“Ah…” Cristofer clutched his left arm, wincing in pain.
“Are… Are you okay?” Estelle asked, feeling apologetic. “I didn’t mean to push your left arm. I’m sorry, but why did you suddenly approach me?”
“I just wanted to fasten the seat belt for you. What did you think I was trying to do?” Cristofer replied sullenly.
Realizing her misunderstanding, Estelle felt embarrassed. She quickly fastened her seat belt and said, “I… I can do it myself.”
“You took my belt.”
“What?” Estelle looked down, flustered, and noticed that she had mistakenly fastened the seat belt from Cristofer’s seat into her buckle.
“I knew you would be mistaken. You’ve always been a bit absent-minded since you were a child. Remember how you used to take my exercise book to school? My teacher would criticize me, thinking I didn’t do my homework.”
“I was just careless…”
“I knew you’d be careless again, so I wanted to help you fasten the seat belt. But I didn’t expect you to… Humph,” Cristofer said, a mix of helplessness and frustration in his voice.
He rubbed his left arm, which Estelle had pushed hard just now, then unbuckled the wrong seat belt and patiently fastened the correct one for her. After that, he got into the car and started the engine.
“Is your arm okay?” Estelle asked, her face still flushed with embarrassment.
At that moment, Cristofer was frowning in pain.
“Does it hurt? Let’s go to the hospital first,” Estelle suggested.
“It’s okay. It’s an old wound. I’ll be fine soon.”
“But you look in great pain. You’d better go to the hospital to see…”
“Estelle!” Cristofer couldn’t hold back his anger any longer. “If you no longer want to be with me, can you stop acting like you still care about me? I’d prefer it if you were cold to me and let me completely give up on you. It’s better than you sometimes acting gently and sometimes being cold to me.”
Estelle was stunned and couldn’t utter a word. Considering the presence of Yohan and Yvonne, Cristofer didn’t continue the topic.
Fortunately, the two children in the rear seats were discussing whose hands were big enough to cover their ears tightly and didn’t hear what their parents had said.
Cristofer then started the car and headed to the Hans’ Residence.
Estelle received a text message from Derrick. “Miss Hudson, I know a new restaurant in the south of our city. Although it’s a small one, the chicken soup there tastes good. How about we go there for dinner next week when you are free?”
“Who texted you?” Cristofer guessed. “Is it the doctor?”
“Yes.”
“Did he ask you out?”
“Yes.”
“Are you going to meet him?”
Estelle quickly replied, “Dr. Carrey is a medical expert specializing in liver disease. For the sake of Christina, I have to go to see him. Maybe he can help Christina.”
Hearing this, Cristofer couldn’t help but frown. “I’m trying my best to find a suitable liver donor.”
“I know. But it’s always good to have one more way to save Christina,” Estelle said.
“Since Christina isn’t your own daughter, why do you care so much about her?” Cristofer asked. “Her father doesn’t want her. What about her mother? I can find that woman and let her take the responsibility as a mother so that you don’t have to be so tired…”
“No!” Estelle refused him without hesitation. “In my heart, Christina is my own child.”
“What if her mother comes to you and says that she wants to get Christina back to her one day in the future? You won’t refuse to give Christina back to her, will you?”
Sighing deeply, Estelle shook her head and said, “Since her mother has abandoned her, it means that she will never want to get Christina back to her.”
“It’s hard to say,” Cristofer said, “Christina is Howard’s daughter. If Christina can be cured, how can you guarantee that her mother won’t take her away from you and use her to blackmail Howard?”
Estelle said with a frown, “I don’t want to think too much about the future. All I want now is to save Christina. I must save her.”
“… It looks like you have really taken her as your own daughter.”
“Yes, and she’s important to me.”
Cristofer then had a guess. “Does she… have anything to do with Mr. Mysterious?”
As soon as he finished his words, Estelle’s whole body tensed up, and she clenched the seat belt in her hand.
Judging from her reaction, Cristofer knew that he had guessed right.
‘Christina is Howard’s daughter and is not related by blood to Mr. Mysterious. Her mother couldn’t afford the high cost of Christina’s treatment, so she abandoned Christina and put her at the gate of Rebecca’s house.’
‘At that time, it was inconvenient for Rebecca to adopt Christina so she asked you for help. Later, you adopted Christina. According to the whole story, Christina’s parents have nothing to do with Mr. Mysterious. Then what one earth does Christina have to do with Mr. Mysterious?’
Cristofer thought about this question all the way but didn’t find the answer. The only thing he was sure of was that in Estelle’s heart, Mr. Mysterious was more important than anyone else, including him. But even though he knew that Estelle’s heart was full of another man, he still loved her.
Three years ago, Nelson had told him that as long as a man was cold-blooded enough, he would be invincible. Since then, Cristofer had tried to make himself a cold-blooded man.
Three years had passed, and he thought that he had been cold-blooded enough and had become an invincible man. But the moment he saw Estelle inside the wedding dress store a few days ago, he realized that he was not invincible at all. If there was a person who could hurt him in this world, it was Estelle.
Cristofer suddenly remembered the conversation between Eva and him not long ago.
****
“Mr. Hans, can you accept the fact that you can’t compare to a man who had only been with her for a few months in her heart?” Eva asked.
Hearing that, Cristofer thought to himself, ‘I certainly can’t accept that, but I can do nothing about it. I’ve made a lot of mistakes, hurt Estelle, and then lost her. No matter how regretful I am right now, I can’t turn the clock back and undo what I’ve done.’
Eva then asked, “Did you really hate her when you thought she was the culprit of the car accident?”
“Yes, I hated her at that time,” he answered with a nod, “But I loved her more. If I had known that she would have lived such a hard time after leaving me, I would have got her back to me regardless of anything.”