"What was that?" Julian immediately jolted up from his seat. He was having breakfast with Alex and Emma at the dining table with the nanny on standby in case they needed anything when they suddenly heard a noiseing from the room Anastasia was in.


    Immediately, the two men ran towards the room, high on alert and the nanny stopped Emma from going because she felt Julian wouldn’t want hering along.


    Anastasia tried to move, but her whole turn suffered from pain just from the thought of doing so. She felt her body was no longer hers and there was probably someone who was in control, pressing a button to make her wince whenever she tried to move.


    All of a sudden, she heard the door open and her head snapped towards it. Two men were standing in front of her, looking at her as if they’d seen a ghost. One of them was familiar and the other wasn’t.


    She tried to say a word and only realized at that moment that her mouth had also been bandaged up along with her face.


    "Nurse!!" Alex yelled while Julian helped Anastasia to the bed after recovering from their shock.


    Anastasia continued to stare at Julian until she finally recognized him as the man who’d offered to help her escape from the factory. She blinked at him, wondering if she’d indeed sessfully escaped.


    Her eyes held a lot of questions as she looked at him, and as if reading her thoughts, he replied, "You’re at my home."


    However, the curiosity in her gaze didn’t quench at all.


    The nurse came rushing, the expression of shock passing through her face for a second before she started checking up on Anastasia while Julian and Alex stood watching.


    The doctor was contacted and he came rushing as well when he was told the news. He made sure to run a deep checkup on her in case she could have been internally bleeding because he didn’t expect her to wake up in such a short period of time.


    "How’s she, doc?" Julian asked as soon as they were outside the room where Anastasia wouldn’t hear anything they said. Although the door stood in between, he could sense her gaze ring through.


    "It was a miracle of God that she woke up sooner than we’d imagined. Her stats show there’s nothing to be worried about. All she needs to do is heal and she’ll be fine," he responded.


    Julian released a sigh of relief.


    "How about her bandages?" Alex was the one who asked this time around.


    "They will be removed in a week," the doctor replied. "The nurse will give you a food timetable of what she can and cannot digest in this early stage."


    The two men nodded in understanding and the doctor left.


    "So, what now?" Alex asked, facing Julian. "Have you already decided if you’re going to send her back to her husband?"


    "I already told you that would be a decision for her to make. If she wants to go back, she will." Julian’s face waspletely covered with exasperation at Alex’s question. Thetter didn’t say anything and simply stared at him with several unspeakable questions Julian could almost hear.


    He decided to go back inside and just as he’d suspected, Anastasia’s gaze was fixed on the door as if she could hear what they’d been saying with her eyes.


    The nurse excused herself after handing a paper to Julian which contained the food timetable for Anastasia.


    "Thank...you," Anastasia said, her voice rasp. The bandage around her mouth has finally been removed.


    "It’s nothing," Julian said, stepping closer to her. "I know you have a lot of questions, but let me answer a few I’m sure are on your mind. Xander and Samantha don’t know you escaped—I reced your body with someone else’s, and they believed it. Your face was badly injured, so you had to undergo reconstruction, but the bandages cane off next week. Oh, and yes, Xander announced online that you’re dead."


    Anastasia blinked at him.


    "Still thank...you," she managed to say again. "I couldn’t have escaped without your help." When she’d woken up, she’d almost believed she’d been receiving treatment at the factory. However, when he told her it was his home, her shoulders unbelievably felt lighter.


    Julian shook his head.


    "I only did what I did because I felt you were being punished for what you didn’t do."


    Anastasia blinked at him again, several thoughts racing in her mind.