With trained precision, the bodyguards surrounded the area and cleared everyone from the lobby.
Since the crowd could no longer see what was happening, their guesses quickly became outrageous. Every new rumor sounded worse than the one before it.
"How do we know she's actually a doctor? She probably made the whole thing up just so she could get closer to Mr. Greene."
"That woman has no shame at all. Mr. Greene can't stand women who play tricks like this. He'll make sure she pays for what she did."
The assistant started to step in because he also suspected Claire's intentions. However, the look on her face made him stop at once. She was completely focused on treating his boss. Nothing in her eyes suggested that she was trying to flirt with his boss. He saw only the steady concentration of a trained medical professional. Eventually, he lowered his hand.
Claire pulled the unconscious man's pants down only far enough to reveal his hip bones. After applying firm pressure to a precise spot on his lower abdomen, she took an auto-injector from her kit and gave him a fast-acting painkiller. The pain on his face faded almost right away.
However, he was still struggling to breathe. Claire shifted closer and placed one hand over the other at the center of his chest before beginning chest compressions.
Almost ten minutes passed before his breathing finally became steady.
At that moment, the ambulance arrived at the scene.
"The paramedics will handle everything from this point." After saying that, Claire got to her feet and left.
To Claire, she had merely handled another emergency during her time as a doctor. She didn't give the incident another thought.
However, Hollie looked horrified when Claire met her at the end of the hallway.
"Good grief, Claire," Hollie whispered as she grabbed her arm. "Do you even know who you just treated?"
Before Claire had a chance to respond, Hollie pulled her out of the club. They hurried away as though they were thieves escaping in the middle of the night.
As soon as they left the building, Hollie slammed her foot on the gas and raced for twelve blocks. She finally stopped on a quiet side street.
Claire looked at Hollie as though her friend had completely lost her senses.
"Claire, you don't understand what you just did!" Hollie's voice shook with fear. "The man you had your hands all over was Nolan Greene! Don't tell me you have no idea who he is."
Claire had spent the last fifteen years living with her adoptive grandfather near the distant border of Ironridge. She had returned to Pilvale only recently because of an arranged marriage. Although she barely knew the city, Nolan's name was still familiar to her.
Among the states in Aetiria, Ironridge was the poorest, while Egomont was the wealthiest. Pilvale was the largest and busiest city in Egomont.
As part of Pilvale's strongest family, Nolan held more power than most people could imagine. He was only twenty-six, yet he already led the Greene Group and had earned a ruthless reputation across the city. Everyone saw him as a living nightmare, and they knew they would face serious consequences if they ever crossed him.
"Nolan can't stand women!" Hollie continued. Her family had belonged to Pilvale's wealthy circle for generations, so she knew Nolan much better than Claire did. "More women than I can count have tried to approach him, but none of them ever came within six feet. Do you want to know what happened? Every woman who stepped too close suddenly... vanished."
To make her point clear, Hollie dramatically drew a finger across her throat.
Claire couldn't hold back her laughter. "I wasn't trying to make him notice me."
"You took off his clothes! Your hands were all over his stomach and chest!"
"I was only giving him emergency treatment," Claire retorted in a flat tone. "I needed to relax his muscles and perform CPR."
"Someone like Nolan won't see any difference between the two!"
Claire paused and said nothing. A moment later, she took out her phone. Her fingers moved quickly across the screen as she broke into the Zenith Lounge's security system and erased every recording that captured her face. "Everything happened so quickly that no one probably saw my face clearly," she said. "Now that I've erased the recordings, he won't have any way to track me down."
"That was brilliant!" Hollie gave Claire a thumbs-up. Soon, another question came to her mind. "That reminds me. What about that awful husband of yours? Wouldn't he regret everything if he ever discovered what you actually look like?"
Claire let out a scornful laugh. "Any man who only values a woman's appearance can't be worth much."
Confusion soon replaced Hollie's curiosity. "That useless husband of yours is hiding something. He must have plenty of money if he owns a property in Eden. Still, no one important in Pilvale's wealthy social circles knows the Bennett family. Where could he possibly have come from?"
Claire couldn't give her an answer.
She only knew that her new husband's name was Christopher Bennett. She hadn't even met anyone from his family.
Without her adoptive grandfather's final wish, she wouldn't have agreed to such a ridiculous marriage.
Both friends continued drinking and talking until late at night. Shortly before four in the morning, Claire secretly returned to the house in Eden and climbed into bed.
At the same time, Nolan had regained consciousness inside a hospital suite.
He had adopted his mother's surname, so his legal name was Christopher Bennett. Hardly anyone knew that Nolan and Christopher were the same person.
Naturally, Claire didn't know that the man she had rescued last night was actually her own husband.
Tension filled the hospital suite and made it difficult to breathe. Nolan's cold stare was enough to make anyone's knees feel weak.
No one felt more afraid than his personal assistant, Sean Marshall. He had already prepared himself to face his boss's anger.
Nolan followed his principles without exception. He had been pushed into marrying a woman he believed was ugly and worthless. However, he planned to stay faithful for as long as their marriage remained valid.
Last night, Sean hadn't bothered to investigate the unknown woman's identity. Instead, he had allowed her to treat Nolan. He had also stood there and watched her do everything she had done to his boss.
By then, the rumors had already gotten out of control. People were saying that a woman had taken advantage of Nolan in front of everyone.
