Back to Love: A New Beginning
Chapter 177

Chapter 177:

“Does Shane know you’re in this hospital?” I asked.

Shane’s mother replied, “Shane called me a few weeks ago and told me that an opportunity had come up for him to go overseas and he wouldn’t be able to visit me often again. Maybe because the overseas call rates are so high, he doesn’t want to call us often. I didn’t want him to worry about me, so I didn’t let him know my current status.”

Has he gone abroad?” I grimaced internally.

Shane’s mother suddenly grabbed my hand and said, “Eveline, I know you divorced Shane. If you hadn’t left suddenly that night, he might have continued to cheat on us and kept the truth from us. You are a good girl, Eveline. Shane is an unfortunate person to have lost you. But he has turned over a new leaf now, and he seems to be quite successful. He transferred a large sum of money to us recently.

How else would he have been able to pay for treatment at such a good hospital? Eveline, I have reprimanded him. If he did something wrong, I think he has also realized that he was wrong. Are you able to forgive him and give him another chance? His father and I won’t cause you any trouble. You just take care of yourself, okay?”

If Shane had known he was wrong, he wouldn’t have done all those things to hurt me. I slowly withdrew my hand from the older woman’s grip and a shadow of a smile appeared on my face.

“The most important thing for you now is to take good care of yourself.” Something clicked in my mind and I asked, “Have you changed your phone number?”

She nodded. “Actually, it was Shane who changed it for me. He said my previous phone number didn’t work, so he changed it for me. By the way, why are you here, are you here to visit someone?” she asked.

I paused for a few seconds and nodded with a smile. “Yes, my husband has a stomach ache and has also been hospitalized here.”

Obvious disappointment flashed through her eyes and she nodded slightly. On my way out, I stopped at the door and glanced around. Shane’s father was still carefully feeding him. I could guess that the food was cold by now.

As much as I hated Shane, I still felt uncomfortable seeing the pitiful situation of the elderly couple. Maybe this was fate. People could never conclude for themselves whether they were truly happy or sad, regretful or satisfied, until the very day of their death.

When I returned to Derek’s room, I didn’t turn on the light. I walked quietly to another bed with the intention of sleeping.

“Sleep here,” Derek suddenly called in the darkness. He was awake.

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I didn’t hesitate for a moment. I reached over, pulled up the covers and crawled under. He reached out and hugged me tightly. The room was saturated with the smell of disinfectant. It was a little strange to sleep cuddled together in such an environment.

During the course of the night, footsteps could be heard passing near the room and then moving away from it quite clearly, every now and then. Perhaps Derek was drained of energy or just felt faint, but he fell asleep in no time at all.

His breaths were even and long. I, however, could not fall asleep. I touched his face and noticed his exhausted expression. Silently, I felt sorry for him. We were both devoid of love, but now we had become each other’s lovers and no longer had to lick our wounds on our own. Little by little, we became very significant parts of each other’s lives.

I couldn’t help but hug him tighter out of affection and I could feel his heartbeat and breath tickling my skin. I was deeply moved by the fact that we were together and whole. The moonlight shone through the window and fell on the windowsill. I had no idea of the time.

The high-pitched sound of an incoming message was heard from her phone that sat on the bedside table. At first, I didn’t move at all. However, the phone rang again.

I slowly sat up and reached for her phone without disturbing her sleep. Before I pressed the message, I saw the sender’s name and the hairs on the back of my body stood up. The phone slipped from my hand.

The phone fell silently onto the bed sheets. I bit my tongue to keep from screaming out loud. I glanced at Derek. Maybe the medicine the doctor had given him had had a hypnotic effect, because he was still sound asleep. Within seconds, my entire body was swept by a blast of frigid air, and every muscle shivered and went numb at the same time.

Staring at the glowing phone screen, I managed to pull myself together after a minute. Then I picked up the phone again.

Sybil? How could a person who had been dead for eight years send a message?

There was only one sentence in the message: [You will receive a big surprise next month. Be prepared].

Judging by the tone, it wasn’t the first time they’d been in touch. But this was overwhelmingly horrifying! I checked the phone number and found no record of any messages. I assumed Derek had deleted the message history.

I deleted the message, put the phone back where it was initially and got back into bed. Even though the comforter was wrapped tightly around me, I still felt a cold sensation throughout my body, and the sound of my own teeth chattering was quite audible.

What was the truth, I knew Sybil was still alive, but how was that possible?

The news had reported her death on a grand scale at the time. And if Sybil wasn’t dead, how could Derek have suffered for so many years? And how could he have carefully made those plans to avenge her death? But if she was dead, why was there such a message? Were there really ghosts in the world? I could not understand any of this.

If Sybil was still alive and they were keeping in touch, who was I to him?

As I slept, Derek came over to me and hugged me tighter. His tired face had a look of innocence that made me feel sorry for him. This time, I decided to pretend I didn’t know anything and wait to see how things happened. There had been many times when I thought something terrible had happened, but in the end they turned out to be misunderstandings.

I didn’t want to jump to conclusions as I had done before. And I didn’t want my marriage to be as vulnerable as a piece of paper that could easily be blown away by a gust of wind caused by others.

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