Both were rushed to the hospital simultaneously.
Julian's mother, barely recovered from her previous ICU stint, was right back where she began. Shortly after her release, Merlin, in tears, called Julian:
"Mrs. Jenkins was so distressed by Evelyn that she needed resuscitation. She woke up calling for you. Where are you, Julian?"
Julian, sounding feeble, replied, "I'm still undergoing tests. Arrange a caretaker for her."
"Won't you come to see us? She's your mother! Or have you, as Mrs. Jenkins said, forgotten your mother now that you have a wife?"
I was slicing an apple next to him. "Do you want me to go check on her?"
"No need."
Julian wearily ended the call.
He had just received his lab results.
Barely holding on himself, he had no energy left to deal with them.
"The doctors say I don’t have much time left," he said, looking at my stomach, "I might not live long enough to see the child."
"You've had two children, neither of whom you allowed to be born."
"I wasn't... indifferent," he said, his face pale, gazing at me wistfully. "The first time you told me you were pregnant, I spent all night looking up names. I thought if it was a boy, we'd name him Michael Mercer, and if a girl, Jane Mercer. The second time, I hoped for twins so we could use both names."
"That time, I went to visit your mother, and your affair confronted me at the door. Neither Jane nor Michael survived."
After finishing the apple, I clapped my hands clean: "Julian, I likely won't come again. Goodbye."
I left his hospital room and walked to the end of the corridor, entering another room.
Julian's mother was inside, connected to an oxygen machine.
Despite this, when she saw me, her eyes filled with rage.
It is really a great kindness repaid with profound vengeance.
This world harbors such bewildering hatred and base malice.
"Your son won't be coming back. He's got late-stage stomach cancer, just like you, lying in pain." She tried to hit me, but I stepped back.
"Even now, you are unclear about right and wrong, living only as a confused malignancy. Having a mother like that,he is truly pitiful—so young, yet risking life."
She struggled and collapsed forward, the bedside machines trembling violently.
As doctors and nurses rushed in, I moved against the flow of people and encountered Merlin.
"What are you doing here?! What did you say to Mrs. Jenkins?"
"I told her that I never really liked the apartment she lived in, so I put it up for sale.I heard you were an orphan? It is lucky for you that you are adopted by her? It's fitting that orphans look abandoned and have nowhere to go."
Two months later, Julian's mother passed away.
He called me.
He didn't mention our last encounter.
Instead, he just choked up and asked if I could come see him.
I was busy taking over the company and had the new secretary send him takeout from that restaurant—Charlotte was getting too old for his position.
I gave birth to a child in the winter.
This child, deeply loved by Evelyn, cried loudly.
She will never know her mother really wanted to see her, but the voice of Julian kept telling her to die.
Evelyn held on for a long time, finally giving in the night Merlin returned to the country.
I picked up the baton Evelyn had dropped.
I am no saint, but I ran this leg for her.
And every leg for her thereafter.
Ensuring her child grows up protected by her mother, with a rich and strong spirit.
I heard Julian breathed his last when he heard the child cries.
Of course, in this world, no one cares about him anymore.
