted caregiver.
Why?
Just as she was sinking deeper into her thoughts, a familiar voice suddenly pulled her back to reality.
"You’re awake?"
Almost instinctively, Adelyn turned toward the doorway.
And there he was.
Standing tall against the morning light.
Fresh from his bath, dressed in a dark bathrobe, his damp hair still carrying tiny droplets of water.
He looked composed as always ...
Yet somehow, also slightly rushed.
Almost as though he had hurried through his entire morning routine, just to return here as quickly as possible.
Adelyn found herself staring at him for far longer than she should have.
A thought quietly surfaced in her mind.
Had he really rushed back ...
Why?
Was he that worried for her?