Free Web NovelChapter 162: Chapter 158: Deep Love Leads to Parting, So It Was True
Georgia Thorne looked up at him, her voice hoarse. "You think it’s fun to mess with me like this, don’t you?"
"Miss Thorne, our president didn’t mean it like that, I..." Owen Sawyer didn’t know how to explain. "Our president is someone who likes to see things through to the end, so Miss Thorne..."
Owen Sawyer cut himself off. He felt like he was only making things worse. He awkwardly changed the subject with a dry laugh. "Miss Thorne, is there anywhere else you’d like to go?"
Georgia Thorne ignored him. She returned to the hotel, grabbed her things, and checked out of the room.
Suddenly, she understood. ’No wonder Elliot Sheridan always insisted on using my ID to book the rooms. He had been planning this all along.’
Georgia Thorne walked out of the hotel and saw Owen Sawyer standing by his car.
"Miss Thorne, where are you headed? Let me give you a ride!"
"I have nothing to do with Elliot Sheridan anymore. Please, Secretary Sawyer, stop following me. Thank you," Georgia Thorne said stiffly.
She walked around Owen Sawyer, headed to the main road, and hailed a taxi.
Georgia Thorne slid into the car and gave the driver the address for the airport.
For her, these past three days had been like a gorgeous, fantastical dream.
In the dream, she had been happy, beautiful. But now that the dream was over, all the happiness within it had shattered into heart-wrenching pain.
Owen Sawyer instructed his driver to follow the taxi Georgia Thorne was in.
Just like before, Georgia Thorne bought a ticket for the next available flight to Kelda.
Georgia Thorne glanced at Owen Sawyer, who was following close behind her. She stopped and handed him the bag she was carrying.
"Secretary Sawyer, you don’t have to follow me. Tell him I’m not the type to cling or pester. Since we’ve broken up, I guarantee I will never bother him again."
Georgia Thorne spoke with conviction. Owen Sawyer wanted to say that wasn’t what he meant, that he was just worried about a young woman traveling back alone.
With those words, the slender figure turned and walked away.
Owen Sawyer watched her retreating back, a troubled look on his face. Only after she was out of sight did he look down at the bag in his hands.
He turned around and started walking out of the airport while making a call to Elliot Sheridan.
"Miss Thorne didn’t stay at the hotel. She went back. She’s on the next flight out. Yes, I understand," Owen Sawyer said to the person on the other end, adding a final sentence, "President, Miss Thorne left something for you. Should I...?"
"Bring it over."
"Yes, sir!" Owen Sawyer hung up, breathing a sigh of relief.
Outside, planes were slowly taking off and landing.
The flight from Kyoria to Kelda was just over an hour. Throughout the journey, she didn’t shed a single tear.
On the contrary, she was a completely different person from the weeping mess she’d been before.
It was only three in the afternoon when Georgia Thorne arrived back at her small, rented apartment.
The trip had been more mentally exhausting than physically tiring.
Georgia Thorne flopped onto her bed, limp and unwilling to move a muscle.
She closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep.
When she woke up, it was already nine at night.
She was starving. As she sat up, she felt a damp spot on her pillow, and her eyes stung with a fresh wave of sorrow.
’Georgia, he already broke up with you. It’s time to give up completely.’
’Don’t cry anymore. Don’t ever cry for him again!’
After three days away from home, the food in her refrigerator had long since expired.
She put on a jacket, planning to go to the convenience store near her apartment to buy something to eat.
While she had been sleeping, it had apparently started to snow. It was coming down quite heavily.
Georgia Thorne grabbed an umbrella and was partway to the convenience store when she ran into Byron Shaw coming from the opposite direction.
The last time they had seen each other was three days ago, but in a daze, it felt like a month had passed.
"Attorney Shaw, what a coincidence," Georgia Thorne said, forcing a smile.
"It’s no coincidence. I came here looking for you."
Georgia Thorne could no longer smile. Her lips felt stiff as she looked at him. "Is that so? Attorney Shaw, what can I do for you?"
Byron Shaw stood tall, his gaze sharp as he looked at Georgia Thorne.
She looked very different from three days ago. There was no smile on her face, and even when she tried, it was clearly forced.
Her eyes were bloodshot, as if she had just been crying.
He asked her bluntly, "Where have you been for the past three days!"
"I..."
"Don’t tell me you were at home!" Byron Shaw cut her off. "I came looking for you every day for the past three days. Your apartment was empty!"
Georgia Thorne couldn’t answer. It was true she hadn’t been home.
"Where I’ve been... that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with you, Attorney Shaw!"
Georgia Thorne found Byron Shaw’s questioning completely baffling. They weren’t related in any way, so why should she have to tell him anything?
"Then let me ask a different question. Were you with Elliot Sheridan for the past three days? I heard from your colleague that he was the one who came to teach your class that day."
A lawyer, through and through. Even his deductions were delivered with such righteous conviction.
But Georgia Thorne couldn’t refute him because he was absolutely right.
"Georgia Thorne, you and Elliot Sheridan are not right for each other. Even if you like him, you two will never be together." Byron Shaw’s words were sharp and brutally honest, rubbing salt in her wound.
The pain was so intense she could barely speak.
"Attorney Shaw, my life is my own to manage. I don’t need you to worry about it." Suddenly, she had lost her appetite completely. "I’m sorry, it’s getting late. I’m going back!"
She turned and walked quickly back toward her apartment. Everyone said she and Elliot Sheridan weren’t right for each other.
’It’s just like the fortune said, isn’t it? "Deep love leads to parting."’
Snow had already started to accumulate on the ground. She followed her own footprints back, leaving deep and shallow impressions in the snow.
To Byron Shaw, it looked as though Georgia Thorne was fleeing in disarray.
She rushed back to her apartment, locked the door behind her, and leaned weakly against it.
Byron Shaw watched Georgia Thorne go upstairs, then followed.
He saw the lights in her apartment turn on, then took out his phone and spoke to the person on the other end. "Don’t worry, she’s back. No, she just went out with some friends for a bit."
That night, Georgia Thorne suddenly developed a high fever.
But she felt so dizzy and weak that she didn’t have the strength to move, remaining limp on her bed.
Her body was burning up. She burrowed under the covers and broke out in a heavy sweat.
In her feverish haze, she had no idea what time it was when she suddenly heard a frantic knocking at the door.
She was too weak to get up and open it. Then she heard a loud BANG.
She struggled to open her eyes and saw a tall figure rushing toward her.
’It wasn’t Elliot Sheridan.’
She closed her eyes in sorrow as a crystalline tear escaped from the corner of her eye.
’Why would it be him?’
Byron Shaw saw Georgia Thorne on the bed and immediately ran over to her.
He noticed her face was an abnormal shade of red and sensed something was wrong.
He placed a hand on her forehead. It was burning hot. She had a fever.
"Nina, wake up!" Byron Shaw said softly in her ear, anxiously patting Georgia Thorne’s cheek.
Georgia Thorne couldn’t hear him, her eyes closed as she sank into a deep sleep.
With no other choice, Byron Shaw grabbed Georgia Thorne’s coat from a hanger, pulled back the covers, and wrapped it around her body.
He scooped Georgia Thorne into his arms and rushed outside.
The pungent smell of antiseptic filled her nostrils. It was unpleasant.
Georgia Thorne opened her eyes. The first thing she saw was a white ceiling. This wasn’t her small apartment.
Her head throbbed, and a buzzing sound filled her ears. The foreign language spoken around her grated on her eardrums.
She tried to move her fingers but found a needle taped to the back of her hand, connected to an IV drip.
Her mind was foggy, a complete blank. She couldn’t remember how she got to the hospital.
Byron Shaw came in from outside and saw that Georgia Thorne was awake.
He pulled a chair to the bedside and leaned in close to her.
Georgia Thorne didn’t know what he was about to do. She instinctively recoiled.
She watched Byron Shaw warily, her fingers clenching nervously. She wanted to speak, but her throat was so dry and hoarse that she couldn’t make a sound.
After a long moment, she managed to force out a single word. "You..."
Byron Shaw’s large hand was already on her forehead. His hand was cool, or perhaps her forehead was just too hot.
Byron Shaw felt her forehead. Her temperature was a little lower than before. He pulled his hand back.
"You’ve had a fever all morning. Any longer and I was afraid you’d fry your brain," Byron Shaw said, glancing at her wary eyes before pulling back a little. "Do you want some water?"
Georgia Thorne nodded. Her throat felt like it was on fire.
Byron Shaw poured a glass of warm water, then helped Georgia Thorne sit up, placing a pillow behind her back.
Georgia Thorne took the water and GULP, GULP, GULP, drank all of it.
She wiped her mouth with her rolled-up sleeve. The water soothed her burning throat, making it feel much better.
She cleared her throat and said, "Thank you."
Seeing Byron Shaw, she vaguely recalled a few fragments of what had happened.
She seemed to remember him kicking down her door and bringing her to the hospital.
Byron Shaw grunted in acknowledgment, took the empty glass, and placed it on the bedside table.
There were other patients in the room, but curtains were drawn to separate the spaces. In their small area, it was just the two of them.
It was dead silent, except for the occasional murmur of voices from the surrounding area.
Georgia Thorne kept her head down, not daring to look at Byron Shaw.
She didn’t understand why he had thought to come looking for her this morning.
The silence lasted until Mr. and Mrs. Ford arrived.
Byron Shaw had only asked his sister to bring some congee when she came.
But when Mrs. Ford heard that Georgia Thorne was sick, she spent over two hours busy in the kitchen and brought a lot of food with her.
Mrs. Ford nudged Byron Shaw aside, took the chair for herself, and looked at Georgia Thorne with a concerned expression. "You went on a trip and came back even thinner!"
Mrs. Ford had always been warm and enthusiastic. Georgia Thorne said, "It’s okay, the fever’s gone down!"
"Getting sick is a big deal. I specially brought you some nutritious congee. Are you hungry? Do you want to eat something?"
Georgia Thorne was indeed starving. She hadn’t eaten anything since lunch the previous day.
Mrs. Ford opened the food containers. Besides the congee, there were several other dishes.
Georgia Thorne had a few sips of the hot congee and felt a warmth spread through her stomach.
Mrs. Ford sat by her side, reminding her to take care of her health.
Sickness comes like a landslide, but leaves like pulling a thread of silk.
Georgia Thorne’s illness lasted for over half a month, and she lost a significant amount of weight in the process.
