Chapter 1017

Not knowing who it was, Madeline turned on her phone’s flashlight and shone in the direction of the footsteps. “Who is it?”

Madeline asked, only to have the floor-to-ceiling windows behind her explode. The glass shattered everywhere.

She shouted reflexively and heard the sound of glass exploding again.

“Watch out!” A man’s worried tone sounded by her ear.

Madeline did not have the chance to take a look at the person when she found herself being pulled into a warm and strong embrace. The musky scent of ebony infiltrated her nostrils.

While it was not a familiar scent, Madeline did not find the scent especially new.

The sounds of explosion only stopped after a while.

However, the building’s lights remained switched off.

“Are you alright, Eveline?”

Only then did Eveline realize it was Ryan.

She shook her head and stared at the broken floor-to-ceiling windows. They were on the 28th floor, so to have the windows broken and the evening wind blowing violently inside, it was dangerous.

Why would the windows suddenly shatter for no reason? Not to mention that these were hardly normal glass.

“Your hands are bleeding, it must’ve been the glass.” Ryan’s voice brought Madeline out of her wandering thoughts.

With the light from her phone, Madeline realized that there was a bleeding wound on the back of her right hand.

“Wait here.” Ryan then made his way toward the first-aid kit and returned quickly after. “Let’s stop the bleeding first. I’ll clean and dress your wound first.”

His voice was gentle while his palm was warm as he held Madeline’s hand and began to treat the wound with familiarity.

Madeline frowned at the pain. She made no sound, but Ryan seemed to have realized it anyway and his touch grew gentler. “I’ll be done soon.”

“Okay.” Madeline smiled and asked curiously, “The way you work reminds me of a doctor. Did you learn first-aid?”

Ryan halted for a moment before replying, “I took a few medical lessons when I went to university.”

The wound was dressed just as he finished speaking.

“Try not to wet your wound for the next few days. Let’s get you downstairs. It doesn’t seem very safe here.”

“Yeah. Thank you.” Madeline turned around to take her bag from the chair.

Ryan pulled her back. “I’ll do it.”

He made his way over and stared at the glass shards all over the floor as he took her purse.

“Let’s go, Ryan. It doesn’t feel very safe here.”

“Alright.” Returning to Madeline with her purse in hand, he took his phone to shine their way.

Madeline made her way to follow, only to accidentally step on one of the glass shards. In her heels, she felt herself slip at the smooth surface.

Ryan immediately reached out to hold Madeline’s shoulder, steadying her swaying frame.

“Thank you.” Madeline exhaled in relief.

Ryan then presented his palm to her. “Would you care to walk with me?” he suddenly asked.

In the dark, Madeline caught sight of the sincerity between his brows and nodded, placing her hand in Ryan’s palm.

Ryan gave a warm smile and tightened his grip on her hand, the warmth of his palm seeping to the back of her hands.

It was warm.

Very warm.

Due to the sudden power shortage, they could not take the elevator.

As such, Ryan held Madeline’s hand as they walked down the stairs carefully.

It took a while before they finally exited the building, but the power had not returned.

Madeline decided to call the manager who told her that an unknown issue had occurred with the building’s fuse box. They were currently doing their best to fix it.

Madeline did not press further and hung up the phone. She turned to thank Ryan, but he seemed to understand her and spoke first.