Chapter 10 I Don't Want to Continue.
Natalie only felt she would be annoyed to death if Luke continued to stay in the hospital.
With deep resentment, she walked out of the ward. When she looked out the window at the end of the aisle, she suddenly realized that it was sunny and breezeless today in Alcomara after several rainy days.
Pleasant weather could give people a good mood, and Natalie was not that unhappy anymore.
But when she found Forrest did not send her any message, she still felt dejected uncontrollably.
Everyone could see that Natalie was preoccupied, so her colleagues always asked if she was fine. But Daisy was gloating all the time.
Every time someone showed concern about Natalie, Daisy would say with a fake smile, "She must have asked for a snub from Mr. Bennington. He is a big shot, but here is just a small hospital, so he must look down upon our hospital. It's normal for Nata to be cold-shouldered."
Natalie laughed it off and did not bother to argue with her.
She was good-tempered and wanted to avoid trouble all the time even if she had to swallow insult and humiliation silently.
But love affairs were exceptions.
Unexpectedly, Natalie received a message from Luke at night.
It was a scientific article.
It explained the "Festinger Effect" in psychology, saying that 10% of the events in life were uncontrollable, and the remaining 90% were determined by people's state of mind.
She hadn't expected he would take the initiative to comfort her, so she thought he was not bad.
She then snuggled down in her pillow and replied, "Do you mean I should be broadminded when encountering unhappy things so as not to let the 10% ruin the 90%?"
Luke replied, "No."
Natalie was speechless and eagerly wanted to know why.
After half a minute, Luke said, "I mean if you meet someone with a bad temper, you should stay away from him."
His straightforward words made sense.
But Natalie somehow wanted to laugh.
Then, she began to think why Forrest had to give her silent treatment as if she had made a huge mistake. After all, she could explain it with just a few words.
She didn't like it at all.
However, this situation ended on the night before the wedding dress photos were shot.
That night, Natalie stayed in the hospital to practice stitching cuts and knotting in the office after work. At about 9:30 pm, she decided to go to take the subway home.
When she was clearing her desk, she received a call from Forrest's mother.
"Nata, how are you doing? I haven't seen you for a long time. When you have time, you should come to my home with Forrest to have dinner. I will cook your favorite sweet and sour fish. By the way, I've arranged everything well for tomorrow's wedding dress shoot. You just need to go there in the morning. Forrest is the same as his father. Once they start working, they forget everything else. You have to remind him of it. After all, it is an important thing."
...
"When Forrest was born, your mother said that if she gave birth to a daughter in the future, she wanted Forrest to marry her. You and Forrest are getting married soon, and your mother's wish will also be fulfilled... Your grandmother must be happy too..."
...
Natalie could not be cold to Madam Hart because she raised her although they were not related by blood. Natalie was grateful to her, so she could not tell her that Forrest was giving her a silent treatment. After all, Madam Hart had a high expectation of their marriage.
Moreover, Madam Hart mentioned her mother and grandmother.
Natalie could only lower her head and say in a low voice, "I will call him later."
This call marked her relationship with Forrest with the label of filial piety. If she broke up with him regardless of the wish of her biological mother and the expectation of Madam Hart, she would be too ruthless.
Natalie just thought of breaking up with him, but now she had to give up that idea.
After taking a shower at home, she snuggled into the small sofa in the bedroom and stared at her phone for a long time.
Grievances were deeply rooted in her heart, and she often asked herself whether their relationship would have a happy ending after they got married.
No one knew how it would be.
Their relationship began with her crush on him when she was a student. When she was an innocent student, she remembered all the good things about others.
After she graduated, she thought her dream had come true, but the original crush had gradually disappeared.
Now, Natalie wanted to retreat.
But Madam Hart's words were pushing her forward softly. After she thought for a while, she finally took a deep breath and dialed Forrest's number.
They hadn't seen each other for more than a week, and she didn't know what she should say first.
Should she make her attitude toward what had happened that night clear first?
Before Natalie could decide, the call was connected, and then a faint "hello" sounded.
Hearing his voice, Natalie froze nervously.
She didn't want to be so humble or be controlled by him, but she had depended on his family for living for so many years, so she could not be tough at all.
"This is Natalie," Natalie said weakly.
After finishing speaking, she was ready to face his coldness.
"I know. I saw the caller ID," Forrest said in a normal tone, "It's late. Why haven't you gone to sleep?"
His tone was gentle with the care and tenderness that he showed only when he was alone with her, and she couldn't hear a trace of anger in his words.
To be honest, Natalie felt relieved.
She thought since they both calmed down, they could have a good talk now.
But Forrest's next sentence instantly made her down in the dumps again.
"What's up?"
He acted as if nothing had happened, so Natalie swallowed back the words on the tip of her tongue, and her relieved emotion had completely shattered.
She felt indescribably uncomfortable.
It turned out that she was the only one who felt sad, but he had long forgotten about the dispute that night.
Natalie suddenly felt that she was so stupid because she had been blue for so many days and frequently stared at her phone in a daze. What a silly girl!
"Nothing special." Natalie held back what she wanted to say and tried her best to keep her voice from sounding too stiff, saying, "We're going to take wedding dress photos tomorrow. Your mom asked me to remind you."
"Well, I see. I'll pick you up tomorrow morning."
"Okay." Natalie rubbed her phone with her fingertips, hesitated, and said with difficulty, "That night..."
She wanted to mention what happened that night, but Forrest immediately interrupted, "I need to attend a meeting right away. You should go to bed now."
Natalie was stunned because he didn't take it seriously.
"...OK, good night," she said.
"Good night."
In the dim yellow light of the floor lamp, Natalie sank into the sofa and quietly put down the phone.
This matter had been left behind like this, but Natalie didn't think it was over.
She still felt disturbed as if a small thorn were stuck in her fingernail. It was so innocuous that Forrest had chosen to ignore it, but it had not been pulled out yet.
Natalie thought about it for a long time alone.
Before going to bed, she told Mark that she would have a day off for personal affairs and would not go to the hospital tomorrow, and then she sent a message to her grandmother, saying, "Grandma, how are you feeling recently? Forrest and I will go to take wedding dress photos tomorrow. I am busy at work this month. I will go to visit you when I have time."
Then, she went to bed.
Natalie texted her grandma every once in a while to show her care for her and share her daily life. If others looked through their chat records, they would see a lot of messages.
But all of them had been sent out by Natalie.
She hardly received any reply.
-
She tossed and turned for a night, engaging in a fierce mental struggle. Before she forgot this unpleasantness, another unpleasantness happened.
Early in the morning, it was Forrest's assistant instead of him that came to pick Natalie up at Clovervale Residence.
The young male assistant explained, "A partner arrived in Alcomara this morning, so Mr. Hart can not leave the company now. I'll send you to do makeup and hair first."
Natalie kept silent for a moment and asked, "Is it a very important person?"
"Yes, very important."
The assistant was upright. He knew that Natalie was Forrest's fiancée and didn't want her to be unhappy about it, so he added, "He is the person in charge of the Bennington Group."
The Bennington Group? The Harts and Bennington Group were working together?
It was sudden and strange.
But Natalie didn't ask any more questions. After she thanked the assistant with a hint of depression in her voice, she kept silent in the back seat.
To be honest, Natalie didn't want to take wedding dress photos.
Moreover, Forrest was absent.
Madam Hart had made a reservation in one of the best studios in Estain, so the makeup artist was naturally top in the industry.
It took nearly two hours to put on makeup and the wedding dress.
When the curtain in the fitting room was opened, the bride inside looked graceful. She was wearing a thin pearl crown and a long bridal gown which was flashing with many small diamonds on it. And her long hair was half braided, and her hair end had a gentle wave.
She looked like a noble young lady in novels, stunning the entire shooting team.
Hearing their accolades, Natalie forced a smile.
She heard that a good man shed tears three times in his life. He cried when was born because he was ignorant. He cried when he first saw his beloved woman in a wedding dress because of love. And he cried when his parents passed away because of grief.
But Forrest was not at present when she put on the bridal gown.
For whom had she put on this gorgeous dress?
"How about we go to the garden downstairs to take a few single-person photos first? When Mr. Hart arrives, we could make the progress faster," The photographer said, and his words interrupted her thoughts.
Getting married was a happy thing after all. Natalie didn't want to disappoint others, so she agreed.
No matter how bright the sunshine was, it was autumn. And it was windy outside, so she felt cold.
At 11:00 am, when she finished the single-person photo shooting, her nose turned red from the cold, and her fingers were almost numb. When she was about to go upstairs, the assistant came in a hurry.
"Ms. Moore..."
Natalie couldn't help shivering, so she wrapped her two thin arms around herself. After waiting in the chilly wind for so long, she felt a little upset although she was good-tempered.
"Is he still working?" She emphasized the word "still".
The assistant said hesitantly, "Mr. Toledano invited Mr. Hart to have lunch together. He is from the Bennington Group, so Mr. Hart can not refuse..."
Hearing this, Natalie frowned slightly.
The assistant continued, "Mr. Hart wants you to change clothes and have lunch together with them. The wedding dress photos will be taken some other day."
His words were tactful, but they didn't alleviate Natalie's sadness.
When a gust of wind blew over her face, she felt a chill in her heart.
Natalie suddenly had hypoglycemia and a blackout. She closed her eyes, hugged herself, and slowly squatted down.
The hem of the wedding dress was very big. When she was stuck in the middle, she looked like a flower that had withered and fallen. She felt tired and hopeless and had no strength to struggle.
All the grievances accumulated became a flood, and Natalie's good temper had been broken up.
Natalie felt sleepy.
Why did she feel despair over and over again in this relationship?
Perhaps, she and Forrest had personality clashes, so no matter how she compromised, their relationship wasn't going anywhere.
Now, Natalie felt more tired than ever.
She had a strong urge to break up with him again.
...
At noon.
An army green off-road vehicle was galloping at high speed through the crowded urban roads, heading for its destination.
"Why do you have to show up in person? Is your waist OK?" Charlie reprimanded with a solemn face in the passenger seat.
Mark steered with ease and replied on behalf of Luke, "Noah took the opportunity to send people to collude with the Hart Group when Luke is ill. If Luke doesn't go there, they would succeed!"
"If Luke disagrees with the acquisition of Alcomara No.2 Hospital, how can they succeed?"
"Charlie, you still don't understand. The head office will not agree, so Noah wants to acquire it in his name. Therefore, he needs to cooperate with the Hart Group."
"Even so, you should not have taken Luke out of the hospital. Do you want to kill him?" Charlie was a doctor, so he was more concerned about Luke's injury than business.
Mark had a guilty conscience, so he coughed in embarrassment and asked the person in the back seat, "Luke, are you alright?"
Luke leaned back with his eyes closed, using the back of the seat to support his lumbar spine. He was dressed in a black suit. Because of the rehabilitation belt on his right arm, the black suit jacket could only be draped over his shoulders.
The style of the suit was classical, but he didn't look like a gentleman but like a mighty and aggressive gang leader.
Luke said briefly in a cold voice, "Mind your own business."
Thirty minutes ago, they had received the news that Carlos Toledano, the project director of the Bennington Group, had secretly arrived in Alcomara and would negotiate with the Hart Group about the acquisition of Alcomara No.2 Hospital.
Carlos was Noah's minion.
Luke had known what his half-brother was like at a youthful age. He looked like an upright person on the outside, but he was a depraved man on the inside.
Noah wanted to get a controlling stake in Alcomara No.2 Hospital to expand the market for the companies under his name and monopolize the stable resources.
To get the profits, he ignored the accumulated malpractice of the restructuring and the high price people faced.
Luke could not claim that he was a virtuous man because sometimes, he also did indecent things. Since he had chosen to leave the military academy, he must end Noah's monopoly in the business circle.
No matter what, he must fight against him.
Luke rested his left elbow on the window and glanced at his watch.
It was half-past eleven.
After a moment of silence, he suddenly said, "Tell Dr. Moore that she does not need to go to see me at noon."
Outside the window, the evergreen camphor trees on both sides of the road were receding rapidly. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a Chestnut-style mansion hidden behind the olive-green trees.
The shop sign on the outer wall was very conspicuous.
Deja-vu Wedding Dress Photo Studio.
As the car moved forward, a familiar figure not far suddenly ran into his sight.
After Luke froze for a second, he narrowed his eyes.
Then, he rolled down the window to see more clearly.
She was wearing a thin and pure white wedding dress. In the brilliant sunshine, she looked gentle and graceful.
Deja-vu meant a feeling of having already experienced the present situation.
Seeing her squatting there, he had a strong sense of Deja-vu.
This scene took him back to the night more than ten years ago. When he rode a bicycle back to the quadrangle courtyard, he saw a little girl in a white dress squatting under the orange light at the door…
Suddenly, Mark replied, "Dr. Moore asked for leave today because of a private reason."
The red light at the intersection lit up, so the car stopped.
Mark waited impatiently and tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. After he looked around, he suddenly said, "Is that Dr. Moore?"
He stuck his face to the window and said, "Yes! That is Dr. Moore!"
He saw she was wearing a bridal gown at a glance, so he immediately sobered up and muttered with regret, "D*mn it! It turns out Dr. Moore is getting married."
Charlie glanced at him and asked, "Do you like her?"
"No!" Mark denied stubbornly, pointed out, and said, "Look at her! Has her groom run away from the wedding?"
Charlie said calmly, "I don't know if her groom has run away from the wedding, but I know the green light will light up soon."
Mark was speechless.
After the car was started again, it took only two seconds for it to pass her.
Luke kept staring at her until her white figure completely disappeared from view together with the receding camphor trees.
Suddenly, he said, "Turn around."