Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Could that handsome uncle be Uncle Olsen?
At this thought, Keira immediately opened the big box.
Inside the big box was a delicate small box tied with a ribbon, clearly meant for a woman.
Keira opened the small box and found inside a luxury handbag from the same brand.
She let out a sigh of relief, feeling she had thought too much.
What were the odds?
Her phone vibrated. When she checked, she saw a message from Ellis. âDid you receive the gift from Uncle Olsen? Can you spare some time to meet him?â
Keira thought for a moment. Flowers yesterday, a handbag todayâwould they continue to send things if she still ignored them tomorrow?
She replied to the message. âTell Mr. Olsen Iâm not mad; I just donât think thereâs any need to meet.â
When Ellis received the message, he immediately passed Keiraâs words on to Uncle Olsen.
After hearing it, Uncle Olsen fell silent for a while, and in the end, he just sighed softly. âThen forget it. Thereâs no need to meet then. Iâll be returning to Clance the day after tomorrow.â
âAlright.â
Ellis then asked, âBut Uncle Olsen, didnât your close friend say they were sending jewelry? Why did you send a bag instead?â
Uncle Olsen sighed. âThe jewelry is too expensive; Miss Jodie wouldnât accept it.â
The brandâs fine jewelry was worth hundreds of thousands to millions. Uncle Olsen thought giving such items was too much, so he chose a bag worth tens of thousands of dollars instead.
After all, women like them all the same!
Uncle Olsen also felt that his stubborn insistence on seeing her was mysteriously absurd; he couldnât understand this inexplicable determination to see her.
As he was pondering, his phone vibrated with a message from his close friend.
The young lady wrote, âHandsome Uncle, have you pacified your young friend?â
Uncle Olsen smiled and replied, âYes. The day after tomorrow, Iâll return to Clance donât forget our dinner date.â
The young lady said, âDonât worry. I wonât forget! Iâve spoken to my mom, and Iâll bring her alongâ so you can see what the worldâs greatest mother looks like!â
Uncle Olsen smiled, teasing her. âAlright, weâll see if your mom is better than mine.â
Keira didnât return the handbag.
An item worth tens of thousands of dollars didnât need to be returned.
She casually tossed it aside and had breakfast with Lewis.
Todayâs breakfast consisted of nice pastries. Lewis picked up a slice of apple pie for her. Keira bit into it, and her eyes lit up instantly. âItâs delicious!â
âReally?â
Lewis smiled, leaned over, and ate the remaining half of the pie from her plate, then looked at her lips with a smile. âItâs indeed delicious.â
Keira was dumbfounded.
She felt like she was being teased!
It seemed that since last night, this man had become bolder.
Keira immediately stuffed another piece of pie into her mouth, viciously biting down, yet she didnât realize that what she took for a ferocious look was full of enchanting vibrancy to Lewis.
Old Mrs. Horton burped beside them, feeling full from the coupleâs public display of affection.
After the meal, Lewis turned to Keira and said, âI need to go to the office to handle some affairs; Iâll return for lunch and can work from home in the afternoon.â
Keira knew that he was voluntarily sharing his schedule with her.
She nodded with a smile.
Lewis turned to leave, but at that moment, his phone suddenly rang.
That ringtone made Keiraâs heart skip a beat, a bad premonition swiftly seizing her.
Lewis took out his phone, saw that it was a call from Tom, and his expression instantly froze at whatever was said on the other end!
Seeing him standing still, Keira immediately approached him, her eyebrows knitting with concern as she asked, âWhat happened?â
Lewis clenched his jaw, his face as dark as brooding waters; the sense of relief that had come from shedding invisible pressures and burdens since the previous night suddenly vanished.
The fleeting relief felt like a surge of seawater, assaulting him once again.
As if drowning, he tightly grabbed Keiraâs hand and slowly said, âMadeleine jumped off a building.â
In the hospital.
Inside the emergency room, Madeleine was breathing faintly, her body covered in blood.
Doctors and nurses were coming and going, carrying many bags of blood.
Keira stood with Lewis outside the operating room, both looking at the woman on the hospital bed.
Her thin arms and legs extended outward, her complexion pale, and her body had multiple abrasions. With internal damage, she was continuously bleeding.
Upon rough calculation, Keira found that Madeleineâs body had been through the equivalent of four complete blood transfusions.
She had jumped from the tenth floor of the psychiatric hospital, and by the time she was brought to the emergency room, she had already stopped breathing.
A critical condition notice had been issued four times alreadyâ¦
Previously, Keira had thought Madeleine was being melodramatic with her fasting and suicide attempts, all just to threaten Lewis.
She never imagined that without Lewis, Madeleine truly didnât want to live anymore.
She looked toward Lewis again.
The manâs face remained cold, his gaze fixed stiffly on the person on the hospital bed, his eyes flickering with profound, complex emotions, making it impossible for Keira to discern his thoughts.
Lewis had actually foreseen this outcome when he made that decision the day before.
He was well aware of Madeleineâs severe psychological issues. It wasnât a lie.
But knowing and seeing firsthand were two different things; the frail Madeleine on the hospital bed reminded him of his childhood.
Few people knew that when those traffickers had captured him, their intention wasnât to sell him off, but they had taken money from the first branch of the family to have him killed.
Therefore, the food they prepared for him was always poisoned.
He dared not eat it.
Other children, starving, would obediently eat, but he didnât.
The other kids thought he was haughty, unaware that he couldnât eatâ¦
He was only nine years old. He was famished late into the night, too hungry to sleepâ¦
He felt he was on the verge of starving to death.
Even in the dead of night, he saw a black cat leap into the room, its dark eyes staring at him.
He seemed to recall a fairy tale book that mentioned black cats were the harbingers of death, that they would eat the soul of a person after death.
Looking into those pupils, he felt a genuine fear.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om
He didnât want to dieâhe still had his grandmotherâ¦
It was then that the door creaked open, and a small figure slipped in. She chased away the black cat and took out a piece of bread from her pocket.
She said, âBig brother, donât starve yourself any more. Eat this. Once a person dies, thereâs nothing leftâ¦â
His survival in the hands of the traffickers wasnât just because of her help in the end, but also her secret feedings during those three months.
The debt he owed her was far more than just his life!
Lewis clenched his fists tightly.
The head of the psychiatric hospital approached, apologizing with his head down. âMr. Horton, Iâm sorry, Miss Davis said she had come to a realization, that she couldnât depend on a man and needed to rely on herself⦠Then she went to bed. We didnât dare let our guard down, but the night-shift nurse dozed off for a moment. When she opened her eyes, there was no one in the room, the window was open, and the curtain was blowing in the windâ¦â
As the head of the hospital spoke these words, he noticed the ashen face of Lewis and immediately fell silent.
Lewisâs jaw was tight as he muttered to himself, âWas it my fault?â
Keira knew that he was drowning in guilt.
But she didnât know what to say to comfort himâ¦
She said instinctively, âYouâre not to blame. I once saved a big brother tooâ¦â
Lewis looked at her.. âWhat big brother?â