After another disagreement with Lucas about marriage, he went to sleep in the guest room. At 2 AM, I wanted to apologize. But as I approached the guest room door, I overheard him on the phone: “Dating and marriage are two different things. Ivy can’t handle the rules of high society. Not marrying her is for her own good.” “I don’t have a suitable marriage prospect anyway, so I’m just taking it day by day. After all, she saved my life. I can’t bring myself to break up with her…” I didn’t confront him. I just went back to our room and lay awake until dawn. Early the next morning, I sat down across from Lucas’s mother, Rachel: “Is your previous offer still valid? I don’t choose Lucas anymore. I want the money.” Rachel took a leisurely sip of coffee before looking up at me. “Are you sure? If you take the money, I’ll never allow Lucas to marry you.” The scene before me was similar to five years ago. But back then, I had unhesitatingly refused Rachel’s check. I had declared confidently: “Lucas and I love each other, so my grandfather and I won’t charge for treating him!” Lost in thought for a few seconds, I came back to the present: “Don’t worry, once I get the money, I plan to break up with Lucas.” Hearing this, Rachel didn’t waste any more words. “Give me your account details. I’ll transfer the money to you shortly.” As I was leaving, Rachel added one more reminder: “You know Lucas’s personality. If you suddenly bring up breaking up, he definitely won’t agree.” I paused for a moment, nodded, and left without another word. When I got home, Lucas was busy in the kitchen. Seeing this scene, I suddenly remembered how clumsy he had been in the kitchen a few years ago. Back then, I never could have imagined that the famous heir to the Wilson family would one day learn hundreds of different dishes just for me. Of course, I also couldn’t have imagined that this man who seemed to only have eyes for me had never actually thought about having a future with me. “Where did you go so early? Are you still mad at me?” Lucas put the food on the table and came over to hug me. “I was in a bad mood last night. Let’s eat first, and then we’ll go try on wedding dresses this afternoon.” If I hadn’t overheard his conversation with his friend, I would have happily given Lucas a kiss right now. After hesitating for a few seconds between refusing and agreeing, I decided to give myself one last dream. So I softly replied, “Okay.” However, my dream was shattered halfway through. As soon as I put on the wedding dress, Lucas barely glanced at it before saying he had an urgent matter at the company and had to leave. Just after he left, Rachel sent me an address with a message: “In case you don’t know what reason to use for breaking up, I’ll help you out.” In all the years I’ve been with Lucas, I haven’t met his mother Rachel very often. But I’ve always known that if Lucas and I got married, she would be a pretty good mother-in-law. Now that she knows Lucas and I won’t have a future together, she’s efficiently stepped in to start arranging blind dates for him. Unfortunately, I failed to catch Lucas in the act of going on a blind date. Because on the way there, I stopped to help a pedestrian who suddenly fell ill. After taking them to the hospital, I no longer had the energy to confront Lucas. So I went back to the place Lucas and I had lived for several years. When Lucas returned, he saw me packing my things. “Ivy, I’m sorry. Let’s try on wedding dresses in a couple of days, okay?” Rachel, probably afraid I’d change my mind, had been sending me photos of Lucas with his blind date all afternoon. They looked perfectly matched, smiling and chatting away. I was calmer than I expected. While packing our couple items into a bag, I replied noncommittally: “We’ll see.” Lucas wanted to say something, but his phone chimed, distracting him. When he looked back, he had changed the subject: “Adam invited us over for a bit. Let’s go, and when we get back, I’ll help you pack.” Now wasn’t the right time to have it out with him. I had no choice but to go along. As soon as we entered the private room, I sensed something was off about the atmosphere. Adam, who usually joked around and called me “little sister-in-law” as soon as he saw me, kept glancing at a woman sitting in the corner. Following his gaze, in the flickering light, the woman’s face perfectly matched Lucas’s blind date from that afternoon.
Lucas led me to sit in the center, not even glancing at the woman. He handed me a glass of juice and gestured for Adam to introduce the woman. “Luke, Iv- I mean, Ivy, this is my cousin Wendy. She just got back from abroad a couple days ago. She doesn’t have many friends here, so I brought her along.” Maybe out of guilt, Adam’s voice got quieter as he spoke. Lucas’s face betrayed nothing. He nodded briefly at his blind date before looking away. “Hi there, may I sit here?” A few minutes later, Wendy sat down next to me, holding a Yorkshire terrier. Because I had been focused on Lucas, I clearly saw him frown slightly when Wendy sat down. I’m a bit slow to warm up to people. Not knowing how to handle the current situation, I just smiled awkwardly. “I heard your family has a history of royal physicians? Momo’s appetite isn’t good, could you take a look?” Healing and saving lives is my family’s ancestral teaching. Ignoring the strange feeling in my heart, I replied seriously: “Besides poor appetite, does the patient have any other symptoms?” Wendy laughed and held up the little dog in front of me: “Here, there’s no human patient, just an unwell little dog. It’s a life too, Ivy. You wouldn’t refuse to help, would you?” Our family has always been small. When my grandfather was young, he almost lost his life due to certain circumstances. After the founding of New China, he lived in hiding for a few years. But eventually he was called out of retirement to save lives. In my memory, those who knew my grandfather’s background were always very respectful to our family. Even though I was a girl, once people knew I was the only heir to the Sang family in this generation, they rarely spoke to me like this. “Wendy! Where are your manners?! Do you know who you’re talking to?!” Adam angrily rebuked her, then turned to apologize to me: “Ivy, I’m so sorry. This girl’s been spoiled by the family. Please don’t take it to heart.” After I got together with Lucas, his friends basically all asked me to check their parents’ pulses. I once detected a problem with Adam’s mother’s body when she showed no obvious symptoms. Although Lucas had already recovered by then, they thought it was all thanks to my grandfather’s skills and were half-skeptical of me. But Adam still took his mother to the hospital for a checkup, out of respect for Lucas. As a result, they were able to intervene before the lesion became cancerous. This is why, among Lucas’s friends, Adam is so warm towards me. “Miss Summers doesn’t understand medicine, does she? Examining humans and pets are completely different things.” I hadn’t spoken yet, but Lucas chimed in first. However, he didn’t seem to be taking my side at all, and continued calmly: “Ivy isn’t petty. Miss Summers meant no offense, she won’t take it personally.” There had been similar situations before. When someone badmouthed me behind my back and Lucas overheard, he immediately got physical. But now? Just because she’s his socially-compatible blind date, he can be infinitely tolerant? “I’m so sorry, Ivy. I was too impulsive. You don’t mind, right?” As she spoke, Wendy placed her cool hand on my arm. A strong feeling of discomfort welled up from the bottom of my heart. Afraid I might show an odd expression in front of everyone, I quickly stood up: “I don’t mind, but I need to use the restroom. Excuse me.” After adjusting my breathing in the bathroom for a while, I decided to clear things up with Lucas as soon as possible and returned to the private room. Maybe because I had left in such a hurry earlier, the door wasn’t fully closed, and I could hear the voices from inside. “Luke, even though Wendy’s my cousin, I have to be fair. If you want to get back together with her, you should be honest with Ivy. You’ve been together for so many years, and she even saved your life. If you have any conscience, don’t play her for a fool!”
I stopped my hand that was about to push open the door. So Lucas and Wendy knew each other from before? They had even been together? “With Ivy’s personality, if I say we should break up, she’ll leave immediately. She has no family left – where would she go without me? Don’t get involved in this. Keep your mouth shut in front of Ivy, and I’ll talk to Wendy myself…” From Lucas’s words, it seemed he wanted to discuss marriage with Wendy while keeping me in the dark? Taking a deep breath, I withdrew my hand from the door and turned to leave. Less than half an hour after I got home, Lucas returned too. “Ivy, are you feeling unwell? Should we go to the hospital?” His concern didn’t seem fake. But that’s exactly why I felt even more disgusted. “I’ve already taken some medicine. Don’t you remember? I know medicine myself.” After scrutinizing me for a while and seeing that I really didn’t seem to be ill, Lucas breathed a sigh of relief. “That’s good. By the way, Adam said he’s throwing a welcome party for his cousin tomorrow. Do you want to come with me?” Closing my eyes briefly, I replied flatly: “I won’t go. I have an appointment for a house call tomorrow.” Lucas’s attention was drawn to his phone again, and he just gave a distracted “Oh” after a while. When I came back from using the bathroom in the middle of the night, I saw Lucas’s phone screen lit up on his pillow. Out of trust, I had never touched his privacy all these years. I was just going to turn off the screen and put it back. But the content that met my eyes made me hold my breath. [I didn’t expect Aunt to set us up on a blind date. Luke, I’ve missed you so much these past years.] Looking at the time the message was sent, it must have been right before Lucas came back from the blind date and said Adam had invited us out. Lucas hadn’t replied to this message. Next were messages from after Lucas and I arrived at the club. [Luke, is this the girlfriend you’ve been with for many years? She looks okay, but seems so boring. What do you like about her?] Lucas replied to this one quickly. [Even though both families want us to get married now, I haven’t broken up with Ivy yet. Watch what you say!] It seemed to be after this message that Wendy came to sit next to me with her dog. And the content of Lucas’s next messages was even more beyond my imagination. [You didn’t drive? Wait, I’ll have someone send you home.] [Are you home yet? Reply! Don’t make me worry!] [It’s not that I don’t want to get back together with you, but my girlfriend is innocent. I don’t want to hurt her.] At this point, Wendy finally responded. [You should know that in families like ours, marriage is rarely a matter of personal choice. But if you want to marry her, I’ll give you my blessing. I can even put in a good word with your mom. I want you to be happy more than I want to marry you.] It took Lucas a long time to reply: [Everyone thinks Ivy and I are a good match, that we have a great relationship. But only I know that I’ve never forgotten you all these years. I’ll talk to her. Wendy, from beginning to end, you’re the only woman I’ve ever wanted to marry.] This message was sent half an hour ago. Because I had things on my mind, I hadn’t been able to fall asleep. But I knew that during that time, Lucas had placed a glass of warm water by my bedside. Not only that, he had kissed my forehead and tucked me in. How difficult it must be for him, to juggle between two women. Afraid of another sleepless night, I alternately pressed the acupuncture points on my wrists. Finally, I slept soundly through the night.
Early the next morning, Lucas left. Shortly after he left, I received a friend request on my phone. Actually, I knew who it was just from the name. But after hesitating for a few seconds, I still chose to accept it. [My brother told me a lot about you. To be honest, if we hadn’t met under these circumstances, I would have liked to be friends with you. But there’s no helping it – there’s no room for a third person in a relationship. Luke and I are well-matched and have feelings for each other. We’ll definitely get married in the future. I don’t want things to get ugly, so why don’t you just leave on your own? It’s better for everyone.] Before Lucas came home yesterday, I had already cleared out all the couple items in the house. When Wendy sent her message, I was sorting through my own things. Everything in the house related to me, things I had bought. I took what I could carry and planned to throw away what I couldn’t. Seeing that I hadn’t replied for a while, Wendy sent another message. [You probably don’t know why Luke was so seriously ill back then, do you? It was actually because of me. I was young at the time, and after an argument with Luke, I angrily said we should break up and then went abroad. I only found out later that he had fallen seriously ill because of my departure and almost didn’t make it. I’m actually grateful to you for saving his life. I’m not saying this for any particular reason, just want you to know that what you thought was love might just be gratitude. Luke may have had feelings for you, but how much of it was actually love is hard to say.] I couldn’t quite describe how I felt. Since that night, my emotions had fallen into a state of numbness. Following my instincts, I had taken back the high consultation fee from Rachel that I should have received years ago. I had also warned myself that I must clear things up with Lucas as soon as possible. Now, I learned the truth that had been delayed for years. For a moment, I doubted whether the past few years of my life had been a dream. I had no ill feelings towards Wendy. Although her words were somewhat condescending, that was the confidence and assurance her family background gave her. And she was just stating facts, not being malicious. I was grateful to her. At this moment, she urged me to make up my mind. [I’ll be leaving soon. I wish you both happiness.] After sending this message, I put down my phone. After all, this was a place I had lived for years. Afraid of leaving things behind that might cause misunderstandings for Wendy in the future, I packed very carefully. Before leaving with my suitcase, I checked each room one last time. Only after confirming that I hadn’t left anything related to me did I feel at ease to leave. I didn’t expect to see Rachel at the airport. “I thought you weren’t leaving for a few days. Have you talked things over with Lucas yet?” Although Rachel was wearing a coat, it was clear she had on an evening gown underneath. She must have rushed over from Wendy’s welcome party. I briefly told Rachel about what had happened these past two days and what I had seen. When she heard what Wendy had said to me, Rachel raised her eyebrows in surprise. “I arranged that blind date for them purely to give you a reason to leave Lucas. To be honest, if I had to choose, I would still prefer you as my daughter-in-law.” I didn’t know how to respond to that. Rachel stepped forward and adjusted my collar. “Take good care of yourself from now on. Love yourself first before loving others. If there’s anything you’re unsure about, you can always come to me. Most importantly, don’t fall in love with someone carelessly.” I hadn’t shed a single tear these past few days. But after Rachel said those words, my tears fell uncontrollably. “Thank you, Rachel.” Thank you for being able to consider things from my perspective as a mother. After saying goodbye to Rachel, I found Lucas’s chat window. I sent him the screenshots I had taken last night of his conversation with Wendy. Then I sent a message: [Let’s break up. I wish you both happiness.]
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