- 4.
A flash of lightning lit up the sky, briefly illuminating my pale face.
I knelt in the rain by a grave in the cemetery.
The person in the photo on the tombstone smiled kindly and warmly. But as I looked at his smile, the pain inside was unbearable, and an indescribable grievance choked my chest, turning into tears that flowed from my eyes.
My lips trembled uncontrollably as I cried out, “Dad, I really can’t hold on anymore!”
“I don’t want to follow your words and stay by his side!”
“Dad, I’m so miserable, really so miserable!”
The bitterness in my heart spread throughout my body, suffocating me,
When I finished speaking, it felt like all my strength was drained. My body collapsed, and I lost consciousness.
In a hazy dream, past events replayed in my mind like a slideshow.
I saw my father, unable to bear my mother’s death, pulling my hand repeatedly, saying he wanted to donate his heart to Gideon, who had a congenital heart defect.
This was to repay the favor from twenty years ago when Gideon’s father saved my cancer–stricken mother.
Though my mother eventually passed away, my father never forgot this kindness.
Even with his last breath, he asked me to do everything possible to stay by Gideon’s side, to help and support him,
But in fulfilling my promise to my father, using my life to protect him, all I got was endless humiliation.
In the dream, he brought different women to mock me publicly, and I cried out in pain and helplessness.
Tears of grievance streamed down my face, soaking my cheeks and waking me from this torturous memory.
When I opened my eyes, I found myself lying in a hospital bed.
While searching the hospital corridor for the kind person who brought me here, I accidentally discovered Gideon, who should have been entangled with Cora at the villa, was in the room next door.
Standing at the slightly open door, I clearly heard the conversation inside.
Having finished his check–up, Gideon dressed, covering the surgical scar on his left chest.
He took the examination report from the doctor and arrogantly sneered, “Doctor, I heard the original owner of the heart transplanted into me
was some poor lowlife.”
“He must have done it for money. Otherwise, what normal person would donate their heart? It’s disgusting to have such a heart in my body!”
Hearing him slander my father like this, I angrily pushed open the door.
Gideon, sitting on the hospital bed, looked at me with surprise.
He blurted out, blaming me, “Adeline, where were you all night!”
He looked at the hospital gown I was wearing, his voice tinged with concern, “Adeline, why are you in the hospital?”
I didn’t answer. Instead, I silently walked over to him, placing my hand over his heart.
Feeling the heartbeat under my palm, I was filled with indescribable longing.
4 calmly looked into his eyes and softly said, “Gideon, you must live a long life.”
Never betray this heart.
And never betray my father’s gratitude.
Gideon stared at me, bewildered by the expression he’d never seen on my face. He struggled to say something, but I withdrew my hand.
<
Looking at the face I had guarded for ten years, I slowly said, “Gideon, let’s get a divorce.
