Secret Marriage: The CEO's Pampered Wife

Georgia Thorne wanted Erin Irving’s assistant to leave. The longer he stayed with her, the more attention they would attract—in fact, people were already starting to stare.

’They must be speculating about my relationship with Erin Irving right now!’

"Miss Thorne, our president said that if you won’t sit down, then I’m required to wait here with you!"

That one sentence left Georgia completely trapped.

The people around had already recognized Erin Irving’s assistant and were now whispering as they looked at her.

Georgia found herself in a predicament—she couldn’t sit, but she couldn’t just stand there either. She could already imagine how wild the office rumors would be tomorrow.

In the midst of her dilemma, the phone in her pocket suddenly rang.

The call was her salvation. She answered it like a drowning person grasping at a lifeline. Without even checking who it was, she said urgently, "You’re outside? I’m coming right out."

She hung up and said apologetically to Erin Irving’s assistant, "Sorry, something’s come up!"

She quickly slipped out of the crowd, having finally escaped the disaster.

’Life is so difficult. No matter where I go, I run into people I’d rather avoid.’

Georgia hurried out, remembering the person on the phone had told her to go to the underground garage. The voice had been so familiar.

To avoid Erin Irving’s assistant, Georgia rushed into an elevator and pressed the button for B2.

She suddenly remembered the call and pulled out her phone to see who had called.

Her headache intensified. She wanted to stop the elevator, but it was too late.

’No wonder that voice sounded so familiar,’ she thought. Full of regret, she watched as the elevator doors DING-ed open. Her finger was still hovering over the B1 button as she stared, frozen, at the person waiting for her.

Elliot Sheridan stood right there in the doorway, his eyes dark and deep as he watched her.

Georgia felt utterly exhausted. ’What was that saying? You can run, but you can’t hide.’

’Besides, how long had it even been since I last saw him!’

"I thought I made myself perfectly clear. Please, Mr. Sheridan, try not to be so repulsive," she said, exhaling deeply.

"But I’ve already disgusted you, haven’t I?" he replied, his tone even more mournful.

Georgia was speechless. "..."

’I should be the resentful one. Why does it feel like our roles have been reversed?’

A knot of anger tightened in her chest, making it hard to breathe. The pressure made her head spin.

Georgia stepped out of the elevator and tried to walk past Elliot, not intending to argue with him.

’She’d argued with him before, but she’d never once won unless he let her.’

Unwilling to let her go so easily, Elliot grabbed her elbow as she passed. Georgia’s anger boiled over. "Elliot Sheridan, will you ever stop!"

After yelling, the tightness in her chest worsened, and she felt severely light-headed.

"Never. I’ll never be finished with you in this lifetime!"

Elliot’s eyes were bloodshot. He had fallen for her and never planned on getting out; how could he ever be finished with her?

"You..." Georgia couldn’t catch her breath. Her vision went black, and she suddenly collapsed.

Elliot caught her with lightning-fast reflexes, patting her feverish cheeks. "Georgia, wake up! Damn it, why are you burning up!"

Elliot scooped her up and rushed to his car.

Owen Sawyer, sitting in the driver’s seat, saw his boss hurrying over with someone in his arms. Only when he drew closer did Owen see who it was.

"Drive! To the hospital!" Elliot was in a panic, all his usual shrewdness and composure gone.

Owen Sawyer had no idea what had happened, but he sped toward the nearest hospital.

The hospital’s examination revealed that Georgia was running a low-grade fever. Other than being anemic and malnourished, there was nothing seriously wrong.

Elliot let out a sigh of relief. ’She’s okay. That’s all that matters.’

Elliot counted the days. In reality, it hadn’t even been that long since they’d last seen each other.

They had seen each other on the day she was discharged from the hospital.

But the few dozen hours they’d been apart had felt like an eternity to him, as if more than ten days had gone by.

Elliot sat on the edge of the bed, quietly holding Georgia’s hand and watching her sleep.

He suddenly recalled the very first time he’d seen her. It wasn’t in his room, nor was it with that panicked expression on her face.

He remembered he’d been in a terrible state that day. He had fallen into despair, and Aidan Sheridan was lying in a hospital bed in a vegetative state.

Aidan’s health was poor, and the car accident made his need for a kidney transplant even more urgent. And at that very moment, a potential donor had appeared: Georgia Thorne.

He had gone to see Georgia’s mother. From his wheelchair, he saw Georgia sneak back inside, a drawing board strapped to her back. Her fair, clean face was smudged with colorful paints, and Elliot found the sight amusing.

’Did she really walk all the way home like that? Didn’t anyone laugh at her?’

When Georgia saw a stranger in her home, she was clearly startled.

Her beautiful, bright eyes were full of wariness toward him. Without a word, she hurried into her room with her drawing board.

His negotiations with Yara Joyce were fruitless. Georgia was her only daughter; there was no way Yara Joyce would let her child suffer.

No matter how tempting his offer, Yara Joyce firmly rejected all his conditions.

Defeated, he had no choice but to leave.

Back then, his health was poor, and walking was extremely difficult for him. Georgia’s family lived on the fifth floor, but he had gone up personally as a show of his sincerity.

When he finally made it back downstairs, Georgia’s figure flitted past him like a butterfly as she ran to the stairwell.

A young boy stood there, giving her a gentle, shy smile.

Without so much as a backward glance, Georgia left with Justin Sullivan.

’Thinking back on it now, it seemed ridiculous. He considered himself handsome, so why hadn’t Georgia given him so much as a second glance back then?’

’To her, I was probably just some ordinary old guy in a wheelchair!’

Years later, he saw her again—in his own room.

A panicked Georgia had caught him completely off guard. He hadn’t connected the woman before him with the little girl who had run off without a backward glance.

She had changed so much. She was much thinner, had blossomed, and had become beautiful and captivating.

When he saw Georgia with Selena, his first thought was, ’Georgia is in the prime of her youth. Are there a lot of young punks chasing after her?’

He was terrified by his own thought, even though he had been trying to restrain himself.

He tried to hold back, again and again, but never expected to end up so deeply entangled.

When Georgia didn’t wake up, his brief sense of calm gave way to renewed anxiety, and he grabbed a doctor to question him.

The doctor stammered, "She’s... probably just exhausted. She needs to get some proper sleep."

Elliot fell silent. He’d only been away from her for two or three days, and she had already run herself into the ground.

The more he looked at Georgia, the more his heart ached with a deep unease.

’Then again,’ he thought, ’she wasn’t any better off when she was with me. She could barely sleep then, either.’

Georgia slept on, not even waking as dusk settled outside.

Byron Shaw called, likely because he hadn’t heard from her.

When he recognized Elliot’s voice, he asked, "Why is it you? Where’s Georgia?"

"She’s in the hospital. She has a fever and is still asleep."

Byron Shaw was silent for a moment on the other end. He remembered the wet patch on the floor that morning and sighed, then asked which hospital she was in.

Elliot glanced at Georgia on the bed before turning away and giving him the hospital’s address.

Georgia hadn’t slept well for the past several nights. By the time Byron Shaw arrived, she was still fast asleep.

"How is she?"

"Her fever’s mostly gone down."

The two men ordinarily would have had nothing to say to each other, but with Georgia between them, they found they had something to discuss.

They went outside to talk, and Elliot accepted the cigarette Byron offered him.

"Didn’t you say you quit?"

Elliot gave a bitter smile. Nowadays, these were the only things getting him through the day.

They smoked in silence.

The hospital Georgia was in was, by coincidence, the very same one where Aidan Sheridan was a patient.

As Aidan Sheridan’s attending physician, William heard that Elliot had carried a woman into the hospital. He didn’t need to guess who it was.

He took the opportunity to sneak over while the room was empty.

In the hospital room, Georgia was sleeping peacefully.

William studied her for a moment. ’This Georgia Thorne isn’t anything special,’ he thought.

’I really don’t know what’s gotten into Elliot. He could have anyone, so why is he so fixated on this little brat?’

William pulled up a chair and sat down, staring at Georgia in deep thought.

’Aidan Sheridan is running out of time. If they want to save him, they have to act fast.’

’Elliot can’t bring himself to do it, so I’ll be the one to talk to her. It’s not like I care about this little brat anyway.’

He reached out and gently patted Georgia’s cheek. "Wake up! Hey, wake up!"

But after calling her name several times, Georgia still didn’t open her eyes. ’Is she really asleep or just faking it?’ he wondered.

Before Georgia woke up, Elliot and Byron returned.

Forced to retreat, he decided he would have to come back and find her another day.

Before leaving, William used Georgia’s phone to call his own number, then he left.

Georgia woke in the middle of the night. Elliot was a light sleeper, and the moment she stirred, he was awake too.

"How are you feeling? Does anything hurt?" Elliot asked with concern.

A dim, yellow wall lamp was on in the room, its warm light casting a soft glow on Elliot’s handsome face. She stared at him, mesmerized.

Elliot watched her in silence.

After a moment, Georgia broke her gaze, pulled the covers up, and lay back down, turning her back to Elliot in a silent act of rejection.

Her face was buried in the blankets, her long, dark hair fanned out over the pillow.

Time passed so quickly. Her natural dark hair had almost grown out, leaving only the faintest trace of color at the ends.

Georgia continued to resist Elliot, refusing to even look at him.

The next morning, when she tried to leave for work, Elliot stood blocking the door. She took a step to the side; he mirrored her, deliberately getting in her way.

From the previous evening until that morning, neither of them had said a single word to the other.

Elliot wasn’t in a hurry. He had all the patience in the world now.

"Move! I’m going to be late for work!" Georgia finally snapped, her anger boiling over.

In the past, a tone like that would have made Elliot’s face darken with anger.

But instead of getting angry, Elliot smiled, the corners of his lips curling up. "Say my name."