?Chapter 1452:


    A sudden tension gripped Chris.


    His heart skipped a beat, leaving a strange, unfamiliar unease in its wake. Logically, his rtionship with Maia was nothing but a performance — a staged marriage, a contractual arrangement. Yet instinctively, he found himself worrying about her safety more than his own.


    Whatever the reason, he knew he had to act. He couldn’t let these men harm Maia, or stumble onto anything suspicious.


    Grinding through the pounding ache in his head, he struggled to sit upright.


    “Alex,” he called out, his voice weak but carrying the unmistakable weight of someone ustomed tomand. “Who are you looking for?”


    He needed to draw their attention — and buy Maia time.


    At the sound of his name, Alex froze. The men surrounding him paused too, their sneers sharpening into something more wary.


    “Who the hell are you? How dare you call him Alex!” one growled.


    “It’s Mr. Bates to you, understood?” another snapped.


    “Who gave you the nerve to use his first name?”


    Several men stepped forward, rolling up their sleeves, ready to teach the insolent patient a lesson. Alex shoved them aside and squinted at the figure in the bed.


    “Who… are you?” His tone was sharp, his eyes cold and calcting. In Wront, few had ever dared address him by his first name — and even fewer had walked away without consequences.


    Chris held his gaze without flinching. “You don’t remember me?” His words cut through the room like steel. “We met at the Cooper Estate. I’m a member of the Cooper family.”


    The gang members, brimming with arrogance a moment before, exchanged uneasy nces. A member of the Cooper family? That was the family of their top boss — the ones who stood above all of them.


    J?????? t???????a?????? ???? f?????? ??? ??al????????ls.??о??


    Alex’s expression shifted at once. He couldn’t ce the man’s face, but his entire bearing adjusted instinctively. He had always been careful, fully aware of the Cooper family’s tangled web of influence. Even a distant rtive was someone he couldn’t risk offending. What if this bandaged man was someone important, lying here injured and recovering?


    “I see… so you’re one of our own,” Alex said quickly, forcing a wide, sycophantic grin andughing a little too loudly. Inside, he was scrambling to recalibrate. No wonder the man had reminded him of udius — he was Cooper blood too.


    “Of course… how could I forget?” Alex added, stering the smile back on. “So it’s you, Mr. Cooper. No wonder you looked familiar.”


    To mask his unease, he nced at his watch. “Mr. Cooper, I have urgent matters to attend to. Let’s talkter, shall we?” He turned to leave, his men falling in behind him — when one sharp-eyed subordinate caught sight of the patient information card hanging at the bedside.


    “Alex,” the man whispered, leaning close. “Look at that name. It says Chris Cooper.”


    “Chris Cooper?” Alex went still. His forced smile faltered, suddenly ridiculous on his face.


    Damn it. The fearsome figure he had just groveled before was nothing more than the most disregarded illegitimate child of the Cooper family. That pitiful wretch. Worthless — lower than a stray dog. How dare he im to be a Cooper? The thought wasughable, and humiliating.


    “So it’s you, is it, bastard!” Alex whipped around to face Chris, his sycophantic grin snapping into a mask of fury. “I actually thought you were someone important — you nearly gave me a heart attack!”


    Then a sharper thought struck him. When Kolton had issued the search order, he had been clear: if Chris was found, he was to be brought back to the Cooper Estate alongside udius.


    Greed and opportunity lit up Alex’s eyes. This was a golden chance, delivered right to him.


    He let out a cold, humorlessugh and raised his hand. “What a fortunate turn of events. Take him.”


    .


    .


    .