Ficorpio
Chapter 1
My best friend seemed to be pregnant, so I went with her to City Hospital for a checkup.
We had just stepped out of the Obstetrics Clinic when we ran straight into the captain of the Tactical Response Unit, who was on duty nearby.
The moment Olivia saw him, all the color drained from her face.
“Oh no. My brother. If he finds out I’m pregnant outside marriage, he’ll kill me!”
There was no time to think. She shoved the Prenatal Test Report into my hands.
Under Adrian’s scrutinizing gaze, Olivia gave a nervous laugh. “Adrian, I was just accompanying Claire.”
“Her boyfriend…” She forced herself to keep smiling. “He’s completely irresponsible!”
Adrian’s eyes shifted to me. I lowered my gaze to the floor.
Late that night, he appeared at my apartment.
He looked utterly dejected, and his voice trembled faintly.
“We were together for six months,” he said. “I never touched you.”
“So whose child is it?”
When Olivia pressed her Prenatal Test Report into my hands, I could only stare at her in confusion.
Beside my ear, she whispered urgently, “Save me. Please, save me. Please.”
By the time I came back to myself, Adrian had already reached us.
The nurses passing by kept sneaking glances at him.
He was dressed in a black tactical uniform. At six foot one, he had an intimidating presence that seemed to fill the entire hallway. His features were sharp and well-defined, and years of training had given his skin a healthy bronze tone.
He practically radiated testosterone.
Adrian was probably on patrol nearby. He seemed just as surprised to see us at the hospital.
“Oh, hey, Adrian!” Olivia hurried forward with a bright smile, clearly trying to distract him. “What are you doing here?”
“I brought an injured colleague in,” he replied succinctly.
His gaze flicked toward the department behind us. The words OBSTETRICS CLINIC stood out in bold letters above the door.
“You two were here…”
“For a checkup!” Olivia’s mind moved surprisingly quickly under pressure. “We meant to go to the gynecology department, but we took a wrong turn and somehow ended up in obstetrics…”
I instinctively tightened my grip on the report and slipped it behind my back.
Adrian’s presence was impossible to ignore. I stole a glance at him.
He caught me looking.
Our eyes met without warning, and my entire body went rigid.
Just then, a nurse stepped out of the clinic. When she saw us, she smiled.
“You got the Prenatal Test Report, right? The doctor is coming over now. Please wait a moment.”
Olivia and I both fell silent.
Chapter 2
Adrian’s gaze dropped to the paper hidden behind my back. His expression was filled with unmistakable suspicion.
Olivia had been my sister-like best friend for more than a decade, so I knew her well.
I also knew that she was terrified of her brother.
The Bennetts had been a single-parent family. Their mother had worked herself to the bone to raise both children, leaving little time to keep an eye on them. Adrian was five years older than Olivia, and from childhood onward, he had watched over her even more closely than their mother had.
When Olivia was in middle school, Evelyn Bennett died of an illness.
From that day on, Adrian became her Primary Guardian.
He was steady and restrained, rarely smiled, and had a frighteningly ruthless way of handling things.
When Olivia’s Teenage Romance was discovered in high school, one of her teachers called Adrian to the school.
He was perfectly polite while he was on campus. But once they were outside, he dragged the boy straight over to Olivia.
The poor kid was nearly scared to death. He kept swearing that he didn’t like Olivia, that he had only been fooling around with her, and that he would avoid her completely if he ever saw her again.
That incident completely shattered Olivia’s fantasies about school romance.
Adrian understood exactly how to destroy someone’s spirit.
That was why, even though Olivia was now working and in a stable relationship, she still didn’t dare tell her brother about her boyfriend.
The two of them had been doing well. In fact, her boyfriend had proposed to her just a week ago.
Adrian still had no idea.
Olivia once told me, “He’s always busy with work and hardly ever comes home. I want to tell him, but I never get the chance.”
But I knew that wasn’t the real reason.
She was afraid Adrian would resort to the same terrifying methods he had used in the past to test her boyfriend.
This unexpected pregnancy had caught even her off guard.
It had only happened once! Who could have imagined that once would be enough?
She intended to keep the baby.
She would tell Adrian eventually.
But right now, with the Prenatal Test Report in my hand and him standing directly in front of us, this was absolutely not the right time.
Terrified of her older brother, Olivia shoved the Prenatal Test Report into my hands and blurted out the first excuse that came to mind.
“I came with Claire.”
Then she launched into an indignant rant. “Her boyfriend, honestly—I don’t even know where to start.”
“What an irresponsible jerk. He’s absolute scum!”
She was so caught up in her performance that she failed to notice Adrian’s expression darkening with every word.
His gaze shifted to me.
It clung to me with such unsettling intensity that the hair rose on the back of my neck.
Chapter 3
“She has a boyfriend?” Adrian asked, his tone almost casual.
“Of course she does,” Olivia said. “I’ve met him.”
Adrian fell silent.
The atmosphere abruptly turned strange.
Just when I felt I couldn’t stand there another second, another man in a Tactical Response Unit uniform hurried toward us.
“Captain, Daniel Carter is awake.”
Adrian’s expression sharpened. “I’ll go see him.”
Whatever had happened was clearly urgent. With no time to question us further, he turned and strode away.
Olivia released a long breath of relief.
Then she looked at me and found me standing there in a daze. Her eyes immediately filled with grateful tears.
“Claire, you just saved my life.” She clasped her hands dramatically. “We need to find somewhere private so I can get down on my knees and thank you properly. Otherwise, I’ll never be able to live with myself.”
I couldn’t help laughing.
I’d taken the fall for her plenty of times over the years. One more hardly made a difference.
As Olivia liked to say, what was the point of having a best friend if you didn’t have someone willing to ignore her conscience and take your side?
I tapped her on the forehead.
“That’s enough. Go see the doctor.”
Olivia was sensitive enough to realize something was wrong with me. She softened her voice, trying to reassure me.
“It’ll be fine. You barely know my brother. He isn’t going to care that much.”
“We only need to fool him for now. I’ll explain everything to him later.”
A nurse stepped out and called Olivia’s name. Olivia took the Prenatal Test Report from me and went into the examination room.
I remained outside the Obstetrics Clinic, staring blankly ahead.
After a moment, I turned toward the corridor where Adrian had disappeared. Olivia’s words echoed in my ears.
You barely know my brother.
I let out a quiet sigh.
Barely knew him?
Adrian and I knew each other far too well.
After Olivia and I left the hospital, we went our separate ways.
Her boyfriend, Evan Carter, came to pick her up. They probably had a lot to discuss.
I went home and slept for a while. When I woke up, the sky was already darkening.
My stomach was growling, so I ordered food delivery.
I had barely turned on the television when the doorbell rang.
That was fast.
I hurried to the door and pulled it open.
Then I froze.
Adrian Bennett stood outside my apartment.
He had taken off his black tactical uniform and changed into a simple white shirt. Without the uniform, he looked less cold and imposing.
Maybe he had rushed over. A thin sheen of sweat glistened on his forehead.
He drew several deep breaths before looking down at me.
“What?” he asked. “Aren’t you going to invite me in?”
Olivia had no idea that I had once been in a relationship with her brother.
We dated for more than six months, and we had broken up only a month earlier.
At first, everything I knew about Adrian Bennett came from Olivia.