In The End, She Let Go

The knife was blunt. Even so, John’s and Will’s hearts still hurt for Samara.

They cried out Samara’s name at the same time.

John panicked, even though he was used to not showing his emotions on his face, since he was a leader.

But he had teared up, and his hands started trembling.

Will put a stop to the gathering, sent all of the guests away, and raised his voice. “Aqua, what on earth do you want?! Are you only going to be happy after Samara dies?! Apologize to her!”

Her heart stung.

Through the screen, Aqua felt as if she was right there, and she felt as if the knife had not cut into Samara, but her heart.

Her nose burned, and her eyes turned watery, but she stubbornly refused to let them fall. “I didn’t even do anything…”

John looked up. His gaze was distant and cold. “You’re still defending yourself? If it weren’t for you, Samara wouldn’t have hurt herself!

“We’re just asking you for an apology, and you’re refusing to do it?

“Aqua, I’m disappointed in you.”

Aqua did not even realize when she ended the call.

Aqua sat by the bed and let her mind wander for a while, but she could not recover from John’s last sentence.

Soon, Lily logged in.

[Boo, I’m awake! It’s Christmas Eve over here today! Merry Christmas Eve!”

Aqua wanted to cry, but she held her tears back.

She wanted to complain to Lily but found herself unable to say anything in the end.

“Alright, Boo. Merry Christmas Eve to you, too!”

As they continued exchanging voice messages, their conversation was interrupted by rapid knocking.

It was John and Will.

Aqua’s gaze turned dark.

She had not expected them to find her. Just as she thought, so long as she was in the country, her actions would be controlled.

When they saw Aqua’s swollen eyes, John and Will exchanged a glance, and all the things they wanted to say died on their tongues.

Even so, they still had to warn her.

“Aqua, you’re an adult right now. You have to be mindful of your words and actions.”

“That’s right. Samara is mild-mannered and won’t hold this against you, but we don’t want this to happen again.”

So, they came here to denounce her.

But they did not have to worry. This was not going to happen again.

Aqua’s expression turned colder.

In her rage, she gripped her phone so tightly, and she trembled, but she accidentally touched the play button for the voice message Lily just sent her.

“Boo, I’ll have a hot guy pick you up.”

Aqua never thought that Lily would send her such a voice message.

Even so, she did not panic and just replied calmly, “Got it. Thanks.”

There was no doubt that John and Will heard it too.

John had moved to sit on the sofa and bit down on the cigarette he put in his mouth. The hand he used to hold the lighter started shaking, and he exchanged a glance with Will before he asked, “Where are you going?”

He felt really uneasy.

Since yesterday, Aqua had been acting unusually.

Aqua composed herself and feigned relaxation. “For official business.”

She was not wrong. Settling deals and passing the bar exam were both official business.

In any case, John and Will were treating her worse than a stranger would, so she did not feel the need to reveal too much information about herself.

After all, even if she did say it, their focus would still be on Samara.

Since she had decided to stop working for the company, things would be great for their darling Samara. John and Will might even pop a champagne bottle for it.

John sighed in relief and exhaled slowly. “Don’t be rash. I have a few more projects at hand. After Samara picks one, they’ll all be yours.”

Will scoffed. “Aqua, do you seriously have to compete with Samara for everything?”

Aqua wanted to laugh, but found that she could not.

They had forgotten that they were the ones who had flown abroad to beg her to go back to help them.

Before she chased them away, they cast a glance at their phones and left in a hurry.

While they were walking away, they were still whispering to each other.

“The doctor said that Samara is okay.”

“Thank goodness… She’s really lucky.”

Aqua shut the door coldly.

…

The next morning, the receptionists gave her an exquisitely wrapped package and told her someone had given it to her as a Christmas gift.

It had no name attached to it. After she opened the box, she found chocolates inside.

She looked at the snow outside and suddenly remembered the past.

Since John loved chocolates, she had pestered him into making handmade chocolates with her.

Meanwhile, Will followed them like a shadow.

In the past, when the three of them hung out, no matter what they did, everything had a domestic charm to it.

As she looked at the beautiful box, Aqua sighed.

Honestly, she was allergic to the nuts in the chocolate.

But in order to make John and Will happy, she would only ever go to those gatherings after taking allergy pills.

At that moment, she did not need to enjoy the chocolates anymore.

She called room service, finished her breakfast, and intended to study.

But as time passed, she found herself unable to keep her eyes open. The words on the screen became blurry, and even breathing became a chore.

She rushed into the bathroom to look at the mirror, only to find that her face and neck were swollen, and they itched like crazy.

These were classic signs of an allergic reaction.

But she did not even eat the chocolates!

Since she had left in a hurry, she did not bring loratadine with her. She wanted to ask the receptionist whether they had any, only to find that she could no longer speak.

Aqua put on her cap and pushed it down before hurrying downstairs. But while she was going down, she crashed into someone because she could not see clearly.

“Hiss…”

She fell on the floor.

“Oh God! You’re so ugly!”

The person who ran into her cried out in surprise after seeing her face, leading to the people insulting her.

“You look like a pig, and you have the gall to stay in such a high-class hotel?”

“The hotel really just admits anyone, huh…”

She reached out to grope around for her cap. Once she got it, she wore it. Her actions screamed of panic and urgency.

Without bothering about anything else, she ran to the pharmacy across the road. The wind howled past her ears. Only one thought remained in her mind—get help.

The pharmacist got her the medication and water. Aqua practically had to use all of her strength to swallow it.

While waiting for the ambulance, she grabbed onto the pharmacist’s arm so tightly that her knuckles turned white.

At the moment she opened her eyes in the hospital, she saw a piercing white light and the medical staff moving about.

She knew what it meant. She had survived.

Right then, her tears finally rolled down.

When her attending physician saw her wake up, he finally sighed in relief.

“After you fainted, we looked for your emergency contact on your phone. They’re waiting to see you outside.”

Two men stood at the door, and Will was the first to walk in.

In his hands, he held a box of chocolates. When he saw Aqua lying in bed, he was displeased. “Do you really hate Samara that much? How could you throw the Christmas gift she gave you into the trash bin?!”

Aqua turned to John, who remained quiet and expressionless.

He sat on the sofa with his legs crossed, and he said faintly, “Aqua, you crossed the line this time.”

Faint disdain flashed in his eyes when he looked at her. “Pretending to be sick isn’t a good habit.”

A nurse knocked on the door to change Aqua’s IV drip right then. When she heard what they said, she was surprised, “Don’t you know that the patient has a nut allergy?”

Don’t Go

The ward fell silent in an instant.

If Aqua had loved John with her whole heart before, at that very moment, she would much rather not meet with him ever again.

And she would much rather Will pester Samara forever instead of showing his face in front of her.

Will immediately said without even thinking, “You’re lying! Aqua made tons of chocolates for John before, and she tried plenty of them too! She was never hospitalized from an allergic reaction!”

A flicker of emotion appeared briefly in John’s calm eyes, but he soon returned to normal. “Aqua, you’re still young. Don’t try to fight over my affection anymore.”

Aqua lay on the cold bed and felt a chill spread through her entire body.

Her tears fell uncontrollably. She wanted to say something, but lost the will to speak.

In the end, all those words turned into one single word.

“Leave!”

She shut her eyes and did not want to look at their faces again.

Ignoring the drip connected to her hand, she covered her ears and yelled at them to go.

The door opened, and Samara rushed in. “Aqua, it’s my fault! I shouldn’t have given you that Christmas present, but I just wanted to make you happy!”

Aqua did not eat the chocolates, but she still got an allergic reaction.

The only thing she touched was the box, which meant that Samara had tampered with it.

“Samara!”

Aqua hated herself for ever treating this evil person as her friend.

“John, Will, take her with you and get out of my sight! I don’t want any of you showing your faces in front of me ever again!”

Aqua had a good upbringing and had never lost her composure in such a way in front of John and Will before.

John was surprised. He stood up and wanted to cover Aqua with a blanket, but the hateful glare Aqua leveled at him made him stop.

At that moment, she was acting like a hissing kitten. She bared her teeth and would not allow any stranger near her.

But he was no stranger to her!

Finding himself not having the courage to face Aqua, he turned around, shut the door behind him, and went to the nurse’s station.

He had to be sure whether Aqua really had a nut allergy.

If that was true, then he… truly deserved punishment.

Will held the box of chocolates tightly, and his face turned red, then pale.

Aqua did not seem to be faking that look of anguish, and he wanted to hug her, but before he could even take a step forward, someone held onto his sleeve.

“Will, I’m scared. Why has Aqua turned out like this? Did she experience some sort of shock and lose her mind?”

What a joke.

Aqua turned around and ignored them.

A nurse came in to chase them away by saying that she was emotional at the moment and should not have her rest affected.

“Visitation hours are over.”

“Okay. I’ll visit you some other day.”

Will cast aside his arrogant behavior and tentatively bade farewell to Aqua.

No one visited her the next day.

So, Aqua enjoyed her moment of peace.

But she still needed to change her flight. After some hesitation, she decided to tell Lily about it.

Lily only told her to rest well and would send someone to pick her up.

Aqua did not think too much about it. After putting her phone down, she fell asleep.

When she woke up, she found a man in her room.

The man was peeling an apple. His eyelashes hid his emotions while he slowly moved the knife along the apple.

It seemed like he was worried that he would make too much noise and wake her up.

Aqua thought that the person was John, since their figures were similar. She turned around and shut her eyes again.

“You’re awake? The doctor said that you can eat some apples.”

Aqua opened her eyes.

That voice was not as deep as John’s, nor was it as arrogant as Will’s.

She turned around again and met a pair of blue-gray eyes.

“Mike Phillips. I’m a friend of Lily’s.”

Was he the hot guy Lily mentioned?

She shook his hand with a limp grip.

“Hello, I’m Aqua Chronos. Thanks for coming all the way here. Are we leaving tomorrow?”

John saw this just as he walked into the ward with a flower basket.

“Where are you going with him?”

Sorry, I’m Late

John had been lingering outside the ward and even smoked a cigarette before a nurse chased him out to the balcony.

When he finally made up his mind to go into Aqua’s ward, he saw another man inside.

His eyes fell on their connected hands, and a ruthlessness he did not even notice flashed in his eyes.

A fire brewed in his chest, but he had no way to release it, so he could only hold it in while he asked that question.

He did not want to demand an answer from Aqua. After all, she was still sick.

When she heard the door open, Aqua’s eyes darkened.

As she watched John put down the flower basket, Aqua pulled her hand back.

She was not worried about John misunderstanding the situation. She simply did not want to defend herself to him.

Over the past few days, when he went out with Will and Samara, she never asked them where they went.

Since she gave them their freedom, they were in no place to stick their noses into her business.

Just as she intended to shut her eyes, she found a sliced piece of apple delivered to her mouth.

Aqua’s mind wandered for a moment. The sweet scent of the apple tempted her, and she licked her lips before taking a bite.

John’s gaze turned even colder.

Aqua was doing it on purpose.

He could not quite keep his cool, but when he talked to Aqua again, he still chose to speak softly to her. “Can we talk?”

There was nothing to say between them.

She knew perfectly well just what sort of person John was.

If she told him the truth, she could never board the plane. She would even have a hard time getting out of the hospital.

“Mr. Frank, this is my bestie’s friend. He came to visit.”

John’s expression changed a little.

Aqua had just called him “Mr. Frank”.

So formal. So distant.

Also, didn’t she like him?

He had read her diary before. Those pages were filled with her love for him.

And she never called him “Mr. Frank”.

She always referred to him as John.

A dull pain instantly filled his heart. His face was a little pale.

“Aqua, I know now…”

He only realized it after it happened, and it was almost too late.

But it was Aqua’s fault. She had always pretended that she was not allergic.

Allergies could not be warded off by just taking antihistamines beforehand. Even if the person with allergies did take them, they would not be completely spared from the allergies.

Yet Aqua had made all sorts of chocolates just to make John happy, and she did it every year.

In truth, every time after eating nut chocolate with John, she would go to the hospital to get an allergy shot.

She had even signed up for an immunotherapy session that was supposed to last between three to five years.

If she had not gone abroad to further her studies, she would have completed the treatment.

As Aqua remembered all the pain she endured and her silent love toward John, her eyes stung, and tears welled up in her eyes.

She had done it all just so she could kiss the man she loved.

Yet even after all the effort she put in to get to where she was, she had ended up like a clown in a circus.

“I’m tired, Mr. Frank.”

Aqua decided to chase him out instead.

She shut her eyes and stopped eating the apple.

Mike tactfully chose to leave as well, but John caught up to him in the corridor. “Stay as far away as possible from her.”

He knew Aqua. She did not have any boyfriends while she was studying abroad, so mixed-bloods like Mike should not be her type either.

But there were no absolutes in the world, were there? Judging by her reaction toward him just then, John decided to be more careful.

After all, things had already progressed to that point, and they were just one step away from completing their plan.

Mike chuckled. “Are you her uncle or something?”

That question stung John.

Since Aqua was not around, he decided to shed his mask.

“Aqua likes me.”

Those words carried weight, but he did not profess his love for Aqua either. After all, he always knew what to do and was always relaxed in whatever he did.

Mike extended a hand. “Mike Phillips.”

He was not supposed to be rude to someone being polite to him, but John did not intend to have too much to do with Mike.

“Listen to me and stay away from her.”

John put his hands in his pocket, cast a discreet glance at Aqua through the window, and turned back to Mike. “And don’t even think about leaving this place with her.”

Mike scoffed as he watched John leave, and he returned to the ward.

If he had known that she lived such a miserable life, he would not have stepped down in the beginning.

He had thought about being the gentleman in the situation, but all he got for his efforts were these two snakes hurting Aqua.

When Mike walked in, he saw that Aqua was already sitting up with her cheeks stuffed.

At the sight of Mike walking in, she blinked before she swallowed the apple slices she put in her mouth.

He turned to the table and found that some of the apple slices he had cut just now were gone.

“I’m glad you feel like eating again.”

He was in a much better mood and returned to the stool. He grabbed a pillow to put it behind her. When they were close to each other, he subconsciously caressed her hair.

Feeling vulnerable, Aqua avoided him, but Mike held her down. “Don’t move. You have a worm on your head.”

Aqua blinked and immediately stopped moving.

Her mind instantly went blank.

Oh, no! She had not washed her hair for three to four days.

“I was just teasing you.”

Mike smiled gently, and it contained an endless amount of affection and love.

Aqua’s heart skipped a beat.

Mike was a gentle person.

He was different from the reticent John and the flashy Will.

He was like the rare moments of sunlight in winter that would shine through the dark clouds into a room.

As Aqua fell asleep, Mike’s gaze darkened. He massaged her temples and mumbled, “Sorry I took so long.”

When Will opened the door with flowers in his hands, he saw this.