Dear Sweetheart novel

Chapter 653

Inside Rayna's dream, the man walked until he stood right in front of her, then stretched a hand toward her. Seeing

that she gave no response, he grabbed her and tried to drag her away.

“I'm not going with you. I won't,” she mumbled in her sleep until she woke up with a start.

Curtis was doing some work in the study when he heard a noise from the bedroom. He rushed over immediately,

taking long strides. The moment he pushed the door open, he saw Rayna sitting on the bed. drenched in a cold

sweat. Her face was deathly pale.

He hurried over to the bed and placed a hand on her forehead. However, she did not seem to be running a fever.

“What's wrong? Did you have a nightmare?”

“Mm-hmm,” she murmured in response. As she reached out and held his arm, he could clearly feel the slight

tremble in her hand. It seemed she had yet to recover from her bad dream.

He stood next to the bed and hugged her, waiting until she calmed down before letting her go. “I'll get a towel to

wipe your face.”

“Okay,” Rayna answered. She loosened her grip on liis arm, but she did so ever so slowly with a hint of reluctance.

Seeing that, Curtis sighed softly before scooping her up from the bed and carrying her into the bathroom.

Since she could no longer see. a chair had been prepared in the bathroom so she could sit on it while he helped her

wrash up.

As she sat in the chair in front of the bathroom counter, he used a warm w’et towel to dab at her face with gentle

motions.

He spoke to her tenderly while cleaning her face before moving on to her hands, wiping them carefully.

Then, he took another towel, dampened it, and began patiently wiping her back.

Being drenched in a cold sweat had left Rayna feeling a little chilly. However, after Curtis' careful ministrations with

the warm towel, her body slowly started winning up.

Thinking about howr attentive he had been toward her over the past few’ days, she felt moved yet worried. “Curtis,

what if I never regain my eyesight—”

“You will,” he said, cutting her off before she could finish her sentence.

I know7, what she w’ants to say. However, even if her eyesight never gets better, it has never crossed my mind to

abandon her.

“We'll go to Shvomhid Mountain and find that traditional medicine practitioner. After pairing liis treatment with Dr.

Galopin's, your eyesight will be on the mend,” he continued as he rinsed the towels and hung them up to diy. Then,

he turned and carried her out of the bathroom.

Just as he was about to lower her onto the bed, she clutched his shirt and asked. “What time is it now?”

Curtis glanced at the clock on the bedside table. It was three in the morning.

“It's still early, so you should sleep a little longer,” he replied as he put her down on the bed. He reached for the

covers and was about to tuck her in when she lifted a hand to grab his.

“You've been up all night, haven't you?” She recalled that she had been alone in bed w’hen she aw’oke earlier, and

the other half of the covers had been cold.

“I'll come over later. I still have several international video conferences to attend,” he replied softly. There was

gentleness and reassurance in his tone.

Slowly, Rayna relaxed the fingers gripping his shirt and lay down on the bed. He pulled the covers over her and

said, “I'll wrait until you fall asleep before leaving.”

Curtis climbed in under the covers and sat holding her until she dozed back to sleep. Then, he got up gingerly and

left the bedroom. Upon returning to liis study, he turned on liis computer and resumed liis international video

conference.

Wlien one of the video conference's attendees—a silver-haired man—noticed that Curtis had rejoined the meeting,

he reported, “Tilings have been a little tricky over here in Yartran. People from the Civil Engineering Bureau have

been coming by constantly.”

Here, a young, baby-faced man chimed in, “Evidently, someone in Yartran's inner circles is up to something. It

seems a reshuffle in the candidates for Yartran's royal family is poised to happen, so internal pow7er struggles have

been more intense. I think it's highly likely that someone from the other party was the one wdio caused it.”

“That doesn't make sense. Are there still people in the Civil Engineering Bureau w’ho oppose the current

president?” the voice of a young wfoman rang out in the video conference. “As far as I know; the president

personally selected those wdio would be in the bureau. I also heard that a month ago, the president handed the

authority over the bureau to the crown prince.”

The crown prince...

Upon hearing that, Curtis narrowed his eyes as he sat at his desk. “What's the name of Yartran's crown prince?”

“Jovan Eastbridge,” the w’oman replied.

“He's the current crown prince, to be exact,” added the silver-haired man.

Eastbridge... Eastbridge... As Curtis kept repeating the name imvardly. the image of the word “Bridge” Rayna had

traced on the glass window surfaced in his mind.

A cold look rose in liis eyes, and he slowly clenched his fists.

“We should be able to view’ liis photo on Yartran's official website,” the woman added. Her hand moved over her

tablet, and she quickly sent a photo to Curtis.

He tapped on the photo and frowned. “He has blue eyes.”

“That's right. Rumor has it that the current crown prince is the only one whose looks differ from the other royal

family members. Those in their family either have black or yellow’ eyes. None of them have ever had blue eyes,”

the wroman in the video conference responded. She also sent an article on the crown prince to Curtis. “Take a look

at tliis article.”

He pulled up the article and gave it a cursory glance. Nonetheless, the part where it talked about the crown prince's

engagement did not escape liis notice. “He's engaged? He has a fiancee?”

“Yes. The crown prince of Yartran's fiancee is the daughter of their country's secretary of state. She's also the next

secretary of state,” the w7oman answered. No sooner had she replied than the baby-faced man piped up, “Mr.

Faymon. do you suspect tliis matter has something to do with the crown prince?”

“That remains to be seen.” Curtis put aw’ay liis phone, then looked up at the three people on the screen. “Continue

to follow7 up on this matter and report to me immediately if there are any updates.”

“Got it,” they answered. After that, Curtis ended the video conference. He sat in liis leather chair, mulling over

everything that had happened.

He tried piecing together the information he knew7 to determine whether wdiat happened to Rayna was somehow

related to Faymon Group's real estate project. However, no matter how7 hard he tried, he could not figure out a

connection between the two.

Wlien he thought about the w7ord Rayna had written on the window, he felt upset.

She's hiding something from me. and that makes me uncomfortable.

Thinking back to earlier that day w’hen Rayna brought up howr he had kept Faymon Group's foray into Yartran's

real estate industry from her, he grew even more uneasy.

Bright and early the follow’ing morning, the housekeepers at the Faymon residence were busy cleaning the

courtyard as it wras littered with leaves due to the heavy downpour the night before.

Wlien Rayna w’oke up, she still did not see Curtis in bed. and liis side of the bed was cold.

She threw7 back the covers, climbed out of bed. and padded over to the sliding doors. Then, she opened the sliding

door and w’ent out onto the balcony. Breathing in deeply, she caught a whiff of the faint smell of gl ass mixed with

soil.

Behind her, she heard someone open the bedroom door, and Curtis' voice rang out from inside the room, “Why are

you up so early? Don't you wrant to sleep a little longer?”

As he spoke, he walked over and hugged her from behind.

“What time is it now’?” Rayna asked. Since losing her eyesight, she would keep asking that question from time to

time.

“It's seven in the morning,” he answered, lightly nibbing liis chin over the top of her head. “Why don't you get a little

more sleep?”

“Didn't you get any sleep last night?” she asked.

“No. My meeting only just ended, and I'm feeling a little sleepy. Do you want to sleep with me for a while, hmm?” he

asked as liis hand resting on her waist started w’andering over her body.