DRAMA NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 19
Chapter 19 An Awkward Man
“Matilda wants us to pay her over two grand! We can’t afford that.”
“Then the solution is simple enough. We’ll fire her and you can stay at home to take care of Grandpa instead. He has a check- up tomorrow morning, so someone needs to go with him. I’m busy then, so you’ll take time off to go accompany him.”
“I can’t do that. Not tomorrow.”
“You do remember that I married you on the condition that you took care of my grandpa. If you can’t do that, why did we get together in the first place?” Carlisle paused, watching as Helene couldn’t find the words to fight back with.
Finally, she admitted, “My grandma’s surgery is tomorrow, so I have to be with her at the hospital. After the operation is done, I’ll quit and stay at home to take care of your grandpa.”
“No, I can’t wait that long. He can’t wait that long,” Carlisle said grimly, his eyes becoming colder and colder. His face was twisted with an obvious rage that he didn’t bother to hide.
“Helene, don’t be so selfish. Your grandma may be sick. She might need help too. What about my grandpa? What did you promise me when we got married?”
“That’s right,” Matilda chimed in, stoking the flames. “Why don’t you take a step back and think about this clearly? You received $70,000 in return for this. You promised.”
Helene could tell the corners of her eyes were turning red. The
Chapter 19 An Awkward Man
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man who was so selfless and kind, desperate to save her and willing to sacrifice everything was gone. That man she had seen yesterday had lost his heart. Maybe those memories with him in the storm were just a fantasy.
“Fine. I’ll take your grandpa to his check–up tomorrow.” After she agreed, Helene ran back to the room crying.
“Mr. Bamford…” Matilda chided with a scoff. “Be careful not to be so soft on her. A girl with a background like that only knows how to take advantage of the people around her. She just doesn’t have it in her to care about someone else.”
Carlisle gave Matilda an icy glare and warned, “Matilda, if you want to make it out here, then I’d advise you to learn to be content with what you have. There are lines that you shouldn’t cross. And while we’re on the topic, don’t think that everyone around you is an idiot.”
Carlisle’s penetrating eyes startled Matilda.
This was so unfair. And it wasn’t because Helene couldn’t be with her grandmother tomorrow. It was because of Carlisle’s attitude. She couldn’t accept how inconsiderate he was being. If he had sat her down and the two talked it out, they could have found a way for both of their grandparents to be cared
for.
Instead, he backed her into a corner and gave her no choice. It frustrated her to no end.
After spending some time crying, Helene picked up her phone and called Zion, asking him to spend time with their grandmother. It took Zion a long time to pick up, and as soon as he did, she could hear a fight going on in the background.
Chapter 19 An Awkward Man
“Zion? What’s going on over there?”
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“Hey, don’t worry about me. What do you need?” Zion asked. Before he could even finish speaking, someone else screamed in the background.
“Zion, return this stupid blazer that your sister picked out!”
“Lavinia, please! What are you upset about?! Did Helene offend you somehow? Either way, you’re being
unreasonable!”
“Shut up! Don’t tell me I’m being unreasonable, you stupid good–for–nothing! You talk to your stupid sister every single day! Why don’t you get with her instead?!”
“What is wrong with you? Do you hear yourself right now?!”
The argument only got louder. While Zion was caught up in it, Helene silently hung up and felt powerless like she had never felt before.
That night, a heavy downpour suddenly drifted in. Helene was awakened by the sound of thunder, and she remembered that she had brought a blanket from the study. That meant Carlisle didn’t have a blanket to sleep with that night.
She took it and walked next door, trying to push on the door. The wind was so strong that the air pressure alone made it difficult for her to get it open. And not only that, but the heavy rain hit her like needles once she was finally outside.
Helene walked to the study, careful to find shelter under the eaves. The lights were still on in the study but the curtains were drawn. She couldn’t tell if Carlisle was asleep, so she knocked on the door. No one answered.
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Her back was getting wet from the rain, so she wrapped the blanket around her body for fear of getting wet. Then, she knocked on the door again, and Carlisle’s muffled voice came from inside.
“What’s the matter?”
“It’s getting cold, so I thought I’d bring you a blanket.”
Once Helene finished speaking, she couldn’t sense any movement from inside. It was getting late, and she was shivering from the cold. Thinking Carlisle wouldn’t open the door, she was about to turn around when it suddenly opened.
Carlisle stood in the doorway with disheveled hair. He had undone the first few buttons of his shirt, exposing his neckline. His complexion looked sickly, and he swayed weakly as he stood in the doorway. It looked like he was about to collapse any second.
“What’s wrong?” Helene asked, reaching out to touch
Carlisle’s forehead. But the moment she tried, he moved it out
of the way.
“I’m fine,” Carlisle said dismissively, taking the blanket from
Helene’s hands.
Just as he was about to close the door, Helene placed her hand firmly against it and anxiously asked, “Are you sick?”
“Stop pretending to care about me already. If you keep acting like this, then you’ll… You’ll make me believe-”
“Believe what?” Helene asked in confusion.
Seeing that she was still playing dumb, Carlisle couldn’t help
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but laugh out loud. It appeared as though he was still weak after all. No one in this world cared about him except his grandfather. He should have known that.
Carlisle quickly closed the door shut without hesitation, and without thinking, Helene shoved her hand through the crack of the door trying to stop him. She was just a second too late, and the heavy wooden door slammed into her two trailing fingertips. They swelled up almost immediately, and the pain was so intense that she nearly cried out.
Helene waited for a while outside in the rain, seeing if Carlisle would open the door and check on her. But he didn’t, so she
turned around and left.
The next day, she woke up early and got in touch with her brother to ask him to accompany their grandmother to her pre–op. Then, she returned to the study again. The door was left ajar, so she pushed it open and walked in.
It was the first time that she had seen Carlisle’s study. The layout was relatively simple, complete with a desk and some chairs, a single bed, and a stately bookcase on the far wall. Though the furnishings were simple, they still had a sense of grandiosity to them. Each piece was made of pure mahogany, which was far from cheap.
As she approached the desk, Helene noticed a box of cold medicine and a glass of water, half–full, on the desk. It seemed Carlisle had taken some medicine in the morning and left for work. Helene turned around and was about to leave when a book caught her eye. It was jutting out from one of the shelves of the bookcase, looking like it was about to fall. She walked over to straighten it, and a photo fell out.
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It was a picture of Carlisle with another girl by the sea. She was beautiful, wearing a bikini that revealed her alluring figure.
The two were holding hands, and the girl happily beamed at the camera. Carlisle, on the other hand, maintained his serious
demeanor. But even then, he seemed much more intimate with her. The two looked like a proper couple.
Helene’s heart suddenly sank for reasons she couldn’t quite describe. Her heart seemed to ache with a dull pain.
After putting the photo back, she walked out and closed the door behind her.
Helene didn’t eat breakfast. Carlisle’s grandfather couldn’t eat since his examination had to be done on an empty stomach, so she didn’t bother making anything for herself either.
Later that morning at about 8:30, she took him to the hospital, which happened to be the same one as her grandmother. Mr. Bamford Sr., however, had an appointment with a renowned doctor who had come from abroad and was part of an international specialist program.
The doctor hadn’t arrived yet, so Helene waited in the lounge with the old man and the two had a chance to talk. He asked Helene about her grandmother’s illness and asked to meet her once the surgery was finished. It was only appropriate that their two families met, after all.
Helene sat in embarrassment, not sure of what to do. She hadn’t told her grandmother about her sudden marriage yet for fear that the old woman would start to worry. Who knew how that would affect her condition?
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Helene had a troubled expression, which Carlisle’s grandfather picked up on easily. He asked if Carlisle forced her to sign the marriage agreement, and if that was the case, he would do everything in his power to interfere with the
divorce.
She knew that the contract made the old man uneasy, so she comforted him. “I signed the contract voluntarily, but to me, marriage shouldn’t be taken so lightly. I swear that as long as Carlisle doesn’t want to leave me, I’ll stay with him.”
As Helene said this, however, she thought of the photo she saw in the study that morning. Perhaps that girl was his first love. If he still had that photo, then maybe he hadn’t let go of her just yet.
Chapter 20 Where Have You Been?