CEO’s Seduction Trap

The operating room lights went out two hours later, and Dr. Hans emerged.

Leila quickly stood up.

Dr. Hans knew what she wanted to ask, “She’s okay, she’s past the critical period for now.”

Leila relaxed. “Thank you.”

Dr. Hans nodded at her, glanced at Mason standing behind her, paused briefly, but said nothing, Dasha was transferred to the intensive care unit.

Looking at her mother’s pale face still in a coma, Leila didn’t feel like crying. She just felt a deep sense of helplessness.

At eight o’clock in the evening, Dasha still hadn’t woken up. Leila went to find Dr. Hans.

Dr. Hans happened to be on duty tonight. He followed her to the ward to check on Dasha’s condition, “She’s fine. She’s older, so it’s normal for her to need extra sleep.”

“Good, thank you.”

“No need to thank me. If you need anything, just let me know.”

“Okay,” Leila replied with a nod.

As they reached the door of the ward, Dr. Hans stopped and looked at Leila. “What’s the relationship between that man in the ward and you?”

Leila was briefly taken aback by his question. She hadn’t expected him to ask that.

Dr. Hans seemed surprised by his own question after asking it and then smiled and said, “Don’t misunderstand me. I was just curious. I’ve seen him somewhere before, and I thought he looked familiar.”

“I…”

Leila had just started to speak when she heard Mason’s low, magnetic voice from behind her. “Friend.”

As Mason spoke, both Leila and Dr. Hans turned to look at him.

“Friend” could be a casual term between same-sex friends, but between opposite sexes, it carried a deeper meaning.

Dr. Hans noticed the hostility in Mason’s eyes and smiled. “I have the feeling that we’ve met somewhere before.”

Mason replied coldly, “No, you’ve mistaken me for someone else.”

Dr. Hans awkwardly smiled and didn’t pursue the topic further, finding an excuse to leave.

Once Dr. Hans was gone, Mason’s hand settled around her waist, pulling her close. “Leila, look how good I am. For your reputation, I only tell others we’re friends.”

Leila turned to him, “No friend would hug their friend like this.”

Mason chuckled softly, leaning closer to whisper in Leila’s ear, “And no friend would scream ‘ouch’ and ‘don’t’ on their friend’s bed.”…

When Dasha woke up, it was 10 PM at night.

Leila sat by her bedside, occasionally dabbing her cracked lips with a cotton swab dipped in water.

They locked eyes, and in a hoarse voice, Dasha asked, “Where’s your aunt?”

Leila paused. “She’s gone.”

To be precise, she had slipped away quietly. Leila wasn’t sure exactly when, but after settling Dasha down, Elsa and Max had vanished without a trace.

The atmosphere in the hospital room stiffened for a few seconds. Leila turned to place the cotton swab back on the bedside table. Dasha’s voice was dry as she asked, “Have you seen your father?”

“Yeah.”

Leila set aside the cotton swab and turned back, reaching out to tuck the blanket around Dasha. “He’s doing well, and… he already has a new family.”

Upon hearing Leila’s words, tears welled up in the corners of Dasha’s eyes and rolled down her cheeks.

Leila, for the first time, didn’t verbally console her. Instead, she calmly wiped away the tears with her fingertips and said, “Mom, it’s not worth it.”

The words “it’s not worth it” caused Dasha’s tears to flow freely, from restrained sobs to outright crying.

Leila leaned back in her chair, fingers deeply pressing into her palms, her face devoid of any expression. She grabbed two tissues and handed them to her. “Mom, do you want to see him?”

Taking the tissues, Dasha expressed only deep weariness. “We haven’t finalized the divorce.”

That meant she did want to see him.

“Don’t let yourself be swayed,” Leila said.

“I won’t.”

Perhaps out of unspoken understanding between mother and daughter, Dasha didn’t ask why Leila had seen Keith but hadn’t told her, and Leila didn’t explain.

For both of them, that person brought more pain.

Suddenly, the hospital room door was pushed open from outside, and Tessa walked in carrying bags of nutritional supplements.

Seeing Tessa, Dasha first looked surprised, then glanced at what she was carrying.

Tessa recalled Mason’s strict instructions that not to reveal he had bought them. She nervously chuckled and said, “Awake now, I, I bought some nutritional supplements.”

After saying that, worried that Dasha might not believe her, she hesitated for a moment and added, “Uh, Miss Patel gave me the money.”

Leila quickly understood where Tessa got those things from and calmly continued, “Yeah, Dr. Hans said these are good for your recovery.”

Tessa and Leila’s collaboration was smooth enough, and Dasha didn’t raise any suspicions. she woke up at ten and by around eleven-thirty, she had fallen asleep again.

Tessa walked over to Leila and advised her to go home and rest. “You should go eat something. You haven’t had a single bite since you got back. What if you collapse from exhaustion and that weird aunt of yours comes back? I can’t handle her.”

Leila knew Tessa was comforting her. She smiled and didn’t refuse this time.

Leaving the intensive care unit, Leila walked to a small noodle shop near the hospital entrance and ordered a bowl of noodles. To be honest, she didn’t have much of an appetite at the moment, but as Tessa had said, she needed to eat even if she didn’t feel like it, because now the whole household depended on her.

Leila stood up to checkout and received a message on her phone.

Mason: [Dining alone?]

Leila glanced at the message and turned around to see Mason across the street, leaning against his car door with his hands in his pockets, smiling at her.

She replied to his message: [You want some??]

Mason: [No. Come out, I’ll show you something.]

Seeing Mason’s message, Leila hesitated for a moment.

After a few seconds, she replied: [?]

Mason:[ I’ll show you the beauty of this world.]

Normally, Leila would have definitely refused, and she would have thought Mason was crazy. But tonight, she was emotionally suppressed and tense, desperate to grasp onto something.

A few minutes later, Leila got into Mason’s car.

Mason tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. “Buckle up.”

Leila nodded and fastened her seatbelt. “Where are we going?”

Mason said, “To the riverside.”

Leila was surprised. “There’s a river here?”

She had lived here for twenty-six years and had never heard of a river nearby. There was the sea, but in recent years it had been developed by capitalists, turning the beach into private property.

Leila knew of a hotel where, for three thousand eight hundred and eighty-one night, as long as you checked in, you could see the sea and play with the sand.

After about forty minutes, Mason parked the car on the side of the road.

“Get out and take a look,” Mason said.

Leila got out of the car, and after passing through a row of trees, a river came into view.

Leila turned her head to look at Mason in astonishment.

Mason walked closer with a cigarette dangling from his mouth, smiling. “Is this a river?”

Leila asked, “How did you know there was a river here?”

Mason flicked ash off the cigarette. “Where there is a will, there is a way.”

Now it was midsummer, but the wind by the river was cool and refreshing.

Leila looked up at the stars in the sky and said, “Mason, thank you tonight.”

Mason bowed his head and smiled softly. “Hmm.”

With Mason’s words, the two fell into a tacit quietness.

After a few minutes, Mason took the initiative to bring up the topic. “Leila, guess what I like about you?”

“What?”

Mason’s deep voice whispered, “Many times, I see myself in you.”

Leila, “…”

The starry sky tonight was very beautiful, and the stars were bright and clear.

Two hours later, Leila was tired and turned to walk towards the direction of the parked car. “Let’s go back.”

Mason followed closely behind, asking, “Back to the hospital or home?”

“Home.”Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

As she was about to get into the car, she suddenly turned around. “Mason, where are you staying tonight?”

“I haven’t decided yet.”

“I’ll take you in for the night.”