Edward Ford just felt powerless and he dropped his hands as if he understood.
Elena Bush looked at his appearance and wordlessly withdrew her hand hiding it under the covers and clenching it into a tight fist.
“Heh ……”
He pulled at the corners of his mouth, sarcastically.
Elena Bush took a deep breath, “Edward Ford, when I knew of your existence before, I simply could not accept you. I had lived my life, my entire twenty years of life without you, and hadn’t even received a modicum of fatherly love. So I’d rather give up my father’s love ……”
Edward Ford looked at her, his lips slightly parted.
She continued to smile as she spoke, “But since coming into contact with you, at first, I even entertained the thought that you were really good, then later …… you completely overturned my change of heart about you and made me hate and fear you again.”
She couldn’t deny that their blood was thicker than water in her bones, but she was equally unable to acknowledge the twisted love Edward Ford had for Joanna Lake and herself.
It was something that simply could not exist in this world!
Edward Ford clenched his teeth and squeezed out the words between them, “But I just want you to be by my side, I don’t want anything else, let alone try to hope for anything!”
“No, you don’t just want me to stay by your side, you even want to make me your property and not be allowed to have contact with any outsiders, let alone be with any outsiders!”
“I didn’t ……”
Edward Ford tried to deny it, but when he lifted his face he coldly met the warmthless eyes of Elena Bush.
“No?” She asked.
There was a momentary silence from the other side.
Elena Bush looked at him and let out a low laugh, “If not, then how does Logan Brown explain it? Why did you obstruct us in every way, even to the point of imprisoning me in the Ford!”
“Elena ……”
“That’s enough!” She looked away, her trembling hands all hidden beneath the covers, and the emotions on her face unreadable to anyone, “I’m tired, I don’t want to go on.”
“Elena, let me explain.”
Edward Ford was about to say something else when Elena Bush had already lifted the covers over her entire body, like a turtle hiding in its shell, isolating itself from everyone in the outside world.
His form shifted, and in the end he sighed, then wordlessly exited the ward ……
As he walked out of the ward, he met Roger Scott who had turned back after returning the baby to the nursery.
The two men looked at each other and Edward Ford tugged at the corners of his mouth and said stiffly, “Got a minute? Let’s have a drink.”
Roger Scott hesitated for a moment, then nodded, “Yes.”
Inside the restaurant, Edward Ford took out the wine he had stored, opened it and poured it for himself and Roger Scott.
The whole stomach was on fire as the glass of spirits went down.
He threw back his head and laughed, his eyes full of sarcasm, “Roger, when do you think it’s been since we’ve had a good drink together?”
“It’s been a long time ……” he responded softly, “It must have been six months at least.”
Ever since he’d met Elena Bush by chance, everything had started to change after that too.
He’d thought countless times that he shouldn’t have called on him, that if it hadn’t been for him, Elena Bush might never have met him.
But Logan Brown also reassured him that it was none of his business, that paper couldn’t cover fire, that what was leaked would be leaked sooner or later, and that there was nothing anyone could do to stop it.
“Oh ……”
Edward Ford laughed, remembering the past with a sigh of relief, “You and I used to be so close, like two brothers with the same illness, but we started to change at some point, you followed your path, and I followed my own ideas …… ”
Everything kept changing, they just didn’t notice it until the gap between them grew wider and further apart before they snapped awake.
But by then, both were standing on the other side of the cliff looking out at each other, never to return.
“Roger, you don’t know how much I envy you and don’t know how much I hate you!” Edward Ford drank himself into a muddle and talked more.
Roger Scott, still sipping slowly, said, “I know.”
The most important issue between them now was all to do with Elena Bush ……
“Elena, my daughter!” Edward Ford beat his chest, red-eyed, “I’ve spent most of my life mourning Joanna Lake, so I didn’t even know I had a daughter in this world, so I missed twenty years , and let her leave me for twenty years too …… ”
He recalled how he didn’t know how happy he was to learn of Elena Bush’s existence, and then to see a face that looked exactly like Joanna Lake’s.
It was so amazing in this world that God had taken away his Joanna Lake, only to give back an Elena Bush that looked exactly like Joanna Lake ……
That made him laugh at himself, wondering if this God was punishing him or making it up to him.
Roger Scott looked sideways at the man who had slumped over the table with his bottle in his arms.
His face was red and tears were falling from the corners of his eyes.
“Roger Scott, I have only one daughter, I have been looking forward to this for more than twenty years, finally I know I am not alone in this world, and finally I know I don’t need to feel lonely anymore, but why is the world still as cruel as ever to me!
He didn’t know that when he heard the word ‘Dad’ that came out of Elena Bush’s mouth, he wanted to kill the man in front of him!
But he couldn’t, he wouldn’t dare, and he wouldn’t give up!
Roger Scott fell silent, inexplicably pitying the man in front of him.
He looked at him, and the indescribable emotions that swept through his chest took over all his thoughts.
After a long time, he spoke again, “Edward Ford, you are right in your thinking, but you are too radical in your approach. You’re wrong to try to pin all of Joanna Lake’s feelings on her because she looks so much like her.”
She was just Elena Bush, not Joanna Lake, and not obliged to take it all on for her!
Edward Ford was confused and kept repeating, “Was I wrong?”
“Hmm.” He nodded and the words of regret spat out after him, “You went about it the wrong way ……”
“Heh …… hahahaha ……”
Edward Ford laughed, unable to wipe the sadness from his face, “In the end, I was wrong ……”
He was dead wrong, dead wrong!