Her voice cracked.

“I understand,” she whispered.

But when the call ended, she stood frozen, the phone in her hand. How could she explain something she couldn’t control?

For now, she had to wait—for Eric. Maybe together they’d find a way out.

Around four, Eric arrived.

As he passed the nurse’s station, the head nurse stopped him with a nervous smile.

“Mr. Scott, I’m terribly sorry. It was poor oversight on my part…” She quickly explained the incident before adding, “I’ve reprimanded them. Would you like them to apologize to Miss Pearson again?”

Apologize?

Eric’s gaze narrowed, his eyes sharp and dangerous.

They gossiped about Hadley behind her back? The woman he cared about most? Unforgivable!

“Are they?” Eric asked evenly, his voice devoid of emotion, making it impossible to gauge his mood.

“Right here,” the head nurse responded quickly, motioning the two staff members to step forward. “Apologize to Mr. Scott!”

“We are sorry, Mr. Scott…” they murmured, their voices laced with regret.

Eric barely reacted, his expression unreadable as his gaze flicked downward to their name tags.

“Dalary Stanley and Addie Welch,” he muttered under his breath, committing the names to memory before pivoting sharply and walking away without another glance.

As they watched his retreating figure, the two exchanged bewildered glances before turning to the head nurse.

“Did Mr. Scott accept our apology?” they asked, clearly at a loss. The head nurse furrowed her brow, just as baffled. How was she supposed to know?

Joy had just woken up from her nap and was quietly playing with building blocks with her caregiver.

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Elissa and Hadley were in the outer room, deep in conversation.

Elissa already knew about the trending news.

Even Elissa, who rarely spared a glance at entertainment news, had caught wind of it. That alone spoke volumes about the sheer impact of public opinion.

“Any word from Eric yet?”

Hadley shook her head, her brow furrowing.

Though the posts had been taken down, the storm of public opinion hadn’t died down.

If anything, the discussion had gained even more traction because of the attempt to silence it.

The first casualty was her upcoming drama.

The show’s official account had been swamped with a deluge of hateful comments aimed squarely at her.

“Why hasn’t this disgraced actress been blacklisted already?”

“No wonder a nobody landed a role with someone like Adonis. She must have made some deals behind the curtains to get the part, huh?”

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