Chapter 193: What Now?
Chapter 193: Chapter 193: What Now?
Caroline Whitman was having the time of her life.
Adrian Grant had always been the one pinning her down and "bullying" her, but now it was finally her turn to be on top.
Adrian Grant had been right all along—she really didn’t know every side of him.
She never expected an amnesiac Adrian to be so much fun. It was like a limited-time trial version.
He was so straight-laced, afraid to cross any lines, and though he wanted to avoid her, his sense of "responsibility" wouldn’t let him.
Just as the mischievous smile on Caroline’s lips was about to fade, Adrian happened to glance down. As if sensing it, she looked up slightly, and their eyes met head-on.
She instantly wiped the smile off her face.
She thought he might say something, but his expression was as calm as ever. His gaze merely lingered on her face for a moment before shifting away.
It was only a few steps from the guest room to the master bedroom. Adrian placed her on the large bed with crisp, efficient movements.
Just as he straightened up to leave, Caroline reached out and grabbed his hand.
"Hubby."
"What is it now?"
Caroline sat up and pressed her lips lightly against his. She paused for two seconds, and when he didn’t push her away, she stopped herself from going any further.
"Good night."
She lay back down, pulling the blanket up to her chin, and watched his reaction with curiosity. Unfortunately, the guy seemed to be an expert at masking his feelings in situations like this. At least, she couldn’t read his emotions at all.
So, she rolled over and pretended to close her eyes to sleep. "Remember to turn off the light on your way out."
Adrian stood by the bed, looking down at her. He grunted an "Mmm," then looked away, turned, and walked out of the bedroom, turning off the light and closing the door.
He paused at the doorway, subconsciously raised a hand to touch the corner of his mouth, then lowered it and headed toward the guest room.
In the pitch-black room, Caroline heard the door close. Only after confirming he was gone did she open her eyes.
"Hmph. He’s surprisingly innocent, now that he’s lost his memory."
——
The next day.
It was the weekend.
Neither of them had to work, and with Adrian’s current appearance, it wasn’t a good idea for him to be seen in public. Barring any surprises, he would be working from home for the next few days.
Having stayed up late watching over Adrian, Caroline didn’t get up until almost ten the next morning.
After she got up and washed, she passed by the study. Unsurprisingly, there was someone inside, behind the half-open door.
The man of the house was sitting there, prim and proper, looking at his computer.
She only spared it a glance before looking away.
Downstairs, she peeked into the dining room and found that the man had actually left her some breakfast.
Adrian Grant truly was a good father and a good husband. Even with his amnesia and lack of feelings for her, he never missed these little details.
For a moment, she didn’t know whether to be happy or sad.
With mixed feelings, Caroline took a bite of the breakfast Adrian had prepared with his own hands.
After eating and drinking her fill, she lay on the sofa for a while and had a video call with Ryan Grant. He asked if his dad’s headache was better.
Caroline said it was almost better. Just then, Grace Lawson’s head popped into the frame on the other end of the call. "You and Adrian should come over for dinner tonight," she said.
"Okay, I’ll talk to him about it in a bit."
"What’s there to talk about? If he doesn’t want to come, tell him I’ll come over and personally invite him myself!"
Caroline’s mouth twitched. "Okay, Mom."
After hanging up, she went upstairs. As she passed the study, she noticed the door was wide open, unlike before when it was only ajar.
Adrian was sitting behind his computer, not looking at the screen, but at her.
Caroline stopped in her tracks and tilted her head. "What’s up? Want me to help you with your medicine?"
"..."
"I already changed it." Adrian’s tone was as unhurried as ever.
"Oh." Caroline nodded, averting her gaze as she prepared to leave.
"Wait." Adrian stopped her. Caroline retracted her foot and, changing direction, entered the study.
Adrian leaned back in his chair, his gaze sweeping the hallway outside the study. "Why isn’t there a housekeeper?" he asked.
At his words, Caroline smiled. To Adrian, it was the smile of a cat about to make mischief.
Sure enough, an outrageous claim came out of her mouth: "Because you wanted to have a world of our own. You dismissed all the housekeepers because you thought they’d disturb us."
In truth, Caroline was just making this up.
It was clear from Adrian’s question that there had been a housekeeper here before. It was just that when she first came to The Seraphic, she hadn’t seen one.
It seemed Adrian must have proactively dismissed the housekeepers at The Seraphic around the time Ryan Grant appeared.
So, she had naturally assumed it was because the child couldn’t be seen by outsiders.
But that wasn’t actually the case. What she had just made up was, in fact, what Adrian had been thinking before his amnesia.
If not for special circumstances, he wouldn’t even have had Miss King come over.
He just had never told Caroline this.
Adrian glanced at her but didn’t question the truth of her statement. He closed his laptop, leaned back in his chair, and fixed his gaze on her face.
"Didn’t you say you were going to help me get my memory back?"
"Mhm," Caroline said, sitting across from him and batting her eyes innocently. "So, your wife is sitting right here. Ask whatever you want. The sooner you get your memory back, the sooner I won’t have to sleep alone. Don’t you think?"
Adrian spoke. "Then tell me. Start from the beginning. From the first time we met."
Caroline cleared her throat, also leaned back in her chair, and began her performance. "You came to our class as an exchange student during our sophomore year of college. Remember?"
Adrian didn’t say anything.
He had some recollection of this. He had indeed returned to Kingsport for that exchange year.
As for who was in the class—forget his classmates, he’d have a hard time even remembering what the homeroom teacher looked like.
One look at his expression and Caroline knew his mind was a complete blank. Well-prepared, she pulled out her phone, found a photo, and handed it to him.
It was a group photo from a lab class. Seven or eight people were standing in front of a whiteboard in the lab. She was at the very end, and he was in the back row, slightly to the left. There were three or four people between them.
"...I remember now." Adrian stared at the photo for a few seconds before handing the phone back to her. "So we knew each other that long ago."
Back then, his impression of Caroline could be summed up in one word:
Quiet.
She never rushed to speak in lab class and always sat at the edge during group discussions. She would answer if spoken to, but never initiated a conversation.
Who would have thought that years later, this quiet, almost invisible classmate—a virtual stranger with whom he’d shared only a single semester—would become his legal wife.
"And then?" Adrian asked.
"Then your exchange program ended, you went abroad, and I graduated." Caroline straightened out the timeline.
"Until this year, when a child suddenly appeared out of thin air in my room. He said you were his dad and I was his mom, so I had no choice but to find you."
She started with the child’s sudden appearance at her place in May, then talked about the class reunion, and how the two of them had to hide and move several times to keep their parents from discovering the child.
She talked about how both their families found out about the child...
She gave a rough summary of where the child came from, how they went from strangers to being familiar with each other, and how they moved from a cohabitation agreement to tentatively testing the waters.
There was no need to make this part up; Adrian could verify it all with a simple phone call to his parents.
Adrian’s brow twitched slightly. Now, Caroline was starting to lie through her teeth.
"Originally, we set three ground rules that we absolutely could not cross. But sadly, my charm was too great. You fell at my feet, saying it was love at first sight—no, wait, it was love at *second* sight after so many years."
"..."
Caroline didn’t care whether he believed her or not and continued her fabrication:
"Then you began to pursue me with great fanfare—sending flowers, picking me up from work, and confessing your love in public. You were a completely different person from the cold man you are now."
Adrian’s expression paused in an extremely subtle way.
"Confessing my love in public?"