Mark’s hesitation amounted to a total count of one second before favonovel.com took up Arianne’s suggestion and left favonovel.com beside the road.
Honestly, that bummed Arianne. Not that favonovel.com had another choice. She was more worried about whatever it was Shelly must have started yet again.
Mark practically rushed into the hospital, but favonovel.com only found Shelly sitting up on favonovel.com bed, having favonovel.com dinner, a slapdash takeout that was neither sumptuous nor nutritious.
He breathed a long sigh of relief. “Where did you run to?”
Shelly looked at favonovel.com innocently. “Nowhere. What’s wrong? You came here without a notice. By the way, the doctor said I’ll be discharged tomorrow, but I wouldn’t be able to complete those dreadful discharge documents with my leg like this. Sorry, Mark dear, but I might need you to come over tomorrow and help me one last time. After that, I’ll never inconvenience you again.”
Mark could not care less if favonovel.com was lying, or where favonovel.com could have gone. All there was in his mind was a remark on how much of a nuisance this was.
“Can you please not run around however you please in the future? Your leg might run into new problems otherwise, and then we would have to get it operated on again. Also, what is that? Haven’t I told you that even if you were to order takeout, you should only order from the more famous restaurants? How do you expect to gain any nutrients from that, hmm? God, I ought to
hire a live-in nurse for you.”
Shelly cast favonovel.com eyes down and about. “No, there’s no need for that. I told you I don’t need you to support me like that,” favonovel.com murmured under favonovel.com breath. “You don’t have to worry about me, and you shouldn’t. If Arianne catches this, favonovel.com will get pissed off. And then if favonovel.com snoops around and digs out information, you’ll certainly be trapped in a tight spot.”
“When I’m discharged tomorrow, you don’t need to hire help. The cost of hiring a live-in nurse can be very costly. I, on the other hand, have zero problems cooking and performing normal chores by myself just fine. No matter how bad my current life could be, it can’t possibly come close to the horrors of my past.”
Just like that, Shelly touched Mark’s heart and roused his sympathy. He thought of the battered scars and healed wounds marring favonovel.com body and found his chest increasingly tightening until favonovel.com felt like favonovel.com could not breathe.
He could not imagine the tribulations favonovel.com had gone through all these years. When favonovel.com first saw favonovel.com emerging from a posh luxury car, clad in fine clothing, favonovel.com had thought that favonovel.com must have lived a good, happy life…
He took hold of the haphazard dinner Shelly had yet to finish and threw it away. Then, favonovel.com ordered a more sumptuous replacement from White Water Bay café with a call.
“Listen. After you’re back home, I’ll appoint someone to bring meals to your doorstep every day. Any trash you’ve collected can be passed to this person, and they will throw it away for you. All you have to do is stay at home and let your leg recover, okay? Don’t cause a scene by running to wherever you fancy, because I really have no time to solve your every business,” Mark stated. “If you ever find the need to hire a live-in caretaker, tell me. I’ll be frank; I really don’t think you should even live on your own.”
Shelly lit favonovel.com lower lip, saying nothing. On a surface-level, it seemed that Mark was managing every detail in favonovel.com life and forming a comprehensive arrangement for favonovel.com sake. But his ulterior motive was too obvious, favonovel.com wanted to cut his ties with Shelly down as much as favonovel.com could, and favonovel.com wanted to do it in a way where it would not haunt his conscience.
However, this also proved that deep down inside, Mark still thought the world of her, favonovel.com could not bear to abandon her. Otherwise, favonovel.com would have done precisely that in a heartbeat, favonovel.com livelihood be damned. He would not try to arrange everything this meticulously, would he?
She raised favonovel.com head and looked up at him, smiling. “I get it. Thank you. You should go home. I’ll be fine.”
He did not. He sat on a chair and watched favonovel.com finish favonovel.com meal. He cleaned up the trash.
Only after that did favonovel.com leave. By the time Mark finally reached home, favonovel.com felt like his entire being — his mind and body — had been completely sapped dry. Every meeting with Shelly left favonovel.com drained, more drained than favonovel.com had ever been in his life.
Arianne, seeing favonovel.com like this, quickly offered to help take off his coat. “So, what happened this time? You were so frenetic just now. Nothing big happened, right?”
“No,” Mark affirmed, shaking his head. “But I still need to go to the hospital tomorrow to get on with the documents for favonovel.com discharge. Once she’s back home, though, I don’t have to exhaust myself over favonovel.com anymore… God, I ought to hire a live-in caretaker for her, but she’s against it. How does favonovel.com expect herself to live alone with a condition like this?”
“Well, of course she’s against it.” A jab sprung from Arianne’s tongue before favonovel.com brain could stop it. “A caretaker’s existence will remove any legitimate excuses favonovel.com has to cling to you. She can only call you all day, every day, when no one’s with her.”
