Escaped My Ex, Got Snatched by His Rival - Chapter 372

Chapter 372: Always second
“You two are disturbing the rest of my patients, so please take your leave,” said Aiden sternly. Nicolai went to argue but Aiden gave him a look which reminded Nicolai of his mother when she was angry with him.

The look did what it was supposed to do —silencing Nicolai.

He stared at Aiden who glared right back at him before Nicolai rolled his eyes and turned on his feet, he stormed out of the ward. Once he was gone, Aiden turned to look at Noah.

“You too, Mister Nelson,” Aiden placed Ari’s report on the cabinet on the side of the bed. “Leave Miss Harlow for a few hours. I will ask you to come and see her when she is conscious.”

“I…”

“I am her doctor in charge, Mister Nelson,” said Aiden sharply. “You will have to listen to what I say, even, if you should be back in your ward. You might be feeling better, but your hyperventilation attack was quite triggering.”

“You also need to lie down for another two or so hours.”

Noah wanted to refuse, but Aiden narrowed his eyes and added, “If you don’t go back to your ward then I will have no choice but to call for the nurses to sedate you and take you back to your ward.”

With Aiden warning him, Noah could only rise from the stool on which he was sitting before taking his leave.

However, before taking his leave, he glanced at Ari who was unconscious on the bed.

‘From now on —I will protect you, Ari,’ he promised in his heart as he stepped out of the ward. Never again would he let such a thing happen.

The door closed behind him with a click, as Noah turned around, but then his gaze met with Nicolai who was leaning against the wall.

A discomforting feeling rose in Noah’s heart, he said to Nicolai, “What are you doing, Mister de Luca? Guarding the door?”

Nicolai narrowed his eyes as he kicked himself off the wall, his arms that were crossed in front of him unfurled, and he brought them to his side and pocketed them.

“I am not confident with my hands,” he told Noah. “I have an excellent feeling that I will slam my hands in that slam-able face of yours. So …” he tipped his chin at his hands that were inside the pockets of his pants.

“Slam-able? Goodness, you truly need to go back to school,” Noah said softly as he looked at Nicolai without breaking his gaze.

“And you need to go back to whatever hole you came crawling out of,” Nicolai leaned down and hissed in Noah’s face, “She is mine. Fucking mine. You are not taking her away, have you? You were a thing of her past and that’s the end of it. So keep hiding in that hole, why don’t you?”

Noah arched one of his brows. A wicked smile crept on his lips, and Nicolai wanted nothing more than to punch him in his face, but that feeling intensified when he heard Noah say,

“Why? Are you afraid that you will lose once again?” Noah asked pointedly. “You are only loved by your mother, while everyone else —only cares for your face, money or what you can do for them. Even your father doesn’t love you.”

“You speak as if you are any better than me,” Nicolai hissed.

“True, I am not any better than you,” Noah’s smile didn’t falter, instead it curled even higher as he commented, “But I was loved by Ariana. She loved me so much that she was willing to do anything for me. Even now, even if she denies loving me —Ariana saved my life at the cost of her own.”

“What does it tell you?” Noah asked with a sadistic glint in his eyes when he saw how crushed Nicolai looked. “She is still in love with…you can try everything that you want, but her love for me has always been like a rubber band. No matter how I push her back, she will come back rebounding twice as hard.”

He stepped close to Nicolai who at once stepped back, “She is yours? Dear me, Mister de Luca…Ari is not a possession that you can claim just because you want to. Or are you going to lock her to your side like a barbarian?”

“You fucking—” Nicolai raised his fist, but Noah didn’t move and looked him right in the eye, waiting for him to punch him.

“Nico!” Aiden sputtered when he saw Nicolai towering over Noah in rage. “What do you think you are doing?” He strode over to Nicolai’s side and pulled him back. “This is a hospital. You can’t—attack someone here.”

“I am not attacking anyone,” Nicolai gritted his teeth. “In fact, I am redoing his nose, which has gotten so long that it’s poking in my business.”

“Ariana is not your business.”

“Yes, she fucking is!” Nicolai roared, struggling against Aiden. He now wished he hadn’t made a promise with Ariana, if he hadn’t, he would have told Noah that she and him had a thing now.

But he couldn’t break her trust, not when it had taken him so long to make Ari open up to him. He wasn’t going to shatter her trust in him for a few seconds of contentment.

“Is she?” Noah provoked him with one last proactive smile, and it nearly drove Nicolai mad. There was no way —there was no way he was replaceable to Ari as well. Right? Right.

Though he told himself those words, as he watched Noah walk away, Nicolai felt his heart crumble.

Why did Ari have to save him? Why did she have to put her life in danger for him? Was Noah speaking the truth?

She was still in love with him?

No…no that couldn’t be possible. If she loved that man, what was he?

“DAMN IT!!” Nicolai punched his fist in the wall, causing the skin on his knuckles to break and blood to sputter all over the white wall.

His insecurities gnawed on his confidence. He wanted to kneel and beg Ari to not love Noah, but Noah’s words clawed at his heart.

Was he going to tie her up without caring about her happiness?