Avery doesn't know if she's happy or sad to hear that Evan is awake. She wants him to recover quickly, but the sooner he recovers, the sooner she has to leave him. She tries to smile happily, but Robert raises his eyebrows at her.

"Did Mr. Francis give you a hard time?" Robert asks. "You look upset."

"Oh, no, of course not," Avery says a little too quickly. "I mean, he was a bit cross, of course, but he mostly just wanted to ask about Evan."

Robert nods, but he doesn't look convinced. I'll need to be better at acting if I'm going to do this, Avery thinks. Already, Robert is getting suspicious of me. If I'm going to trick Evan, I have to do a better job of hiding my true feelings.

She follows Robert toward the room. Before she even reaches the door, she can hear Evan swearing and the sound of breaking glass. She pauses nervously and looks at Robert.

"Apparently, Mr. Francis made a deal with the Oliver family," Robert whispers. "The Oliver family agreed to end the feud, and Mr. Francis forbade Evan from getting revenge for the attack at the hotel. Evan is furious about it."

Avery sighs and opens the door. A pillow hits her shoulder and flies out into the hallway. The room is a mess. There's broken glass on the floor and a smashed iPad next to one of the bodyguards. Evan has thrown everything he can reach from his hospital bed.

"Can you give us a minute alone, gentlemen?" Avery asks the bodyguards.

The guards smile with relief and rush toward the door. They push and shove each other, trying to get out of the room as quickly as possible. Avery smiles to herself and slowly walks toward Evan's bed. The door shuts, and she's completely alone with Evan.

"Do you want water?" Avery asks, grabbing a spare glass from a cabinet.

Evan doesn't answer, but she poured him a glass anyway. She looks at his right hand and sees that it's wrapped with thick bandages. She gently sits on the edge of the bed and raises the glass to his lips, tilting it slightly so he can drink.

Evan grabs her arm with his uninjured left hand and holds it firmly. He frowns deeply, and his forehead creased with wrinkles. She wonders if he's angry or in pain.

"Are you okay?" she asks. "Do you want me to call for a doctor?"

Evan presses his lips together and slowly runs his good hand up and down her side. Then he slides his palm over her thigh and under her dress. Avery tries to pull away, afraid that a nurse will come in and see, but Evan's grip is iron hard. She struggles and spills some of the water on the bed.

"What are you doing?" Avery asks. "You're hurt—how can you be thinking about sex at a time like this?"

"I'm not thinking about sex," Evan says. "I'm checking to see if you're hurt."

"Evan, you shielded me from a bomb with your body, how could I possibly be hurt?" Avery asks.

"I'm your husband," he whispers. "I have a duty to keep you safe."

Avery looks away to hide the tears, filling her eyes. She wants to take his hand tenderly and softly kiss the uninjured fingers, but she stops herself. He just called himself my husband, she thinks. But I plan to leave him soon. It's too cruel to let him think I care for him.

"Robert says the Oliver family made peace with your grandfather," she says, trying to change the subject.

"That doesn't mean I'm going to leave that scumbag in peace," Evan hisses. "Jackson will pay, no matter what stupid treaty my grandfather has agreed to."

"The Olivers lashed out because of Charles, but now they've promised to leave us alone," Avery says. "Why can't we just put it all behind us?"

"Put it all behind us?" Evan asks. "Jackson ordered a hit on you, tampered with the elevator, and planned a suicide attack. How can I just put that behind me? Besides, I don't trust him to keep his word. He's a snake."

"Listen, Evan, I know you don't trust him," Avery says. "He could change his mind and attack again at any time, but we have to trust that the family will keep him under control."

"Are you defending him?" Evan asks angrily.

"No, of course not," Avery says with a tired sigh. "I know you want to protect me, but think about yourself for once. If you go after Jackson, he'll go after you. It'll go on and on until one of you ends up dead."

"It'll be him," Evan says.

"Evan, I can't bear to worry about you every time we're apart," she says. "If you continue this feud, I'm going to worry all the time. I'll never know if you'll come home alive. I can't live like that."

Evan's expression seems to soften, but his eyes are still sharp. He strokes her back under her dress. His palm is slightly too warm on her skin, and she wonders if he has a fever. He looks at her as if he's trying to read her mind, and she stares back, trying to keep her expression calm and relaxed.

"So, did the Olivers say anything about the heart?" Avery asks. "If your grandfather convinced them to end the feud, he must have come up with some way to get Charles a new heart, no?"

She knows where Charles is getting his heart, but she doesn't want Evan to get suspicious. If I ask about it, I'll seem innocent, she thought guiltily. She hates lying to Evan, but she knows it's the only way.

Evan shrugs carelessly and says, "My grandfather says they're bringing in some specialist who promises he can save Charles."

Avery tries to hide her relief by looking down at Evan's bandages. It seems that Francis has kept his end of the deal and hidden the truth from Evan. Evan pulled her toward him and smells her hair. Avery pulls away, embarrassed. She knows she smells like blood and soot and worse. She doesn't want Evan sniffing her.

A nurse opens the door and pauses, blushing to see Avery and Evan in such an intimate position on the bed. Avery tries to stand up, but Evan won't let her. The nurse clears her throat and looks down at her white shoes.

"The doctor says Mr. Howel's wounds need to be cleaned before he sleeps," the nurse says.

She's carrying a tray with disinfectant and medical swabs and gauze, but her hands are shaking terribly. Avery tugs away from Evan and takes the tray from the embarrassed nurse.

"I'll do it," Avery says. "Don't worry, I know how."

The nurse nods and runs out of the room. Avery turns to Evan and gently loosens the bandages from his back. The gauze sticks to the wounds in some places, and he flinches as she peels it away from his bloody skin. Avery sucks in her breath. It looks so much worse than she thought it would. She can't believe he's able to talk to her like normal when he has such bad injuries.

"Let Robert do it," Evan says, sounding concerned. "I don't want to upset you."

Avery takes a deep breath and says, "No, I can do it."

She pours the liquid onto the cotton and lightly dabs it onto his back. She touches him as gently as possible, but he trembles with pain. She starts with his earlobe and then moves down to his neck, collarbone, and chest. Evan presses his lips together, and his face goes pale, but he doesn't make a single sound.

She carefully disinfects his back and then looks down at the band of his underwear. She wonders if he's injured down there, but she's scared to ask. Slowly she moves her shaking hand toward his underwear, but he grabs her wrist. With a quick, strong movement, he tugs her toward him.

Avery pulls away, but he hugs her again, and she loses her balance. She stumbles forward, almost landing on top of him. She puts her hands out just in time, catching herself against the mattress. Her face is just inches from his.

"Evan, that was dangerous," she says angrily.

Evan's eyes burned with an intense fire, and he asks, "Don't I get a reward for saving you today?"

"Evan, you know we can't," Avery says. "Even if you weren't injured, I'm pregnant."

Evan ignores her. Instead, he reaches for his jacket on the bedside chair. He fumbles with it for a moment and then pulls out a ring with a champagne-colored diamond. Avery immediately recognizes it from his proposal on the island.

"Marry me," he says.