Heena looked away, stubbornly refusing to meet Samuel's intense gaze.
"Fine," she muttered, sticking to her fabricated excuse. "I was just trying to get healthy fast. That's all." She kept her eyes fixed on the heavy silk blankets, absolutely determined to take her real secret to the grave.
Before Samuel could press the issue any further, the heavy oak doors swung open once more. Grandpa and Grandma Marcuset walked back into the room, having just finished saying their threatening goodbyes to the terrified physician in the hallway.
Grandma immediately rushed back to the bedside, her sharp eyes scanning her granddaughter's pale face. "Are you truly okay? Is there something else wrong?"
"No, it's fine, Grandma," Heena replied, forcing her voice to sound relaxed.
Grandma stared at her for a long, calculating moment. "Sometimes, I really doubt that you are a child of this family."
Heena blinked, genuinely caught off guard. "What?"
