Chapter 21
Maya explained, “The Fords went downhill two years ago. With the rise of the new companies, they were gradually squeezed out. Now, even small companies are doing better than the Fords. Naturally, their assets were sold off one by one.”
Shannon’s eyes widened in shock–she truly hadn’t known. Ever since the incident at the hospital, she had completely lost contact with Thomas. She had been focused on her career abroad all these years. As such, she wasn’t aware that the Ford family had suffered a major downfall. While they were eating, Jade suddenly said, “I feel nauseous, Daddy.”
Jacob checked her forehead, only to find her burning up. He anxiously said, “She probably hasn’t gotten used to the local weather–the back–and–forth travelling must have made her catch a cold.”
Upon hearing that, Shannon got up in a hurry. She then called a cab to send Jade to the hospital.
Upon arriving at the hospital, the doctor prescribed Jade some antipyretics. After taking the medicine, she fell asleep in Shannon’s arms, looking beyond pitiful.
At that moment, Shannon saw Thomas walking out of the psychological counselling room.
Six years had passed, and he had lost all his former vigor. He looked weary and even had several strands of grey hair on his head.
Thomas was stunned to see Shannon. He forced a smile and said, “Long time no see.”
“It’s been a long time indeed,” she replied.
They hadn’t expected to meet again like this after years apart.
Thomas looked at Jade, who was asleep in Shannon’s arms, and asked, “Who’s this?”
She looked at Jade affectionately before replying, “This is my daughter.”
Thomas came to a realization and nodded.
Shannon then passed a sleeping Jade back to Jacob. “I’ll be back soon.”
Shannon and Thomas walked along the path outside the hospital.
Sure enough, time could wash away everything.
When they met again, there was no longer any lingering love for Thomas in Shannon’s heart. The hatred she once felt had also completely faded away,
replaced with a quiet sense of acceptance.
ཟ འོད ཇ 1: བཻཥྞཾ ཛྙཱ ཨཽ བྲྀ གཽ བྷ བྷ གཽ བྷ ཨཽ ༔ ཨཽ ཨཽ ཎྜ ཞེ མཻ གཽ རཾ དྷྭ གཽཎྞཾ ཥཾ ཟ ནཾ ཇ ཤྲཱ ཨཽ ཨོཾ རྟེན ཏེ ཚནྣཾ, བྷཾ
She glanced over at Thomas, who was holding onto a medical report, which was clearly marked with the diagnosis of severe depression.
Upon noticing her gaze, he quickly hid the report behind him.
Shannon didn’t prod Thomas about it, merely looking at him and asking, “Where’s Christopher? Why isn’t he with you?”
He laughed bitterly. “Chris is under my mom’s care now. I only get to see him a few times a year now.‘
Although Thomas‘ tone was casual, Shannon could hear his pain behind it.
She knew he wasn’t doing well, which was why Grace didn’t trust him with his family’s assets. But she hadn’t expected Grace to also take Christopher
away.
Shannon noticed several marks on Thomas‘ arms, both new and old. Suddenly, she realized just how serious his mental illness was.
Just as she was caught in a daze, he glanced at her and asked, “What about you? You look happy now.”
Shannon smiled and replied, “Yes, I’m happy.”
After hearing it, Thomas muttered, “That’s good.”
As if afraid she didn’t hear it, he then smiled and repeated, “That’s good.”
Shannon carefully studied Thomas‘ condition. After some hesitation, she said, “I hope you can pull yourself together. What happens to the Ford family now is just temporary. Besides, you still have-
She paused before continuing, “You still have Christopher. You’ll have to attend his wedding once he grows up.”
Thomas realized that Shannon was trying to encourage him. He gave a self–deprecating smile and said, “Are you afraid I might kill myself? Don’t worry,
won’t.”
She was relieved to hear his words. As she stepped forward, she heard him mumble, “I’ve been dead for a long time—I died the night you left.” Shannon’s heart sank. She turned around and looked at Thomas. “My husband and daughter are still waiting for me at the hospital entrance. So this is where we’ll say goodbye.”
His eyes became red–rimmed as he replied, “Alright. I’ll walk the path by myself from now on.
Thomas was willing to be tormented by Shannon in their next lives.
