"Sweetie, let me hug you."
The proud and passionate Lily didn't cry, but she seemed fragile, ready to break at any moment.
She was falling apart.
On the way, Aria had received a video from Alistair, giving her an idea of what had happened at the Jian family house tonight.
Damn Royce!
...
Octavian parked the car at the club, texting Edmond to inform him of his return.
The card game was still going in the private room, but Edmond threw down his cards and left.
Alistair, on a winning streak, wanted to play a few more rounds and didn't follow.
As the car started, Edmond asked Octavian, "Did you get her the medicine?"
"I did," Octavian slowly turned the wheel, "Miss Jian thanked you."
Edmond, exhausted, leaned back in the seat. Frequent business trips had disrupted his sleep, and the drinks tonight made him even more tired.
Octavian spoke about the second matter. "I hinted at Miss Jian as you instructed, but she took it as a joke."
Edmond responded with a noncommittal sound.
It was expected.
Octavian glanced at the rearview mirror, choosing his words carefully. "Mr. Zhou, do you really... want to marry Miss Jian?"
Originally, the driver was supposed to take Lily, but Mr. Zhou had sent him instead, instructing him to do two things: buy medicine and tell Lily those words.
He was shocked and curious.
Did Mr. Zhou really want to marry Lily?
What about Miss Su?
Octavian didn't dare ask further questions, and Edmond didn't answer the ones he'd already posed. In the silence, a phone rang. It was Royce calling.
"Uncle Edmond, did Lily complain to you?"
Royce had seen Edmond's message only after he had dropped Nadia home and shared a late-night snack with her. His immediate reaction was to assume Lily had tattled.
"Uncle Edmond, did Lily say something bad about Nadia? I've already agreed to marry her; what more does she want?"
So much had happened tonight that Royce's tone was inevitably somewhat harsh. Edmond's voice was calm and indifferent.
"Royce, stop being so hypocritical. Do you really not know why you agreed not to break off the engagement? Lily only said she wanted to end the engagement, not a word about anyone else."
His tone was contemptuous. "You feel guilty and try to shift the blame onto her? Royce, do you even count as a man?"
The subtle sarcasm cut through Royce's pretense like a blade. Why had he agreed not to break off the engagement in the first place? Indeed, Lily had leveraged her life-saving deed to appeal to Uncle Edmond, and Edmond had indeed sought him out. But if he had insisted on breaking it off, Uncle Edmond couldn't have stopped him—it was, after all, his own marriage.
It was just that day, Uncle Edmond had said something to him: "If you don't break off the engagement, I'll give you 2% of the shares. If you do, those shares will go to Lily as compensation. You decide."
He had indeed fallen for Nadia and wanted to marry her, but what man doesn't love power?
Though he was a Zhou family young master, his shares were barely a fraction of Uncle Edmond's.
Those 2% shares wouldn't meet his expectations, but they would be enough for him to surpass his cousin, who had always been competing with him in secret.
So he chose the shares and chose Lily. Getting those shares through a woman was too disgraceful to speak of, and he didn't want Lily to know and use it to threaten him. So he told no one. He thought he wasn't wrong, but it was indeed hypocritical of him. Taking the benefits meant he had no right to speak of fairness, for no one forced him.
Royce didn't dare retort and awkwardly said, "Uncle Edmond, rest assured, I won't break off the engagement. I will marry Lily. Tonight there was a misunderstanding. I just called Lily, but her phone was off; maybe the battery died. Tomorrow I will go find her and clear up the misunderstanding."
Edmond had no patience to continue the conversation. "Eight o'clock tomorrow morning. Don't be late, or bear the consequences."
When Lily sent Royce the number 50, she had already started persuading herself. If, in the end, she really had to give up, she would leave with her head held high, proudly and without tears, showing grace. She had been persuading herself for half a year.
Tonight at the old house, she had held back her tears and almost succeeded, but Aria's hug broke her defenses. She could withstand all malice but couldn't touch kindness and care. A warm hug could strip her of all her defenses.
Lily clung to Aria, crying her heart out, her voice tearing and her body shaking as if she was being tortured. What kind of torture? Perhaps it was akin to having her flesh cut off and her bones scraped.
The name Royce had permeated her entire youth, engraved in her heart and bones.
Now, it was being removed by the sharpest knife, tearing her heart apart.
Over the years, the warmth Royce had given her had trapped her, making her unable to escape the memories of the past.
He had been a light that illuminated her dim adolescent path.
But now, that light shone through her and illuminated someone else.
Aria carefully held Lily, afraid to break her with too much force. At first, she tried to comfort her with a few words, but as she felt more and more heartache and sadness, she ended up crying with her, even more fiercely than Lily.
Their sobs, intermittent, lasted until two in the morning when they finally stopped. Aria asked if Lily wanted a drink, suggesting she might need to get thoroughly drunk.