42

While William was troubled, Andrew had already returned to his apartment on Maple Leaf Road.
At this time, Asher was still taking a nap, and Amelia was upstairs with him.
In the living room on the first floor, Isabella stood alone by the French window, her delicate and slender figure exuding a sense of desolation.
Andrew took off his suit jacket, casually draping it over the back of the sofa, and then walked towards her with long strides.
He stopped by her side, hands behind his back, and his erect posture accentuated the deep and profound aura of his black shirt. This excessively handsome man seemed to emanate a unique charm regardless of what he wore.
“What did you tell my uncle?” Isabella asked in a light tone.
Andrew lightly pursed his determined lips, a faint curve appearing at the corner of his mouth as he exhaled a thin mist of smoke. “Didn’t say much, just got scolded a bit, he’s worried I might mistreat you.”
“Okay.” Isabella nodded casually. “Old people love to worry as they age. If you dare mistreat me, that would be going against the natural order.”
In her perception, as an unemployed man living off her, Andrew should be the one subject to her mistreatment.
However, before she could finish her sentence, a pair of strong arms wrapped around her waist. A powerful force dragged her into the man’s sturdy embrace.
Her back pressed against his firm chest, causing a slight, almost painful, impact.
Isabella frowned slightly but didn’t resist. She felt his slightly cool lips tracing over the skin of her neck, lingering by her ear. The breath he exhaled tickled her ear, and the peculiar sensation made her involuntarily shiver.
“If this is the kind of mistreatment your uncle meant, then what do I have to fear?” His voice was hoarse, carrying a hint of ambiguity.
Her heart in her chest seemed to beat wildly and uncontrollably. Instead of breaking free from his embrace, she found herself increasingly fond of the warmth within his arms.
Eleanor’s sudden passing left Isabella feeling as if a piece of her heart had been hollowed out. Andrew’s presence seemed to provide her with a harbor to lean on.
Quietly nestled in his arms, the wind from the window tousled a few strands of hair on her forehead.
Andrew lifted his arm, the clean and elegant long fingers sweeping over her forehead, casually tucking the loose strands behind her ear.
Then, turning her body to face him, they locked eyes. With a calm and deep voice, he said, “The seven sorrows of life: birth, aging, illness, death, resentment, separation, and not getting what one seeks. Everyone has to experience some of them sooner or later. Isabella, you’re no longer a child; you need to learn to accept reality.”
In response, she raised her chin to look at him, and a faint smile appeared on her pale cheeks. “So, you’re good at comforting people. Speaking so eloquently about the seven sorrows of life. How many have you experienced?”
He coldly pressed his lips together, the blue eyes staring faintly out of the window.
“I once had a fiancee,” Andrew continued, “we grew up together. We had set a wedding date, but I didn’t know when she got involved with another man, even had a child with him.”
As he spoke, a slight, sarcastic smile played on his lips.
“Her infidelity led to a lot of complications, involving my close relatives, brothers, and my background. The family I thought was my own had been plotting against me. All these things combined, even surpassed what I could bear.
Later, when I was seriously injured during a mission, nearly dying, do you know what it’s like to be disheartened? I lay in the intensive care unit, thinking: dying would be fine, it would be a relief.”
Isabella, tilting her chin slightly, looked at him with a hint of surprise. Suddenly, she felt a bit sympathetic towards him. This seemingly cold-hearted man also had a heartbreakingly sad past.
However, she wasn’t very good at consoling people.
Typically, when men confide in women, seeking sympathy, what they want is physical comfort. In Isabella’s case, this was even less likely. First, they hadn’t reached the stage where they could be intimate again. Second, with her mother’s recent burial, Isabella had no mood for intimacy.
For Andrew, revealing his scars was merely a way to comfort her, and he didn’t expect an immediate response from her.
If he truly intended to bring Isabella to bed, he had plenty of methods, but there was no rush.
“So, you were also an officer. You don’t look like one at all,” Isabella said, her eyes bright with a natural admiration for military personnel.
Andrew gave a faint smile. Was there a specific look for military personnel?
“During my time in the military, I lost comrades, once, twice, and after numerous times, I learned to accept it. After all, life and death have their own decrees,” he said.
Isabella thought for a moment and nodded in agreement.
Then, there was a brief silence between them.
With one hand in his pocket, Andrew, out of habit, reached for a cigarette but found none. His cigarette case was in his suit pocket.
Fingertips empty, he subconsciously turned his head to look at Isabella, who seemed deeply absorbed in thought.
“What are you thinking?” he asked.
“I’m thinking about my mom.” She raised her eyes, meeting his profound gaze. “No matter how I think about it, my mom’s death seems too suspicious.”
“Do you suspect that her death wasn’t accidental?” Andrew, being a discerning person, quickly understood her thoughts.
She nodded slowly. “Andrew, I want to see Samuel. Can you arrange that for me?”
Samuel, being a busy person, wasn’t someone everyone could meet on demand. But for Andrew, arranging such a meeting for Isabella was a simple matter.
The next day, they sat in Samuel’s office.
Spread out in front of Samuel were Eleanor’s medical records and all examination reports.
“Isabella, I know you have doubts about your mother’s death, and frankly, I find it quite surprising too,” Samuel said directly.
She nodded, “My mom’s surgery was clearly successful, and she survived the critical period. Suddenly passing away, does it make sense from a medical perspective?”
Samuel, somewhat troubled, furrowed his brow. The human body is complex, and from a medical perspective, anything could happen.
However, such evasive words weren’t what Isabella needed. Therefore, he could only provide a rational analysis of Eleanor’s sudden death based on his knowledge of medicine.
“The condition of your mother’s illness had stabilized, and she was entering the recovery phase. Logically speaking, the probability of sudden death is very low, unless she didn’t take the medication as prescribed by the doctor or she experienced a sudden strong stimulus. Unlike other illnesses, heart disease can be directly influenced by the patient’s emotions, even threatening their life.”
“The caregiver administered my mom’s medication on time; she couldn’t have missed it. As for the stimulus, she stayed in the hospital, so who could have provoked her unless…” A sudden thought popped into Isabella’s mind.
There wouldn’t be anyone inside the hospital who could provoke Eleanor, but what about outside the hospital? The last time David appeared at the hospital, Eleanor’s condition almost deteriorated.
“Samuel, inform the hospital, and we want to see the surveillance footage from the day Eleanor passed away.” Before Isabella could speak, Andrew had already anticipated and said.
With Samuel present, they smoothly entered the hospital’s monitoring center. Hospital surveillance is typically kept for about a month, and since Eleanor had just passed away, the footage from that day was still stored in the computer. The staff quickly retrieved it.
When the footage played halfway, Emily’s figure appeared at the door of Eleanor’s ward. She swaggered into the room, staying for about half an hour before hurriedly leaving.
Afterward, Eleanor’s condition worsened, and doctors and nurses rushed in for emergency treatment, but they couldn’t save her life.
Isabella sat in silence in front of the monitor, gripping her hands tightly. If her mother’s death had nothing to do with Emily, she wouldn’t believe it.
“Samuel, can we be sure that my mom wasn’t murdered?”
Samuel shook his head, “There was no autopsy, so I can’t make an absolute guarantee. However, I was present when your mother passed away, and based on my experience, she did indeed die suddenly from a heart attack.”
There was one more thing Samuel didn’t say. In fact, for a heart patient, there was no need for any other means to kill her. A strong enough stimulus would suffice.
After a prolonged silence, Isabella thanked Samuel and left the monitoring center with Andrew.
As the elevator descended continuously, she stood quietly in the dim corner. The light and shadow cast on her pale profile, giving her an overall cold appearance.
Andrew stood on the other side, his gaze deep and focused on her. “What are you thinking?”
She tightly pressed her lips together and remained silent.
He blinked, and beneath his long eyelashes, his eyes looked somber. “Actually, your sister isn’t very clever; otherwise, she wouldn’t have left behind surveillance footage for us to trace.”
Isabella, after hearing this, coldly chuckled. Perhaps only Emily would be foolish enough to commit a crime and not cover her tracks. If it were the shrewd Victoria, the surveillance footage would have been erased long ago.
“Unfortunately, this footage cannot be used as evidence that she killed my mother.”
According to the current inference, Emily had likely verbally provoked Eleanor, directly causing her sudden deterioration and eventual death. Legally speaking, this would be considered manslaughter.
However, these were just her deductions without any evidence. Relying solely on the video of Emily meeting Eleanor before her death was not enough to convict Emily. She had a hundred excuses to explain herself. Moreover, there was no surveillance in the ward, and since Eleanor was deceased, no one knew what had happened in the room at that time.
“From the current situation, unless she admits it herself, you can’t do anything to her,” Andrew stated the facts.
Isabella raised her eyes. Her usually clear and bright eyes were now pitch black, reflecting no light. Her icy smile conveyed, “Revenge doesn’t have to rely solely on the law. There are many ways to make her suffer.”
Initially, she only wanted to reclaim what was rightfully hers and live a peaceful life with her mother. But now, she intended to make them pay for their blood debts.
Andrew furrowed his brow as he looked at her. This version of Isabella made him feel heartbroken.
In his heart, she would always be the bright and beautiful little girl from five years ago, not tainted by any darkness.
Suddenly, he reached out his arm, forcibly locking her in his embrace. His chin rested on her forehead, and in the dim light of the elevator, his brows were deeply furrowed.
“What do you want, and I will do it. Isabella, your hands should not be stained with blood; they are not worthy of it,” Andrew’s voice sounded calm, but she could feel the weight in it.
She didn’t reply but extended her arm, tightly hugging him.