Matthew was already waiting for Elise at the entrance the moment school knocked off for the day. He
had done so until she showed up at the gates. Then, he alighted from his car and walked toward her.
“Give me your bag.”
She obliged, to which he took her bag while he held the car door open for her. Once they were inside
the car, he started the engines and cruised down the street.
Then, he initiated the conversation. “How was school today?”
“Good,” she monotonously replied, “Everything’s fine.”
Matthew shot a glance at her through the rearview mirror in the silence. When they arrived home, he
parked the car in the underground garage and they left for the elevator together. Much to their dismay,
the lights in the elevator suddenly blinked before it turned off and plunged them into darkness.
A panicked Elise asked, “What’s the problem?” As she spoke, she reflexively reached out to bang on
the elevator doors.
Matthew quickly comforted her, “It could be a technical error. I’ll make a call now to the servants.”
While he comforted her, he fished out his phone only to realize that there was no line. He also hadn’t
noticed that Elise was suffering from a full-blown panic attack as sweat beads formed across her
forehead while her body trembled violently.
Elise’s breathing was erratic and her body went limp a second later, after which she collapsed to the
floor. When Matthew saw this happening, he asked in worry, “What’s wrong? Are you okay?”
What answered him was her chattering teeth, which he found to be rather odd. “Are you…
claustrophobic?”
At that moment, she could not hear what he was saying. Even though she was taking deep breaths,
she felt that her brain had gone numb. It was only at this time when he realized that the situation was
grave. Without any hesitation, he banged on the doors and yelled to anyone who happened to be
outside. Soon, the servants hurried over, but they couldn’t help much except to call the technician.
“Young Master Matthew, are you alright?”
As he stared at the unconscious Elise sprawled on the ground, this was the first time Matthew
stammered, “O-Open t-the d-door! O-Open i-it right now!”
Upon hearing the shouts from the other side, the servants then circled the ground in worry. At the same
time, Alexander’s car rolled in and one of the servants immediately approached him as soon as
Alexander got out. “Young Master Alex, something’s happened! Miss Sinclair and Young Master
Matthew are both trapped in the elevator!”
The moment Alexander heard those words, he knew that he couldn’t afford to waste any more time and
rushed over to the scene. When he confirmed that the doors were stuck, he switched off the electricity
to restart the entire system. Within two minutes, the elevator started to work again. As soon as the
doors reopened, he immediately noticed a pale Elise on the floor. Without further ado, he carried her in
his arms and marched out.
While staring at Alexander’s back, Matthew’s eyes darkened as he clenched his fists silently.
“Quickly call the family doctor and ask him to come over as soon as possible,” Alexander ordered the
servants while he had Elise in his arms. The servants who were all at home had panicked and rushed
to get the doctor.
Then, he brought her back to the bedroom and placed her on the bed. Despite repeatedly calling out
her name, she did not respond to him. On top of that, her hand was also twitching.
Without saying any more, he firmly grabbed hold of her hand and only released it when the family
doctor arrived.
“Here, take a look at her. What’s wrong?”
Since the doctor had hurried over to give Elise a body checkup, Alexander could only leave the room.
He ran into Matthew the moment he walked out, which caused his expression to darken. Then, he
questioned Matthew, “What did you do to her?”
Seeing that Matthew did not reply, Alexander continued firing shots without any mercy. “I am warning
you now: you better not take advantage of her. If not, I will make sure that there is no place for you in
our family.”
Alexander’s words were an obvious threat, to which Matthew did not take seriously. Rather, he
sneered. “You seem to care for her a lot. Have you fallen for her?” After that, he couldn’t help but mock,
“An ugly girl like her might not fit your ideal type, though!”
As he approached Alexander, the disdain in his eyes appeared to be more obvious. “You better not
think that I have no idea about your motive. Or, should I say that we share the same goal? If that’s the
case, let’s not attack each other and have a fair competition instead.”
With a cold look in his eyes, Alexander smiled mockingly. “You’re letting the cat out of the bag.”
Matthew scoffed and left without a word.
Now that Alexander was aware of Matthew’s advances, he believed that life would be interesting from
now on.
Elise was so traumatized after the earlier scare that she even ran a temperature at night. As a result,
she was in and out of consciousness until the next afternoon. The moment she opened her eyes, she
noticed Jonah staring at her with a concerned face. “Ellie, you’re finally awake!”
Her mind was still blank as she looked at the familiar ceiling. Since her memory was still replaying the
scene where she was trapped in the elevator, it made her tremble in fear again.
“Ellie, are you okay?”
Elise shook her head. “I’m fine now. Sorry to make you worry.”
“Oh, please don’t say that! I did not know that you are claustrophobic. In the future, I won’t let this
happen again.”
She grunted in acknowledgment. Not many knew about her claustrophobia and to be fair to her, she
hadn’t suffered an attack in such a long time. At first, she thought that she was successfully in control
of her deepest fears, but this incident clearly indicated that her claustrophobia would haunt her for her
entire life.
“Ellie, tell me if there’s anything that you crave. I’ll have the servants prepare it for you. Since you’re still
recovering, you need more rest.”
Elise replied, “Okay, I got it. Thanks, Grandpa.”
The experience had rendered her unwell for a few days and she spent most of her time in bed. During
that period, the young masters of the Griffith Family took turns to take care of her. Jack had a few
deadlines to meet and when it was his turn after work to look after her, he looked rather annoyed. Still,
the four brothers didn’t dare to go against Jonah’s words and they obeyed his orders to attend to her.
Regardless of how the men felt, Elise had gotten along well with young masters of the Griffith Family
during her recovery period. Alexander was the only one who received a different type of treatment-she
was obviously shunning him to the point where he was well aware of her change in attitude.
As usual, he brought a bowl of chicken soup on a tray to her room. “The servants prepared this for you.
Eat it while it’s hot,” he told her.
She was in the midst of reading a book at that time and merely answered with a grunt. Then, he added,
“Are you going back to school tomorrow?”
Elise replied without raising her eyes, “Yeah.”
Alexander was still confused about her thoughts and didn’t probe further. “Remember to finish your
food. I’m leaving now,” he reminded her.
This time around, Elise didn’t bother to reply to him. After he left, she finally put down the book in her
hands and sighed helplessly. For some reason, the sight of him brought her back to the night where
they were alone with each other. Besides, she remembered that the servant informed her that it was
Alexander who brought her into her room after she had fainted in the elevator.
The moment she thought about it, she felt embarrassed the person who gave her the experience of her
first kiss and the first time being carried in a guy’s arms… was Alexander himself.
62fb1bb41dcb31934bd49bda