Chapter 22
At that moment, a doctor suggested treating Lumina as if she were in a vegetative state.
Though a patient in such a condition may not respond outwardly, they can still absorb the information sent their way. Perhaps by speaking of past events in her presence, they could trigger a faint spark of awareness, a chance for her to wake up.
To help with this, it would be useful to have certain objects associated with the past. Without hesitation, Floyd hurried back to the Stuart Family manor.
He remembered that Lumina had drawn
countless pictures for him and he hoped bringing them to her room would stir something inside her, perhaps the key to waking her from her slumber.
But when he arrived at the empty house, he was hit by a painful realization–everything
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that had once belonged to Lumina was
gone.
Clothes, jewelry, photographs… even the drawings she had made for him.
A servant, standing nervously nearby, explained, “It was Miss Ryan–no, I mean Tracie–who ordered us to pack everything belonging to Ms. Shields and send it to the airport. She said Ms. Shields wouldn’t be returning from abroad, so everything had to go–nothing could be left behind.”
Suddenly, Floyd remembered the day they had been preparing to send Lumina overseas. He vaguely recalled hearing her on the phone, telling someone on the other end, “I don‘ t want it anymore.”
He had asked her about it at the time. Lumina had simply shaken her head, her voice calm. “Just a few old clothes.”
A wave of dread swept over Floyd and he immediately sent someone to the airport.
The result was devastating. Lumina had
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personally instructed the airport staff to dispose of all her belongings, including the drawings.
The staff explained that, since several days had passed, everything would have already been sent to the landfill and incinerated.
Floyd was on the verge of breaking. For the first time, he truly grasped the depth of Lumina s finality.
Tears slipped through his fingers as he suddenly remembered the engagement ring that had once sat on his finger.
It was a ring they had chosen together.
He could still recall the joy in Lumina‘ s eyes as she placed the ring on his finger, her smile betraying her happiness. Now, all that remained of her was that ring.
He returned to the same hospital, standing beneath the window once again.
The vast lake was scattered with drifting leaves and occasionally, a small stone
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would tumble into the water, disappearing
without a trace.
Floyd had hired a professional team to search the lakebed for the ring.
But searching for it was like looking for a needle in a haystack–it was a hopeless task, destined to end in failure.
So, he had the lake drained.
The lakebed was covered with three to four meters of thick silt. Even after the water was removed, it was still nearly impossible to recover a ring from such a vast expanse.
Drew and Erika came in person, but they weren’t there to support him.
Drew looked at the son he had once been proud of, disappointment written all over his face. “For a woman, you’ve
abandoned the company and thrown away your future. I think you’ve lost your mind!”
Erika, equally upset, scolded him,
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“You” ve been keeping someone who’s neither alive nor dead in the hospital and I won’t say much about that. But now, you‘ re making a huge spectacle just to recover a ring? You are the only heir of the Stuart Family. You need to show some restraint! What will people think of us if they see this?”
Floyd lifted his head, but there was none of his former spark in his eyes.
It was precisely because he had cared so much about what others thought that he had once left Lumina alone in a place like
Mount Gravenwood.
Because his parents had never liked Lumina, he had done everything he could to mold her into someone they would accept, pushing her further and further away in the process.
