Slept With An "Ex-convict Nobody" - A Hidden Trillionaire!

Chapter 13: The grand physician

“Call the physician! Hurry!” Aunt Rose, Lizzy’s older sister shouted again, her voice trembling as she tried to support her father’s frail, heaving frame.

She had been in the kitchen making sure the dishes were excellently served by the chefs when she heard the commotion, only for her to rush outside to the main hall to see her father lying on the ground.

“I’m trying—he’s not answering!” Leif cried, fumbling with his phone. “The line is busy!”

The room descended into disorder as one relative after another dialed desperately, each hoping to reach the country’s greatest physician—the Grand Physician. He was the only man in the nation said to have the skills to save a life when death itself was knocking. But he was also infamous for being untouchable, attending only to the elite one percent of the country’s most powerful. 

To the Robbins family, who had long thought of themselves as untouchable, the realization was crushing: even they could not summon him at will because they didn’t make it into the top one percent elite in the country.

“He won’t come for us,” Lizzy whispered sadly. “We’re not… not on his list.”

“Then we’ll find someone who can.” Leif replied, his tone was commanding. “I think one of the Grand Physician’s apprentices lives nearby. I’ll send for him. He may not be as skilled, but he’ll know what to do.”

The suggestion seemed to calm some of the frantic relatives, but Emma could see the doubt in their eyes. Every second wasted felt like sand slipping through an hourglass.

Ethan, who had not said a thing since Grandpa Robbins collapsed, finally stepped forward. His voice was firm but calm. “I can help him. If you’ll let me.”

The entire hall seemed to stop for a beat—then erupted again, this time with bitter laughter and disbelief, almost forgetting that an old man’s life was hanging on a thin thread.

“You?” Leif scoffed, whirling on him as if the very idea were an insult. “You can’t be serious.”

“I am serious, and I can help if you’d let me.” Ethan said simply, his eyes steady on the old man struggling to breathe. “I can stabilize him until proper help arrives. If you keep waiting, his condition will worsen.”

“And let me guess…, you studied medicine?” Leif barked a laugh. “Where? In prison? Did you patch up your cellmates when they got into fights?”

The relatives jeered, some openly smirking, others shaking their heads.

It was almost looking obvious to the rest of the Robbins’ family members that Ethan wasn’t just poor and a criminal, he might have also lost his mind. Because if not, he wouldn’t be declaring boldly to them that he could save the grand patriarch of the Robbins’ family when he was the reason he collapsed in the first place.

Emma’s heart ached as she watched Ethan stand there, unwavering in the storm of mockery. Even if she hadn’t got to know him too well, the little stunt he had pulled in front of her and her friends was enough to convince her that Ethan wasn’t who her family were labelling him to be, and he might really be able to help them while they wait for proper medical attention.

“Let him try,” Emma urged suddenly, her voice rising above the chaos. She turned desperately to the circle of relatives. “Don’t you see? We don’t have time to wait! Every second counts!”

Her words fell flat against a wall of disdain.

“Stay out of this, Emma,” her mother snapped, pulling her back. “You’ve done enough damage already!”

“She’s right,” Aunt Rose muttered bitterly. “This entire disaster started with her shameful choices. And now she wants to put Grandfather’s life in the hands of this… this man?”

“Over my dead body,” Leif cut in coldly. “If anyone touches Grandfather, it won’t be him.”

The tension thickened until the very air felt suffocating. Ethan stood silent, and was staring, but he didn’t force himself forward. He simply waited, his gaze never leaving the Grand Patriarch’s face, his fists at his sides.

Minutes later—minutes that felt like hours—the doors of the hall burst open. A man in a long grey coat stepped in, carrying a brief case that was more like a first aid kit, and without introduction from Leif, everyone already knew who he was. 

“This is the apprentice of the Grand Physician,” Leif eventually announced breathlessly. “I was able to get across to him.”

Hope flickered in the hall as the apprentice hurried to the old man’s side. He knelt, pulling out his instruments, checking pulse and breath. Everyone watched in tense silence as he worked.

But the silence broke when his face grew grim. He set his tools down slowly and looked up at the worried circle of relatives.

“This…” he said heavily, “this is beyond me. His condition is more severe than I can handle. I can only ease his pain, but saving him… that requires the Grand Physician himself. If you can’t reach him, then…” He hesitated, his voice lowering. “…then you should prepare yourselves. It would be wise to say your last words.”

The words fell like a death sentence, and in that moment, Emma’s knees nearly buckled as tears welled in her eyes.

“You’re wrong,” Ethan said evenly, his eyes fixed on the apprentice. “There is still a way to stabilize him. You just don’t see it.”

The young man stiffened, clearly unused to being contradicted. He turned, his expression darkening as his gaze fell on Ethan. “And you are?”

“A man who knows what he’s talking about,” Ethan replied.

The apprentice gave a short, disdainful laugh. “You?” He looked Ethan up and down, taking in his simple clothes and unassuming posture. “Don’t waste my time. I am a direct apprentice of the Grand Physician—the greatest healer in the nation. I have studied secrets ordinary men can’t even imagine. And you think you know better than me?”

Ethan’s eyes narrowed slightly. “If your conclusion is that nothing can be done, then you’ve learned very little. Your master would be ashamed.”

The words landed like a slap. Gasps rippled through the hall.

“You dare!” the apprentice snapped, his face flushing red. “Do you even know who you’re speaking to? I am one of only twelve chosen by the Grand Physician himself! Men of power beg to stand where I stand! You, on the other hand, are nothing and yet, here you are claiming to know medicine.”

Laughter and sneers broke out among the family. Leif was nearly doubled over. “Oh, this is rich! The beggar now insults the Grand Physician’s apprentice? Emma, your new husband is really putting up a show tonight, and I hope you’re enjoying it?”

But Ethan remained unshaken. He took one step closer to the apprentice, his voice low but firm. “If you truly believe your training complete, then prove it. Do what I tell you. If it fails, then dismiss me as a fool. But if it works, you will know I was right.”

The apprentice’s pride bristled like a cornered beast. “Fine,” he spat. “Let us make it interesting. If your ridiculous suggestion works—a suggestion that flies in the face of everything the Grand Physician has taught us—then I will bow before you and acknowledge you as my master.”

Gasps erupted once more. Even Emma stared wide-eyed at Ethan, shocked by the bold challenge.

“And if it doesn’t?” Ethan asked calmly.

“Then,” the apprentice sneered, “you will be whipped. Two hundred strokes of the rod! Let’s see how your arrogance holds up when your back is split open.”

The family members exchanged eager, vicious glances.

“Yes!” One of the guests shouted.

“Two hundred strokes! That will teach him his place.”

“At last, some punishment for his insolence.”

Leif’s smirk widened, his voice cutting through the murmurs. “Agreed. If he loses, he takes the punishment here and now. Let everyone witness it.”

The hall buzzed with cruel anticipation. To them, Ethan was finally walking into his own undoing.

But Ethan? He simply inclined his head, his cold smirk tugged at the corners of his lips. 

“Very well.”