Lillian’s gaze moved between the men.
Just then, Gordon came back from the balcony in the hallway.
Lillian fixed her gaze on him. “You guys are acting weird.”
Gordon raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything.
Lillian turned to Conrad. “Are you lying to me? George is fine, right?”
Before she could finish her sentence, Conrad quickly covered her mouth. “Shh, shh, shh.”
Tears still clung to the corners of Lillian’s eyes as she slapped his hand away and tried to go inside. But Conrad grabbed her like a kidnapper would a woman and carried her away.
“What are you doing?! Put me down!”
“This is a great opportunity. Don’t you want Melissa to feel better, for the two of you to talk things through honestly?”
“That’s not the point!”
“It doesn’t matter what method we use, what matters is the result,” Lionel said slowly, following behind them.
Lillian didn’t like listening to his sly words.
Hogan looked innocent. “This wasn’t my idea.”
“You didn’t tell us the truth, so you’re an accomplice.”
Gordon put his hands in his pockets and shamelessly admitted, “Yeah, I’m the accomplice.”
They had been friends for so many years-telling a little lie for a friend wasn’t a big deal, right?
If Melissa was indifferent to all of this and didn’t care whether George lived or died, then they wouldn’t help him. It would be better to just force George into a new marriage and move on with things.
But Melissa wasn’t indifferent. They just needed a chance to start over.
If she truly wasn’t willing to try, then they might as well part ways sooner rather than later.
Lillian stopped struggling but bit Conrad hard to show her anger.
Devious men!
Inside the hospital room, Melissa used all her strength just to walk to the bedside and get close to him.
The smell of disinfectant filled her nose.
Melissa wanted to touch him, but he didn’t respond at all.
When she thought of this, the floodgates of her tears opened.
“George…”
She spoke her first words, then couldn’t control herself and held him tightly.
“Please, hold on. Can you hold on for me?”
“You promised me that you’d be the first one at every jewelry exhibition, that you’d never miss any of my showcases. You told me you knew how to love me now. You told me you’d stay with me forever.”
“Why didn’t you keep your word?”
Melissa’s lips trembled as she looked at his face, her hand gently caressing him. She leaned down and kissed his face, her tears falling onto his chin and rolling down his cheek.
George’s eyelids twitched. When he opened his eyes, he still looked very weak, his lips cracked and dry. “Melissa…”
Melissa froze, staring at him. “I’m here. I’m here. I’ll always be here.”
“How are you?” George looked at her with a longing expression. “Am I dreaming?”
She cried and shook her head. “No, it’s me. It’s me.”
She kept repeating, trying to hold his hand.
But all she could grab was the hand wrapped in bandages.
His hands were so important. He had saved countless lives and helped so many people, but now he was lying in a hospital bed. Melissa looked at his hands, feeling like all the tears she had shed in her life were about to dry up on this very day.
She held his hand gently. “You feel it, don’t you? I’m right here in front of you.”
He coughed violently, as though he wanted to cough everything out of his chest.
Melissa stood up and patted his chest. “Take it easy, don’t rush.”
George patted her hand. “I just feel like it’s been so long since I opened my eyes and saw you sitting right in front of me. It feels like a dream.”
“Melissa, I often feel like you’re still here, but when I wake up, I realize it was just a dream. Maybe it sounds silly… but now that I can see you, really, I feel so happy, so content.”
Melissa nodded. “I know. I know everything.”
“Then please stop crying.”
Melissa really wanted to nod, but she couldn’t do it.
As soon as she spoke, tears came faster than her words. She turned her face away, wiped her tears, and tried to smile at him, but she couldn’t.
George tried to sit up, but the effort made him cough even harder.
“Don’t move. Please, just listen to me,” Melissa said softly.
“Okay, you talk,” he said, his voice gentle and weak.
It was rare that the two of them could sit down and talk like this after so many years.
“George, everything I said to you in the desert was the truth. I saw all the things you’ve done for me, the changes you made.”
“I’m afraid of repeating the past. I’m afraid of wandering in that house again every night.”
“I’m afraid of the lonely nights, of waiting for you only to face your coldness, of having my heart trampled on again. I don’t have the courage to give my heart to you again. You always wanted to know what I was thinking, right?”
George’s heart sank heavily, twisting in pain as though it was being repeatedly crushed.
“You don’t know. The effort I put into making a meal you liked was so much. I probably have no talent for cooking. I even broke the coffee set your friend gave you. You came back and got really angry. You didn’t even touch the food I made. In the end, I ate everything alone in the living room.”
“My cooking was really bad. The food wasn’t great to begin with, and when it got cold, it tasted even worse. As I ate, I thought to myself, maybe I’ll try harder next time. But there was no next time. In two years of marriage, you never sat down to eat my food. Eventually, I just stopped cooking.”
Melissa spoke calmly at this point.
But George’s reaction was anything but calm.
“I used to want to make your goals my goals. After we got married, I wanted to have a child with you as soon as possible. I imagined kissing you good morning every day, sending you out the door, tying your tie, and then taking the kids to school. Lillian used to joke that I was like a housewife.”
“But back then, that was really my dream. In all my fantasies, there was only you.”
“I stayed at home, learning how to iron shirts, and do laundry, and whenever I smelled the same laundry detergent on both of us, I felt so happy.”
“Every time we were in the same room together, I was so excited and so happy. But that was also when my heart started to cool down.”
Unrequited love was the kind of thing where the worst part was seeing hope, only to be repeatedly crushed by the person involved, who made it clear that the hope was nothing more than a fantasy you had built up.
It was a threshold that couldn’t be crossed.
After being the one to take initiative for so long, it became exhausting, standing there watching him walk further and further away.
After so many efforts, the only thing you got in return was setback after setback.
So, she gave up. She decided to love herself instead.
“I know you’ve changed a lot over the past five years. You’ve learned to think of me, to prioritize me, and you’ve done so many things that you never did before. But I’m scared to get closer to you again.”
“I used to love you so passionately. That feeling has been frozen and stored away. Now, I’m too scared to love again. I don’t have the courage I had when I was younger.”
George seemed to be choking on his own emotions, regret and heartache reflected in his eyes.
“You bought tickets to that concert, didn’t you? It was for my favorite musician when I was young. But what you didn’t know was that I had blocked everything related to you out. I stopped liking those things, stopped caring about them. That way, I wouldn’t have to love you anymore.”
“I’m a coward in love. After loving you so deeply, I’m afraid to touch it again. I’m even more afraid that, even if we got back together, the distance between us would still be there, and we’d never return to what we were. I’m just an ordinary person. I don’t have such a strong heart.”
It seemed like George understood what she was about to say. He pursed his lips. “I know. I promised you in the desert. I won’t delay you. I promised you I would divorce you.”