âI want to go home, Charles." Sophia had tried her best to maintain her composure but her voice still trembled when she spoke.
Charles took her hand. "Do you think it will make a difference if you go back? If a person is bent on committing suicide, that person can jump off a building, overdose on drugs, slice his or her wrists... When you are bent on dying, you can die in all sorts of ways. You probably know this better than I do."
Sophia knew very well indeed.
She knew better than anyone how it felt to have nothing left to live for.
Even so, she said, "I want to go home!"
She did not want to have any more regrets!
"I have invited a reputable psychiatrist and he will be there in the afternoon. Itâs only a few hours," Charles said.
Sophia pressed her lips firmly, not uttering a word.
"You saw it too when you left the house. Your mother was having a great time with Jenna." Charles stroked her back. "You are too sensitive."
Sophia hesitated over and over again. "I will just go back to take a look. Iâll go out with you tomorrow."
The two returned to the White residence together.
Jenny was playing with the child in the living room and was extremely surprised to see the two of them return. "You guys went out, didnât you? Why did you come back again?"
"Soph is worried about you, Mom." Nicole said, "You look like you are in a bad mood after quarreling with Madam Johnson."
Jenny sighed and said, "Iâm not in a bad mood, really. Just took things too hard last time. I was always hesitant in every single thing that I did, worried that I would hurt this person or that person and ended up hurting everybody in the end."
"You are not a one hundred dollar bill, not everyone is going to like you. Don't be too harsh on yourself," Sophia sat next to her and said softly.
Jenny smiled, her eyes were still red. Even so, she could tell that her mother was in a pretty good mood. "You don't have to comfort me. Iâve moved on."
"Mm. I can be the witness for that." Nicole picked her child up and said, "Mom was just telling me that she was only befriending Madam Johnson all this time because of the past relationship they shared as friends. The truth is that Madam Johnson is just a black-hearted person and she should have stopped being friends with her a long time ago."
Sophia was still a little skeptical. "Did you really say that, Mom?"
This was not how her motherâs style of approaching things.
"That's what I said." Jenny sighed. "It dawned on me that weâre not the same to start with."
After chatting for a while, Sophia was still worried and said tactfully, "Mom, a friend of Charles just happened to be around here. He likes flower arrangement and stuff like that and wants to drop by to talk to you."
"Flower arrangement? More like a psychiatrist, right?" Jenny ate a piece of fruit and looked at her with a knowing gaze.
Sophiaâs heart dropped with a thump. Dr. Hemingway told her that patients with mental illness would have an aversion to seeing psychiatrists.
"Since heâs already here, why donât you invite him over to our place lest all of you start worrying about me," Jenny said when the rest of them were speechless.
Sophia breathed a sigh of relief.
At about one-thirty in the afternoon, the psychiatrist arrived. He was probably worried that Jenny would display psychological resistance, hence he simply sat in the living room with everyone else and engaged in small talk at first.
Later, Jenny offered to speak to him in private, so they went upstairs together.
Their conversation went on for an hour and a half. Sophia had glanced upstairs one hundred and fifty times and drank ten cups of tea.
Her feelings for her mother was a complicated one. There was respect, love, sympathy, and resentment. Though no matter what, she did not want anything to happen to her mother.
Charles went out this afternoon to handle some affairs. It was Nicole who kept Sophia company in the living room.
"You're too nervous, Soph!" Nicole found it hilarious. "This isnât the first day Mom has acted like that. Besides, she seems pretty okay at composing her mood today. Why are you suddenly so worried?"
Sophia was also baffled by the sudden worries she was having. She just felt uneasy inside for a reason.
It was extremely difficult to describe that feeling. She was just inexplicably flustered, thinking that something bad was about to happen.
"Itâs alright. You shouldnât think too much anymore. The doctor will probably come downstairs soon. Letâs see what he says." Nicole patted her shoulder.
Sophia nodded.
Not long after she said those words, the doctor came down with Jenny talking and laughing with each other. The mood seemed like a jovial one.
"Ms. White, Mrs. White," The psychiatrist greeted them then explained Jenny's condition to them briefly before finally concluding. "Mild depression.
Sheâs okay. A lot of young people out there have mild depression from stress as well."
Sophia breathed a sigh of relief when the psychiatrist said that she was fine.
They all invited the psychiatrist to stay for lunch but he declined with a smile. "Iâll pass. I still have things to finish when I get back. If I hadn't owed Mr.
Harris a favor last time, I probably wouldnât have made this trip here this time either."
"Sorry for the trouble." Sophia asked two servants to send the psychiatrist to the airport.
After their dinner at night, Jenny approached Sophia. "Soph, come and sleep with me tonight."
"Why do you suddenly want to sleep with me, Mom?" Sophia asked.
"I just suddenly recalled that we haven't had heart-to-heart talks together as mother and daughter ever since you went to prison." Jenny sighed. "You used to climb in bed with me every two or three days and tell me everything."
This was true. Sophia would tell her everything about how she pursued Charles.
After hearing what she said, James frowned and said, "Charles and Soph are doing well sleeping in the same room together, you just have to intrude, donât you?"
Jenny ignored him, turning to look at Charles instead. "Charles, you donât mind if I borrow Soph from you, right?"
"How do you expect Charles to answer that question when you ask it like that?!" James smacked the table.
Jenny continued to ignore him. She was simply staring at Charles.
"Of course I don't mind. Sheâs your daughter. I should thank you for giving birth to her," Charles said.
Atrophy of Love: Mr. Harris, Stop Fooling Around!
ï¤Chapter 338 The Truth Jenny smiled. "Thank you."
She stood up and stretched her hand toward Sophia. "Letâs go, Soph."
The two went up to the second floor together and into Jenny and James' room.
Sophia looked at Jennyâs loving face and was put in a trance for a moment, feeling like she had returned to life two years ago.
After taking a shower, they both laid on the bed.
Jenny was rarely in high spirits and hummed a few songs to her. "You and your brother enjoyed listening to me singing the most when you guys were young. Others would listen to bedtime stories, but both of you would listen to bedtime songs."
What she said must have happened when she was still very young as Sophia had no memory of it. She simply listened in silence.
"Kids, however, are only close to their mothers when they are young." Jenny sighed. "When they grow up, even their mothers have no idea what theyâre thinking about anymore..."
She said those two sentences in a very soft voice so Sophia could not hear her clearly. "What did you say?"
"Nothing." Jenny smiled and pressed her forehead against hers as she always did when she was young. "I said that Iâm glad that my children have grown up. You guys were so lively when you were young. I feel more at ease now that youâve all grown up."
Sophia could vaguely sense that these were not the things she just said. She was about to ask her when she changed the subject. "When you were a kid, you liked to dance with a silly smile on your face when I sing. I told your dad that you are a budding dancer seeing how you could catch the beats so accurately. After that, we signed you up for dance classes."
"If I had known that your dad had intentions like that when he sent you to dance classes in the first place, then I would have never agreed to it..."