Chapter 8

I couldn't help but smile as I imagined Eve's face. Ryan pressed me down, not intending to let me get out of bed. "Where are you going?" "I want to visit Eve." "You don't have to visit her now. She's—" The rest of Ryan's words died in his throat. The sight of his expression made my smile slowly stiffen on my face. A ridiculous speculation suddenly popped into my mind. I shoved Ryan away and stumbled out of bed in order to find Eve. Ryan hugged me from behind. Just like that, he was able to restrain me very easily. "Since you've already guessed what happened to Eve, why must you find her? Eve loved and cared about you so much. She wouldn't want to see you suffer." I remained rooted to the spot. My mind went blank all of a sudden. Tears began streaming down my cheeks. It was as if my waterworks were turned on all of a sudden. In the past, I never knew that men were capable of wailing this pathetically. Ryan dragged me back to my bed. He wiped my tears away without feeling disgusted. Then, he told me everything in a lowered voice. The truth was, I had been unconscious for one day and one night straight. Eve passed away last night. What was I doing at that time? Right. I was still in the bar throwing a tantrum because of the necklace slung around Ryan's neck. Because of that, I didn't even get to see Eve one last time. Had I been able to keep my temper in check, did that mean I'd get to see Eve one more time? That thought crippled me entirely. I could only hunch over and curl into a ball while wailing like a baby. Ryan didn't say anything after that. He just kept me company dutifully. When Wynnie entered the ward, I wasn't able to withdraw myself from my feelings of sorrow. She drank in my wretched sight for a moment or two before tossing me a bank card. "There's three million dollars in this card. It's enough for your treatment." That card was so light that it barely weighed anything. But the value it held was so heavy that I could barely pick it up. Eve's life was connected to that card, after all. Had Wynnie given me the card sooner, I might be able to save Eve's life. But now, Eve was no longer here. Nothing could ever bring her back. I did my best to straighten up before throwing the card back at Wynnie with all my might. "Eve is already dead. I don't want it anymore." Shock fleeted across Wynnie's face momentarily. But Richard was the first one to defend her honor. "Wynnie didn't know things would turn out like this. There wasn't enough working capital in Jakeman Group a few days ago." If there wasn't enough working capital, then how the hell was Wynnie able to afford a necklace worth tens of millions of dollars? Besides, Wynnie had plenty of savings, didn't she? Why would she ever find the need to use her company's funds? I just chuckled icily. Then, I asked Richard, "Should I be complimenting you instead for being able to get Wynnie to spend all of her money on a homewrecker like you?" This was my first time being this harsh in front of Wynnie. Richard was shocked, to say the least. Then, he clamped up while looking quite miffed. I would've thought that he was the legitimate husband who felt aggrieved if it wasn't for the fact that I was the actual husband. Wynnie's expression became thunderous. She glared at me while biting out, "Sebastian, you'd better watch it. Don't cross the line." All I did was call Richard out as a homewrecker. Wynnie's heart was already aching for that lover of hers. What if Richard were to get criticized by the public for marrying her, just like what had happened to me in the past? Just how heartbroken would Wynnie be? I raised my head to look at her, a smile playing on my lips. "So what if I've crossed the line, hmm? If you really cared about Richard, you should divorce me and marry him." Wynnie looked stunned. Perhaps she didn't expect me to say such things out of my concern about the orphanage's funding. Sometime later, she finally chuckled. "Sebastian, do you really think you can aggravate me into getting a divorce with you? No way." I thought I saw smugness flashing across Wynnie's eyes for a split second. It made me wonder if I was seeing things. Right after Wynnie and Richard left the ward, a doctor walked in. It was the same doctor who had given me a check-up in the past. He rifled through my check-up report without saying anything. Before he left, he just said, "You should get your affairs in order." I told Ryan to deal with the discharge procedures for me. There were only a few things I wanted to do in life before passing away. Unfortunately, I had already screwed one of them up. That was why I wanted to complete the rest of my goals properly. Once I got discharged, I visited Mdm. Foster. It had been a few days since we last saw each other, and yet her hair seemed to have grayed out. Her eyes were all red and puffy. Still, she squeezed out a smile the moment she saw me. "You're here, Seb. Is it because you want to collect Eve's belongings?" I nodded mutely, finding it difficult to even say a word. Mdm. Foster led me to Eve's room in slow paces. I had walked down the corridors of this orphanage so many times in this lifetime. Never would I expect that I'd revisit the orphanage after so many years just to collect Eve's belongings. Eve didn't have much in her room. One small box was enough to hold all of her belongings. But the things in the box were all of her favorite belongings before she passed away. When Mdm. Foster opened the box for me, she said, "These belongings are the ones that had stuck with her the longest. They also happened to be her favorite ones." It was said that every human had a soul that allowed them to turn into spirits upon death. If Eve were to visit the orphanage in the future as a specter, she might linger for a little longer when she noticed her belongings. Eve's funeral was set to be held in three days. Her body would get cremated on that day. She told us before that she wanted us to scatter her ashes into the mountain if she were to pass away one day. That way, she'd be reborn with the trees there. It was already fall. The days grew chillier than the ones before. On the day of Eve's funeral, the sky began drizzling lightly, as though God was merely watering the earth with a watering can. Mdm. Foster got a priest to officiate the funeral, who said a few prayers that could lay Eve's soul to eternal rest. According to him, Eve would surely be accepted into heaven and watch us from above. Once I got ready to leave the orphanage with an urn of Eve's ashes, I saw the person I didn't want to see the most hanging outside the orphanage's gates. It was Wynnie. She parked her car outside the orphanage's gates. The moment she saw me, she lowered her car window instantly. "Get in." I just stood on the spot with Eve's urn in my arms. "Wynnie, do you really think that I must follow your every order?" "I never said that. Get in the car, Sebastian. I want to talk to you about Eve." I complied. Wynnie began driving in the direction of our manor. On the way there, I kept quiet. But when we were about to reach home, I spoke up. "You said you wanted to talk about Eve." "Eve's matter has nothing to do with me. It didn't matter if I paid for her treatment; she'd die regardless." I thought Eve had said something to Wynnie. It turned out that Wynnie was merely defending herself with such ridiculous excuses. I turned to look at Wynnie's side profile as she drove. For the first time ever, I felt that I finally got to see her true colors after more than a decade. "So? Did you seek me out just to tell me that?" Wynnie pulled the car over to the side of the road. When she caught sight of my expression, she couldn't help but look frustrated. "Just how long are you going to keep this up? You care about me, don't you? If not, why did you snatch that necklace from Richard? Why were you being mean to Richard in the ward? "Sebastian, will it kill you to play nice and appease me for once? You know that I'll return to your side once you do that!"