Filed to story: A Second Chance with My Billionaire Love
“Flossie, what’s wrong?” Quinton was lying in bed, so he hadn’t seen the ring, but he was wondering why Flossie had suddenly gone quiet.
“It’s nothing,” Flossie said absently and held the ring firmly in her hand. “Quinton, you should rest since you just woke up. We can remove the gauze on your face when you’re discharged, and by then, you’ll be reborn.”
“Hey, what’s with that? I’m just glad I survived this.” Quinton smiled bitterly, just grateful he was alive at this point. “Many people want me dead, so I just want to live a secluded life after I settle the feud between Halston and me. I don’t want to lead such a dangerous life again.”
“The feud between you and Halston…” Flossie took a deep breath, her heart pounding in her chest. She had always hoped that the Ellsworth and Guajardo families could get along well like in the past, but now, it seemed like it was just a fantasy. Halston and Quinton held deep grudges against each other, and now there was this ring too… Flossie could not pretend that she had not seen it. ‘Flossie, stop trying to fool yourself. Wake up!’
“Quinton, rest well. I’ll take care of Flossie. We’ll wait for the day when you make a comeback and bewitch the women of Beach City,” Leia cheekily teased Quinton, then helped Flossie out of the ward.
After Leia and Flossie walked out of the ward, Leia pulled Flossie to a corner near the stairs. “That ring… It’s Halston’s, right?”
“Yes.” Flossie nodded tiredly, unable to run from the truth any longer. “I’m sure you’ve gained some information, right?”
Leia knew that she could no longer hide it since things had turned out this way. She could only tell Flossie everything she knew. “I’d been wondering if someone had done this on purpose after something went wrong with Quinton’s accident. So, I went to the medical staff and interrogated them.”
“What did they say?” Flossie asked cautiously.
“That nurse claimed that the main surgeon received a call before Quinton’s surgery telling him to do the surgery well or something like that. The caller was Shirley, so I went to find her and confront her. She claimed that it was Halston’s order…” Leia told Flossie everything. “I thought Shirley was just trying to create problems, so I wanted to get more evidence first, but… it seems that the evidence came to us. When I saw the ring, I knew I had to tell you.”
“Thank you, Lei. I could have guessed it even if you didn’t tell me. I was just fooling myself and didn’t want to accept the truth. I always thought that he wasn’t that bad…” Flossie admitted, her heart aching.
“We can’t blame you or him. After all, he’s forgotten everything about you, so you don’t mean anything to him anymore. It’s not odd that he would do something like this for the sake of profit,” Leia said hesitantly, unsure of how to console Flossie.
“Yeah, I know he’s forgotten about me. I’m the only one who keeps holding on to the past. It’s my fault!” Flossie took a deep breath, fighting back tears.
“What are you going to do now? Are you going to talk to him?” Leia asked, feeling sorry for Flossie.
“I haven’t thought about it yet…” Flossie leaned back against the wall and looked up at the ceiling, smiling bitterly. “It’s meaningless either way. It would be stupid of me to still hope that he and my brother can stop fighting.”
Flossie wanted to be alone, so she went to the hospital’s garden downstairs. She sat in front of the pond and watched it quietly.
Leia did not follow her. She knew that it was useless to worry; she had to wait for Flossie to make a decision.
Flossie sat there the whole night. The stars appeared, and moonlight illuminated the pond. She sat there alone like an emotionless statue. A cold breeze toyed with her hair, and she hugged her arms, suddenly realizing how cold she was.
Someone draped a coat on her shoulders, and when she turned around, she found that it was Justin.
“Phoenix, you’ve been sitting here for hours. Aren’t you tired?
“I‘ll carry you back, okay?” Justin had both of his hands in his pockets as he smiled gently at her.
“When did you get here?” She whispered guiltily as she looked up at him.
Justin was wearing a thin shirt, and shrugged half-heartedly.
“We came at the same time.”
“You’re ridiculous. Weren’t you bored sitting here for five to six hours?” Even so, Flossie still moved aside a little to give him some space.
Justin gladly sat down next to her and smiled. “Didn’t you do the same thing though?”
“It’s because there’s something troubling me. Time passed by very quickly.”
“Well, we’re the same. Watching you is like watching the most beautiful scenery in the world—hours passed in the blink of an eye.”
“Stop that!” Flossie playfully pushed him and sighed. After a while, she said slowly, “This afternoon… Umm, I’m sorry. I was so anxious that I accused you for no reason. I wasn’t targeting you; I would have scolded a dog too if it carne at that time.”
Her explanation amused him. “It’s fine. Anyone in yourposition would’ve done it.” He didn’t want her to blame herself. Despite everything, he still wanted to marry her and bring glory to his family. It was fine if she saw him as a villain or a schemer, as long as he got what he wanted in the end.
“You know yourself well, don’t you? Ah, you’re just a cunning man and no one can see through you.” Flossie tapped his forehead and shook her head. “How nice it would be if we were just hackers… We could earn extra money and join some competitions. We wouldn’t have so many feuds and problems to settle either. It would be nice to lead such a simple life.”
“Yeah, it’s more fun to type codes and compete against you.
” Justin watched the pond, reminiscing about the past. His family never meddled in his business and let him lead a carefree life, but his grandfather was getting old, and his father was ill. As the only son, he had too many responsibilities to bear. He could no longer lead his life the way he wanted.
“I wonder when we can return to a time when things were simple…” Flossie clutched the ring in her hand as her eyes turned watery. It felt like her heart was twisting in her chest.
Justin turned to her, and saw how sad she looked. It made him feel sorry for her. “If you’re tired, let me help you. Tell me what you want to do, and I’ll help you do it. You can stay a hacker and lead a simple life. What do you think?”
“Do you want to help me do it?” Flossie chuckled and turned to look into his eyes intently. “Do you dare to kill Halston then?
“You… want to kill Halston?” Justin was flabbergasted. ‘Aren’t they secretly in love with each other? Why has she changed all of a sudden?’
“Calm down. I won’t ask you to kill people, let alone him.”
She felt a pang of guilt, ashamed that she was biased towards Halston instead of Quinton.
“Did… you find something out?” Justin immediately sensed something was wrong, and asked, “Did you find out who hurt Quinton?”
Flossie was speechless.
Flossie did not broach that topic, feeling embarrassed to do so.
“Let me guess… Is it Halston?” Justin instantly guessed from the look on her face, but there was one thing he couldn’t figure out. “If he wanted to harm Quinton, why would he go to all that trouble to hire Owen? It doesn’t make sense.”
“Who knows? Maybe he wanted to make me let my guard down and then use a crueler way to get rid of my brother. If my brother’s gone, both the Ellsworth family and my brother’s status in Water Dock will no longer be a threat to him,” Flossie suggested. She generally didn’t like to see the bad in people, but she had seen how complicated and wicked people could become with time.
“It could be, but I think you should ask him about it. He’s rather straightforward, so I’m sure he won’t deny it if he was the one who did it,” Justin said slowly.
Flossie stared at him for a while, then smiled oddly at him.” You’re… weird.”
He grinned back at her. “I’m being nice, okay?”
“That’s what’s puzzling me…” For the first time, Flossie felt like she didn’t know Justin at all. He appeared to be cunning, but was in fact pretty naive. “The Baldwin family is never on good terms with the Guajardo family, but you gave up a great chance to create a rift between Halston and I by advising me to ask Halston about it. You’ll be helping him if this turns out to be a misunderstanding.”
“I don’t want to do that. It would be dishonorable even if I win.” Justin’s gaze was clear and sincere. “I just don’t want to see you exhaust yourself with thoughts of revenge. You also can’t pretend that it never happened, and judging by the way you sat out here for hours, you’ll be feeling conflicted all day.
You may as well get it over with and ask him about it. You need to figure out whether to take revenge or forgive him, right?” He sounded resigned, and offered her a sad smile.
She took a deep breath, feeling much more relaxed. She then stood up and held her fist out to him. “Thank you for helping me figure things out. I’ll buy you a drink one day.”
Justin slowly bumped her fist. “Where are you going?”
“To do what you said.” After that, she left.
Justin remained where he was, looking at the pond and smiling bitterly. “Oh, Justin… You really are a fool.”
Both Halston and Owen were sitting across from each other in Tipsy Grove.
“Owen, thank you for what you did. Let’s toast.” Halston held a glass of wine and looked at Owen sincerely.
“Ah, it’s nothing. If you don’t mind, we can go fishing again when you’re free…” Owen held his glass and clinked it with Halston’s, smiling broadly.
They then leaned backward and drank their wine.