[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-bl-bound-to-my-enemy-the-billionaire-who-took-my":3,"chapter-bl-bound-to-my-enemy-the-billionaire-who-took-my-bl-bound-to-my-enemy-the-billionaire-who-took-my-chapter-269":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"english","[BL] Bound to My Enemy: The Billionaire Who Took My Girl",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1735703,2219,"Chapter 269: The Rumors","bl-bound-to-my-enemy-the-billionaire-who-took-my-chapter-269",269,"\u003Cp>NICK\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I resumed my rounds with a mechanical competence that was almost frightening.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>My body knew how to read a chart, how to palpate an abdomen, and how to deliver a prognosis without involving my brain at all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>My mind was elsewhere.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was back at the apartment, anchored to the image of Cyan on my couch, drowning in my spare clothes and watching cartoons.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I kept seeing the cut on his palm. I kept seeing the way the morning light hit the sharp line of his jaw.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And then, the dream. The reach. The \"almost.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Dr. Bennett?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I snapped back to the present. A patient was looking at me, her expression a mixture of confusion and mild offense.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I had missed something. My silence had stretched too long.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I’m sorry,\" I said, the words arriving clipped and cold. \"Repeat that last part.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She repeated it. I filed it, responded correctly, and moved on, but the gap had been noticed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I could feel the eyes of the floor nurse on me. She was careful, her tone carrying that specific weight of someone who thinks they’ve caught a crack in a previously perfect façade.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You alright, Dr. Bennett?\" she asked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Exhaustion,\" I replied. It was a simple, final word. I didn’t give her room to follow up.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As I moved through the halls, I noticed the whispers. A hospital is a high-speed processor for information.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The low current of gossip was moving faster than usual today, a restless energy vibrating through the staff.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They knew something. They were distributing it in increments, like a slow-release sedative.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By mid-afternoon, I headed toward the intensive care wing for the post-operative check.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was standard procedure, but the atmosphere changed the closer I got to the private suites.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The guards were the first sign. These weren’t hospital security guards... the kind who spend their shifts helping elderly patients find the cafeteria.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These were men with hard eyes and the specific, heavy posture of people who are armed and waiting for a reason to prove it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The floor nurse caught up to me, her voice dropping an octave as she fell into step.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Dr. Bennett. Did you hear? Someone leaked it this morning. A media outlet ran the story about the shooting and named this hospital.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I glanced at her, my expression neutral.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It was scrubbed within the hour,\" she continued, her hands moving in a frantic gesture. \"But you know how it spreads. The internet doesn’t forget that fast.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I understood everything simultaneously. The extra security. The restricted access. The whispers I’d been hearing since I clocked in.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And, most importantly, why Lila had been calling me like her life depended on it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"When?\" I asked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Around ten. XUM released a statement by eleven calling it false. They said he was fine, but people aren’t sure what to believe.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We reached the ward entrance. The guards straightened as I approached. I didn’t slow down.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I held my credentials up with a look that suggested any interference would be a career-ending mistake.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I operated on him,\" I said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They let me through but blocked the nurse. I stopped, turning back with the patience of someone who has exactly none to spare.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"She is a clinical nurse assigned to this ward,\" I said, my voice echoing in the sterile hallway. \"Her presence is medically necessary for the patient’s care. Unless you’d like to explain to the patient’s family why post-operative care was obstructed by a security guard, I suggest you step aside.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I gave them a beat to do the math. They stepped aside.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The private suite was large, quiet, and offensively expensive. It was the kind of room designed for people who have made sure that cost is never a variable in their survival.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Cassian was unconscious, a mountain of a man reduced to a series of readings on a monitor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The surgery was holding; the lines were clean, the drainage was minimal, and the vitals were as stable as could be expected after seven gunshot wounds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was doing what bodies do when you give them enough resources—he was surviving.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I ran the clinical inventory. I checked the medication lines and the wound sites with a detached, professional eye.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To the nurse, I gave specific, rapid-fire instructions on what to monitor and what to flag.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, for a brief second, I just looked at him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was the same man who had looked at me across a dinner table, cataloging my flaws.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was the man who was the center of Cyan’s universe... the reason a pink-haired boy was currently dissociating in my living room.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I felt a strange, sharp pang of something I didn’t want to name. I pushed it down. \"Call me if anything changes,\" I said to the nurse, and I left the room before the personal thoughts could gain any more ground.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>My phone buzzed again as soon as I hit the quiet of the corridor. Lila. I found a corner away from the main desk and answered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Finally,\" she exhaled. She sounded like she was vibrating. \"Do you know how many times I’ve called? Where have you been?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I was working, Lila. I’m at a hospital. That’s what people do here.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Whatever,\" she pivoted instantly, her voice dropping into a conspiratorial whisper. \"The news this morning. Cassian Wolfe. Is it true? Is he at your hospital?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No,\" I said.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Nick.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It’s a rumor,\" I replied flatly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The lie was clean. It wasn’t because I was protecting Cassian, or because I had any loyalty to XUM.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was because information in Lila’s hands was like a lit match in a fireworks factory.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It would create a specific set of problems... questions about how I knew, why I was involved, that I didn’t have time to answer today.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Really?\" she sounded genuinely disappointed. \"Because my source was pretty—\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Your source is wrong. XUM already put out a statement. It was false.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I’m gonna have to tell everyone I was wrong,\" she muttered. \"That’s so embarrassing.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I said nothing. Lila’s definition of tragedy was always remarkably self-centered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"So, can I come over tonight?\" she asked, her tone shifting back to its usual chirpy register. \"We had plans, remember?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>An image flashed through my mind: Lila walking into my apartment, finding Cyan in his borrowed clothes, eating my food and watching my TV. The disaster of that encounter would be legendary.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I won’t be around,\" I said. \"Come another time.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"We literally had—\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I have to go, Lila.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I ended the call and stared at the dark screen. I wondered why I had just protected the situation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not just the hospital’s secret, but the situation at home. Why did having Cyan in my apartment feel like something that needed to be guarded?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No,\" I whispered to the empty corridor. I wasn’t going down that road.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I returned to my rounds, performing the role of the diligent surgeon for another two hours. The afternoon was bleeding into something quiet when I saw him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A figure was standing near the nurse’s station, talking to a staff member.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He looked distressed... the kind of frantic, wide-eyed distress of someone who has seen something terrible and is begging for someone to tell them it isn’t real.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I recognized him before the recognition was even conscious. The hair was lighter, but the height, the build, and the face were a haunting echo of my own.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Noah.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was here. Which meant the news leak had reached him, and the subsequent scrubbing hadn’t been enough to convince him it was a lie.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was standing there, his hands trembling as he spoke to a nurse who was looking at him with a growing sense of confusion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The nurse looked up as I approached, and I saw her eyes go wide. She looked at me, then at Noah, then back at me.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The double-take was immediate. The resemblance was too strong to ignore in this proximity.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Thank you,\" I said to the nurse, my voice carrying an absolute dismissal.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>She got the message and moved away quickly, though I could see her glancing back over her shoulder.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>I reached out and put a firm hand on Noah’s arm. I guided him away from the open corridor, toward a quiet corner where the conversation wouldn’t carry.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was cooperative, mostly because the shock seemed to have drained the resistance out of him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We stood in the shadows of a recessed doorway. Up close, looking at him was like looking into a distorted mirror.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He had the same eyes, the same set of the jaw, but everything about him was softer, more vulnerable.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He looked at me, and I saw the question already formed in his eyes. He didn’t even wait for me to speak.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It’s true, isn’t it?\" he asked. His voice was a jagged, broken thing. \"Cassian is here. He’s here, and he’s hurt.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He looked at me, pleading for a lie I couldn’t give him. He wasn’t Lila; he wasn’t looking for gossip. He was looking for a lifeline. And for some reason, standing there with this boy who shared my face, the clinical detachment I’d spent all day building began to feel very, very thin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Noah,\" I began, but the name felt heavy in my mouth.\u003C\u002Fp>",1548,"2026-06-06T16:23:43.455Z",1,"novelbin.me","157c12e5cd47dae4d7bb3d56dab43f7a6656215f822e79f166d5656e5646f52b","bl-bound-to-my-enemy-the-billionaire-who-took-my-chapter-270","bl-bound-to-my-enemy-the-billionaire-who-took-my-chapter-268",307,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fbl-bound-to-my-enemy-the-billionaire-who-took-my-cover.jpg"]