Chapter 166: Family Scheme

She stopped several feet away.

Daniel caught up with her, but before he could say anything, Lexie rounded on him.

"You’re his best friend! You’re his best friend, babe. You see it, don’t you?"

Daniel glanced toward Dorian’s room before lowering his voice. "Maybe we assume something is there because they’re good at showing that there is. They had a contract. Part of the entire thing was obviously making everyone believe the marriage was real."

"That doesn’t explain everything."

"We don’t spend the entire day with them," Daniel continued. "We don’t really know what happens privately."

"I know my brother. This... this is even worse than when he was with Lillian."

"I wasn’t around for most of that."

"I know you were in France then, but trust me. I remember him with her."

Dorian had loved Lillian openly once.

Before betrayal had taught him to lock everything down so tightly that even his own family struggled to know what he felt anymore.

"But this is different," Lexie said.

"How?"

"I don’t know how to explain it."

Daniel gave her a patient look. "That usually means you’re guessing."

"Dammit!" She reached into her pocket and pulled out her phone.

Daniel watched as she tapped across the screen with increasing determination.

"I saved the clip from the forum." Lexie found the video and opened it. "Everyone was looking at her during that forum, Daniel." She held the phone between them.

Naomi appeared on the screen, standing in front of the reporters and defending Dorian with that now-famous speech.

Daniel had seen the clip before.

Naturally, his attention had always gone to Naomi because she was the one speaking.

"Everyone watched Naomi because she was the one giving the speech. Pay attention to Dorian."

Daniel watched the video again, except this time he followed Lexie’s instructions and barely looked at Naomi.

Instead, he watched Dorian. And immediately understood what his wife meant. There was no way Dorian was faking that.

While Naomi spoke to the reporters, defending him with complete conviction, Dorian looked at her like the rest of the room had stopped existing. His expression was stunned, unguarded in a way that Daniel rarely ever saw from him.

He looked at Naomi as if she had been created from stars themselves and somehow dropped directly into his life.

Daniel slowly lowered the phone. "Well..."

Lexie crossed her arms. "Exactly."

He glanced toward Dorian’s hospital room. "Maybe it’s not reciprocal."

"I doubt that too."

"Lexie."

"Daniel, she makes him happy. He hasn’t been happy in a long time. Not really."

Daniel knew that much was true.

Dorian had spent years functioning perfectly well without actually seeming particularly pleased about his life. He worked, won cases, annoyed people and attended family events. That was it.

Daniel sighed.

Lexie saw the surrender beginning. "We have to help them."

Daniel immediately backed away. "Oh no. Oh no, no, no."

"I know where this is going." He pointed at her. "I don’t like manipulative Lexie."

Lexie gave him a look that clearly asked whether he wanted to remain married long enough to see dinner.

"Fine," he said finally.

Lexie glanced toward the hospital room thoughtfully. "We need everyone’s help though."

Daniel groaned. "So this is like an intervention?"

"Something like that."

Daniel knew his wife well enough to understand what this really was.

Lexie cared deeply, but unlike Ginny, she wasn’t the type to express that care with squealing and hugs. Lexie proved things.

Moments like this made Daniel wonder why she had chosen medicine instead of joining the family business.

After that, the family somehow moved on. Nobody looked at Naomi like she had committed some unforgivable crime by entering a contractual marriage with him.

They simply carried on.

Naomi sat among them, slowly realizing something she had not expected.

Nothing had changed.

They knew now. They knew the marriage had an expiration date.

And somehow, nobody had pushed her outside the circle.

They remained together in Dorian’s room while waiting for his discharge papers, slipping easily into their usual rhythm.

Dorian, meanwhile, had already moved mentally past the hospital.

Someone had put a bounty on him, and arranged the attack.

And whoever it was had made the mistake of letting him survive it.

If Marco had found out who, he was sure he would have gotten a message already.

Dorian had no intention of sitting around waiting for Marco to solve the mystery for him.

The moment his family became distracted with their own conversations, he called the tech department at the firm and instructed them to take custody of the Mercedes’s dash cam and everything connected to it.

He wanted everything there was to know before Monday. He did not particularly care who would be losing sleep to make that happen. His sympathy for everyone’s weekend schedule had become remarkably limited.

Eventually, his discharge papers arrived, along with strict instructions to rest, take his medication and avoid doing anything that might aggravate his bruised ribs or mild concussion.

The entire Heathcliffe family finally left the hospital together.

Naomi was deliberately assigned the responsibility of driving Dorian home.

Not that either of them would have accepted another arrangement.

From the second they left his hospital room, Naomi entered full mother-hen mode.

She wanted to steady him when he walked. She kept watching his face.

By the time they reached the Range Rover, Dorian was beginning to wonder whether surviving the attack had merely exchanged one problem for another.

"You good?" Naomi asked as she settled into the driver’s seat.

"Naomi?"

"Uhm?"

"Stop it."

Her brows pulled together. "What?"

"Whatever it is you’re thinking that is making you fuss more than even my mum."

"I’m not fussing." Naomi started the vehicle. "I just want to help."

"Yeah, you’re fussing. Come on," he said quietly. "Tell me what you’re thinking."

"Nothing."

"Naomi."

She stared through the windshield. "I’m just frightened."

"Why?"

Naomi swallowed. She hadn’t planned to say it.

Actually, she had spent most of the day making a spectacular effort not to think it too loudly.

"I don’t... I don’t want to lose you."