Chapter 42
Sophia was very good at enjoying life. Even though she was shut out by Shawn, she could still have a big meal in a luxury hotel in a good mood.
Sipping white wine, eating delicious fresh oysters, doing an oil massage and watching a movie alone, Sophia had a wonderful time in the hotel.
Nevertheless, her happy hour didn't last for very long.
At around 3:00 am, Sophia suddenly felt a great pain in her stomach when she was about to sleep after watching the movie.
It was an old complaint of her, and Sophia just drank some water and went to bed.
Two hours later, she had tangled up the sheets on the bed as she lay tossing and turning. The sheets were already wet with her cold sweat.
Half-conscious, Sophia opened her eyes and reached under her pillow for her phone.
She checked the time, and it was 4:45 a.m.
It was the darkest time before dawn, and there was all darkness outside.
Sophia closed her eyes and forced herself to fall asleep, but the pain in her stomach grew in intensity in the darkness.
A few minutes later, Sophia struggled to get up. She thought for a while and called Shawn in the end.
The phone was soon answered.
"Uncle, why are you not asleep yet?"
Shawn didn't answer her question but just said.
"Any problems?"
Suffering the great pain, Sophia was almost exhausted. She said in a very low voice that sounded like she could faint at any time, "My stomach... It hurts..."
Hearing Sophia's words, Shawn said impatiently, "Put on your clothes."
Sophia didn't hear what he said very clearly and asked, "What?"
"Put on your clothes. I'll be there soon and send you to the hospital."
After hanging up, Sophia changed her clothes, and the doorbell rang.
With her hands covering her belly, Sophia went to open the door and saw Shawn. He was still wearing the same clothes he had worn during the day.
"Uncle, you didn't go to bed?"
Shawn ignored her question and looked at her pale face. He said with a frown, "Can you walk?"
Sophia weakly nodded her head and said, "Yeah."
Shawn looked at her and sighed. Then, he turned his back to Sophia and squatted down.
"Get on my back."
...
It was so quiet in the hotel at night that people could even hear the wind blowing outside.
On Shawn's back, Sophia could smell the whisky on Shawn's breath.
"Uncle, did you drink whisky? With who?"
Shawn made no reply. His coat was grabbed by Sophia tightly, and he could feel Sophia trembling and gasping in pain.
"Although my uncle seems cold all the time, he is actually a nice man," Sophia thought in a cold sweat.
Besides, Sophia knew that her uncle cared about his family and friends very much and would always stand by them.
Maybe sometimes, it was not a good thing.
But for women, no one could refuse unconditional love and support from a man.
Therefore, no woman could refuse her uncle in this world.
"Uncle, why did you ask me that today?"
Even at this time, Sophia still cared about her uncle's emotional life.
"Nothing."
"Well, you know what, women are deceitful," Sophia said weakly, barely enduring the pain, "As long as you take the initiative in love, I believe there's no woman who can resist your charm. I may not be smart enough to study, but you know, I know a lot about love."
"Shut up."
"Okay..."
When they arrived at the hospital, the doctor checked Sophia out and said it was nothing serious.
During the New Year celebrations, Sophia went to many parties for drinking or dancing with her friends. Tonight, she ate some oysters, so it was not surprising that she got acute gastritis.
Sophia immediately was at ease after knowing that it was nothing serious. When she sat in the car on the way back, she even began to play with her phone.
It was already beginning to dawn when they came out of the hospital.
The spring was coming, and the branches of the trees were budding in the morning mist. Sanitation workers were already cleaning the roads with brooms.
It was supposed to be sunny today.
Sophia yawned and planned to hang out in the landmark Central Park of Talian after she went back to the hotel and caught up on her sleep.
Thinking of this, she turned to look at Shawn and wanted to ask what he was going to do next.
However, Shawn was now leaning back in his chair calmly with his eyes closed, as if he were asleep.
Sophia knew that Shawn was still awake, but meanwhile, she also knew that Shawn was in a bad mood.
Sophia thought that it must be because she bothered him to sleep late at night. Therefore, Sophia didn't say anything and just kept quiet.
After a long while, Shawn suddenly spoke when Sophia was almost asleep.
"Go pack up. Let's go home!"
"Why?" Sophia was suddenly wide awake. "We just came here yesterday!"
Shawn opened his eyes and took off his glasses. He rubbed his forehead and said.
"You're sick."
"But I..." Sophia touched her belly and said, "I feel much better now."
The gastritis was an old complaint of her, and it happened sometimes, but she would soon get recovered by taking some medicine and resting for a while.
However, Shawn's voice took on a firmer tone.
Sophia felt so upset when she thought that she was going to work soon after she went back home. She looked out of the window dejectedly.
"It goes so soon! It's almost time to go back to work."
Shawn said at once, "You don't want to go to work."
Hearing Shawn's cold voice, Sophia immediately said, "No! I want to go to work! I love my job. I've learned a lot from my job!"
Shawn put on his glasses and chuckled, and Sophia couldn't help but become a bit nervous.
"Well, you don't have to go to work if you don't want to. After all, you're sick now, and you need to have a good rest at home."
Sophia immediately felt that it was a good thing to have acute gastritis
"Yeah! You're right, uncle! I do feel that I need a good rest recently."
...
Early in the morning, Valeria went to the supermarket to buy some fresh food materials and returned home before 9 o'clock.
She knocked on Vanessa's room door, but no one answered. Then, she opened the door and walked into the room.
"The sun came out! It's time to get up!"
Then, she saw Vanessa, who was sitting by the window with her arms holding her legs.
Valeria said in a voice dripping with sarcasm, "Well, well, well. Look at you! What's going on? Are you still my daughter Vanessa, who always gets up late?"
Vanessa, who wore her hair down around her shoulders, looked back at Valeria and said in a low voice, "Yeah."
"What happened?" Valeria then noticed Vanessa's difference and asked while staring at her, "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay!" Vanessa waved at Valeria and said, "Could you please give me a few minutes? I need to change my clothes."
Valeria curled her lips and then walked out of the room. She closed the door and went to complain to Abbot.
"You should pay more attention to your daughter! I really have no idea what she is going to do! She got up very early this morning and acted like she was possessed by evil."
Abbot was cleaning the vegetables. After hearing Valeria's words, Abbot said, "Don't you always be unhappy that she gets up late? Now she got up early today. Why are you still unhappy? When she returns to Lantrie the day after tomorrow, you again begin to miss her!"
At this time, Vanessa came out of her room.
Although the sun came out now, it was still very cold in the morning. The green plants on the roadside were still frosted.
Vanessa's long, fine hair was swept back in a ponytail. A scarf was wrapped around her neck, and she wore little makeup with only her eyebrows penciled.
She grabbed her bag and walked to the gate.
"Dad, Mom, I need to go out today and won't come back for dinner."
Then, she left and closed the door.
Valeria and Abbot looked at each other with confusion.
"She looks unhappy!" "I knew that!"
...
Vanessa took a taxi to the aquarium.
Last night, when Shawn asked her to take him to hang out, the first place she thought of was Central Park.
But she soon thought it was not a good choice to walk outside in the cold winter, so she offered to take him to the aquarium.
Unexpectedly, Shawn agreed with her suggestion.
The aquarium opened at 10:00 am, and Vanessa told Shawn last night that she would meet him at 10:00 am, but she arrived thirty minutes earlier.
She had hardly slept the whole night.
Even after a night of thinking, she still didn't know how to face Shawn.
She was not sure if Sophia told Shawn about her before.
If he had heard about her from Sophia before, why hadn't he done anything yet?
If he hadn't heard about her...
Despair hung heavily in the stifling air, and Vanessa knew that Shawn must have known everything from Sophia because they were family.
Sophia and Vanessa were just friends, and Sophia had no reason to lie to Shawn just for their friendship.
The clouds went away, and the sun shone brightly in a cloudless sky.
It looked like a bright spring day, but in fact, Vanessa's cheeks were stinging from the cold wind.
It was almost ten o'clock.
There were already a lot of people at the entrance. Some lined up to buy tickets while some were buying toys for their kids on the square. Vanessa still didn't see Shawn.
She stood on tiptoe and stared closely in the direction of the entrance.
The small flags in the distance danced in the wind.
As it was getting closer to ten o'clock, Vanessa became more and more nervous.
Suddenly, a bad feeling rose in her heart.
Vanessa knew that Shawn wouldn't come.
Vanessa's heart jumped as soon as this thought came to her. Just like when something bad happened, her throat constricted and she swallowed hard.
She unconsciously twiddled her sleeves with her fingers and didn't know what to do.
There was a feeling of restlessness deep in her soul.
After a while, Vanessa turned around and went to get two bottles of water. Then, she continued to wait.
Time seemed to slow down, and every second when she waited for Shawn was like torture for Vanessa.
As the clock in the center of the square rang at ten o'clock, Vanessa's heart gave a sudden leap.
Vanessa felt that she was sinking into the water now. The waves were calm, but there was nothing for her to grab, and she could only sink deeper and deeper.
Cheerful music echoed in the square, and groups of children ran in from the gate laughing.
Vanessa stared at the clock blankly. An old lady, who was selling flowers, walked by and bumped into her suddenly.
Vanessa came to her senses, but she didn't know what to do. She took a few steps forward but then came back to her original position.
Another twenty minutes later.
But Vanessa felt that she had been waiting for twenty years.
Vanessa took out her phone several times and wanted to call Shawn, asking him why he didn't come.
But the guilt or shame in her heart stopped her.
She knew full well that Shawn would never be late for no reason.
And there must be a reason that he didn't come.
Vanessa was just afraid of facing the truth.
After a while, she reached up to tie the scarf around her neck. With two bottles of water in her hands, Vanessa stood on the steps next to the ticket window.
Vanessa stood higher to get a better view of the entrance.
However, on the side of the square, out of her sight, there was a car that had been parked for a long time.
Shawn actually arrived here much earlier than Vanessa.
He and Sophia were on their way home at eight o'clock in the morning.
But Shawn suddenly told the driver to change the route as the car approached the freeway.
He didn't know why he came here. He should have just left directly.
But when he did come here, Shawn found that he couldn't find a reason to get out of the car.
There was no one in the square when Shawn arrived, and only a few leaflets occasionally blew up in the wind in the empty square.
Sophia reclined her seat and was lying back sleeping with her coat covering her body.
Shawn sat quietly, and after a while, he saw that Vanessa showed up in the sunlight.
In a distance, Vanessa's ponytail wagged gently behind her head in the sunlight. She wore jeans and a pair of white sneakers with a backpack, looking like a college girl. Shawn recognized her at once.
Shawn watched her get the tickets from a machine and then stand quietly by the road with her head lowered. She sometimes kicked pebbles with her foot or took out her phone to check the time.
Shawn sat in the car, arms folded over his chest, looking calmly at Vanessa in the distance.
...
At eleven o'clock, the first performance in the aquarium began, and the cheers and music mingled in a single sustained roar.
There were few people in the square right now.
The livelier cheers that came from the aquarium made the scene outside colder.
Vanessa had already realized something, and she couldn't fool herself that Shawn would come.
She didn't drink the water and just held the two bottles of water in her arms. Slowly, she walked toward the exit.
But when she walked out the door, Vanessa still looked back at the clock in the square.
What if something happened unexpectedly so that Shawn couldn't come here on time?
Thinking of this, Vanessa stopped.
She walked aside and called Shawn.
After a while, the phone was answered, but Shawn didn't speak. Vanessa couldn't even hear him breathing.
Vanessa also fell silent.
It was so quiet that Vanessa even began to doubt if Shawn was still on the phone.
After a while, Vanessa asked carefully, "Don't you come to the aquarium today?"
Shawn paused for a moment.
Then, Shawn's cold voice sounded.
"Should I be there to play a show with you?"
Two bottles of water in Vanessa's arms suddenly fell to the ground and quickly rolled aside.
Vanessa stood motionless in the doorway. Something like panic overtook her in a flood, and she couldn't help but tremble slightly.
She stood there with a lump in her throat and tried to fight back tears. She wanted to say something, but she didn't know what to say.
A few seconds later, before Vanessa said sorry to him, Shawn hung up the phone.