Chapter 103: Strange Man

Andrew Clifford's presidential suite is on the opposite side of the hotel. As a servant pulls open the thick curtains, the light shines through the sheers, lighting up the darkened room. Gabrielle carefully removes the gauze bandage on Andrew's chest, sterilizes the wound with ethyl alcohol and applies a salve to help heal the wound. She wraps Andrew's wound with clean, white gauze.

"I've treated the wound, Mr. Clifford," Gabrielle whispers shyly, "Please remember that it shouldn't be immersed in water."

Her face turned red as she looked at his strong chest muscles, and she turned her head away. Andrew is the most casual man she has ever met. He insisted that the hospital discharge him right after a major operation. Even though he has stitches on his chest, he takes long baths as usual.

"He is also the strangest man I've ever met," Gabrielle thinks.

Andrew puts on a bathrobe and ties it loosely around his waist, then he looks emotionlessly at the young woman in front of him.

"You're really bossy," he says, "But now it's your turn."

Gabrielle recovers from her reverie and bites her lip. Slowly, she shrugs out of her bathrobe, exposing her white, delicately rounded shoulders. The sun shines on her soft, pale skin. Her virginal body looks like a perfect work of art waiting for the right man to gaze upon it.

Though Gabrielle only reveals her shoulders, her toes curl with tension and embarrassment against the rich carpet. She lowers her head and blushes bright pink as Andrew gazes at her.

"Turn around," Andrew commands.

Gabrielle obediently turns around and sits on a small stool by the sofa.

"This is why he's strange," Gabrielle thinks, "He likes me back, but he never touches me intimately—he only tattoos me."

He has already tattooed part of her back with a pair of wings. Each feather on the wings has been tattooed with a single needle, giving the feathers a sense of depth and complexity. Gabrielle knows that he has tattooed part of her back, but she doesn't know what he has tattooed on it. He only tattoos a small portion of skin at a time. Since they see each other rarely, it has taken him months to complete this part of the tattoo.

Andrew casts a slow, amorous glance at her back as he sits behind her. He unfolds a sheepskin roll revealing slender silver needles of varying diameters. Gabrielle twists her fingers when she feels Andrew's hot breath behind her. Her heart won't stop thumping violently in her chest.

She feels pain as the needle pricks her skin, and she trembles slightly. Blood dots her soft, sensitive skin. Instead of wiping her skin with a silk towel, Andrew uses a tiny needle to collect the drops of blood. He transfers the blood to a small glass vial. Gabrielle knows that he polishes the red amber in his bracelet with her blood. Every time Andrew tattoos her he finishes by rubbing her blood into the stone on his wrist.

Gabrielle knows that amber is considered one of the seven greatest treasures in the world; many people believe that it brings good luck to anyone who wears it. Red amber, which is rarer than yellow, is one of the most precious types.

However, Gabrielle doesn't know that many spiritual people believe that red amber has special properties: when polished with blood, it seems to glow in special situations. Recently, the red amber shone when Avery held the gun against Andrew's chest in the hotel bathroom. Andrew's heart pounded in his chest and the red amber glowed as if it were responding to its master's heartbeat.

Andrew tattoos a slender arc on her back, carefully pricking the skin with a thin needle. Then he packs up the silver needles, carefully rolling the sheepskin around them.

"Mr. Clifford," Gabrielle whispers, "Do I have to go back with my sister? Can't I stay with you?"

"Why do you want to stay with me?" Andrew asks.

"Your wound still hasn't recovered and you need someone to observe you after the surgery to make sure you heal properly. I want to stay with you to take care of you."

"Have you fallen in love with me?" Andrew asks sardonically.

He carefully puts the sheepskin roll into an engraved wooden box. Then he looks at Gabrielle with a straight face.

"No, I haven't," Gabrielle says hastily.

She is afraid to look at him and quickly puts on her bathrobe.

"Good. You'd better not fall in love with me," Andrew says coldly, "If you fall in love with me, you'll only make yourself miserable."

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Gabrielle holds the collar of her bathrobe tightly to stop her hands from shaking. She is afraid to speak and she stands quietly in place.

"Remember, don't let other men touch you, or you'll lose your value to me," Andrew says.

Though he doesn't touch her, he refuses to allow her to let other men touch her. Gabrielle feels like the needle that just pricked her back is now pricking her heart. Robert knocks at the door and enters the suite.

"Miss Peters, Mrs. Howel wants to see you," Robert said, "Besides, we've arranged your room. I'll give you a moment to get ready, then please come with me."

"Okay," Gabrielle says, nodding absently.

After Robert and Gabrielle leave, the bodyguard in charge of Andrew's security approaches him.

"Mr. Clifford, I've successfully bribed everyone and I've completed a thorough investigation."

Andrew hands the wooden box to a bodyguard and waits expectantly for the news. Last night, he ordered his security team to bribe Evan's former bodyguards for information. Andrew knows that Evan is very cautious about his security: he hires and fires his bodyguards at set intervals to prevent them from learning too much about his life. Though he demands all his bodyguards to sign confidentiality agreements, it's relatively easy to bribe an unemployed bodyguard.

Andrew places his hand over his heart and looks questioningly at the head of security, waiting for the man to continue.

"Mrs. Howel and Dr. Meyer had a very good personal relationship," the bodyguard says, "Dr. Meyer disappeared on the same day that Mrs. Howel tried to flee from the Howel family. Mr. Howel believed that Dr. Meyer helped to orchestrate the disappearance and he was infuriated—it seems he was already jealous of the doctor's relationship with Mrs. Howel."

"What was the exact day on which Dr. Meyer disappeared?" Andrew asks.

"It was three days ago—the same day you had your heart transplant," the bodyguard answered.

Andrew presses his hand against his chest and feels the beat of the thumping heart. A sudden idea takes hold in his mind.

"So my heart is—"

The bodyguard understands his meaning.

"There is no definite evidence that your new heart belonged to Dr. Meyer," he says.

Andrew smiles unintelligibly, but then his face becomes serious.

"Did you just say that Mrs. Howel and Dr. Meyer had a very good personal relationship?" he asks.

"Yes, Dr. Meyer was the attending doctor for Mrs. Howel's nanny, and Mrs. Howel was very close to her nanny. I've been told that Mrs. Howel thought of her nanny as a mother figure," the bodyguard explains, "According to hospital gossip, Dr. Meyer always showed a special fondness for Mrs. Howel."

"A special fondness?" Andrew thinks with an ambiguous smile, "It seems that a lot of people have a special fondness for my Felicity Winter."

…

The Peters family receives the news that Evan is coming as if they have received a royal order. When Anthony Peters hears the news, he becomes nervous and frantic, almost staggering to the ground. The family immediately begins to redecorate and re-landscape everything in preparation for his visit.

Their house is a small Italian-style villa with white walls and red tiles. White fences and carved iron doors add nostalgic touches to the property, and colorful flowers fill the yard. There is a wide lawn in front of the house, and a cobblestone path runs through the lawn, leading directly to the villa's entrance.

Though the Peters family is not the biggest or most powerful family, they are descended from nobility and considered one of the purest and oldest families in the country. Evan's grandfather was satisfied enough with their bloodlines to choose Avery as Evan's bride.

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