novelbin Chapter 1206: Partings and Reunions Are Beyond Our Control
Chapter 1206: Partings and Reunions Are Beyond Our Control
Leah seemed to be having a long dream, in which she gradually grew from her babbling childhood, through school, love, marriage, childbirth, and amnesia. The past she had forgotten unexpectedly came rushing back, leaving her nowhere to find peace in these eight years.
She struggled to open her eyes, her head still buzzing with pain. Richard Shaw stood by the window on the phone, or rather quietly listening, occasionally saying a word or two.
The curtain was half-open, and outside was a tranquil night.
The man, while listening to the call, instinctively glanced at Leah. When he saw her eyes open, his expression froze for a moment before quickly hanging up and walking over, hoarsely saying, "Leah, you’re awake?"
Leah nodded, her body actually fine, but her head was in excruciating pain. She slightly closed her eyes, weakly saying, "It hurts."
Richard Shaw seemed to wake from a dream, quickly pressed the bell to call the doctor. Seeing her expression as usual, without any particular rejection or hatred, his hanging heart slightly settled. He reached out to touch her forehead, his eyes filled with a touch of heartache, saying hoarsely, "The doctor will come soon; it won’t hurt soon."
The tone was like coaxing a child.
Leah smiled faintly, her big black and white eyes quietly watching him, saying, "Richard the blockhead, do you think I’m three this year?"
After she spoke, she lightly furrowed her brow from the pain.
Richard Shaw saw she could still smile at him, still call him Richard the blockhead, his heart complicated beyond words, his tea-colored eyes vaguely moist. He leaned forward lightly, lifting her head to rest on his shoulder, and softly said, "In my heart, I wish you would always be like a child."
The doctor and nurse knocked on the door and came in, looking at the two of them embracing each other, exchanging glances. Nearly the entire department was working overtime tonight just because this Miss Squire was comatose. Doctor Liao, who treated her, was said to have been kept under surveillance all day without being seen. These doctors might be gods on the operating table, but they were no different from ordinary people in the face of military power.
Richard Shaw released her, signaling the doctor to proceed with the examination.
Leah’s head was splitting, and she closed her eyes, allowing the doctor to examine her. Vaguely, she heard, "The mind is traumatized, requires long-term recuperation."
She curled her lips faintly, continuing to slip into unconsciousness. Anyone knowing such a past would be mentally traumatized, let alone a past awakened by forced hypnosis.
Richard Shaw was awake all night. After Leah briefly regained consciousness in the middle of the night, she fell back to sleep. The doctor conducted various examinations and said the body was fine, and the headache was a side effect of forced hypnosis, only treatable with pain relief medications over time.
The man’s face was somewhat gloomy, wishing he could chop the hypnotist to pieces and feed them to the dogs. He ordered Shoji to interrogate again, allowing Doctor Liao to suffer while he stayed by Leah’s bedside without leaving her side.
At noon the next day, Richard Shaw was called to the Military District for urgent matters, and Leah only regained consciousness in the afternoon, pressing the bell to call Cornelius Turner.
Cornelius Turner had been waiting outside the ward all night without sleep, finally breathing a sigh of relief upon seeing Leah awake.
"Miss, do you want to call the boss?" Cornelius had called Griffith Squire yesterday, unsure if Leah had regained her memory.
Leah looked at him without speaking.
Cornelius realized her concern, lowering his voice as he quickly said, "Richard Shaw went to the Military District. It was our doing. The boss said if Miss has regained her memory, whether to stay or leave is up to you."
Leah, seeing Richard Shaw not present, had no warmth in her eyes, her delicate face as cold as frost. Enduring the pain, she asked, "Did big brother arrange everything long ago?"
Cornelius nodded, saying, "Three years ago when Richard Shaw found out Miss was still alive, the boss arranged a safe passage in the Imperial City, saying it might be needed someday. Only the boss and I know about this passage."
Leah smiled faintly and bitterly. After all, they were siblings; he knew her too well, knowing that once she regained her memory, she could never live in deception.
"I will leave, but not now." A hint of coldness flashed in Leah’s eyes as she lowly asked, "That hypnotist is too powerful. I’m still a bit confused now. Find out his background properly. My brother also mentioned that Luna was taken out by someone. Check both people together."
Cornelius was slightly surprised. Having witnessed Leah’s carefree and careless nature for these eight years, he was not used to her sudden decisiveness and wisdom.
"Have you really regained your memory?" Cornelius uncertainly asked.
Leah looked at him, her peach blossom eyes dimming slightly, lowly saying, "Yes, about Eamon, I’m very sorry."
Cornelius smiled faintly and bitterly, saying, "Both my and Eamon’s lives were saved by the boss. Since Miss has regained her memory, you must be careful of Richard Shaw. He is far more formidable than rumors say."
Leah nodded. Having known him since childhood, she naturally knew what kind of person he was.
Shoji’s knocking came from outside the door. Cornelius didn’t linger further and left the ward. Leah had some lunch, then lay back down drowsily.
With her head splitting, she could only curl up, her body shivering with an indelible pain. No matter how calm and composed she appeared in front of Cornelius, she couldn’t erase the psychological trauma she endured from that explosion — blood everywhere, dismembered limbs, Eamon’s warm hand, and his final words.
Closing her eyes brought back his smile before he died. Except for that explosion, the remaining memories were fragmented, with little warmth, mostly images of a man’s cold back. During those two years of marriage, she had lived in a perpetual winter.
Two frozen years of marriage, the feud between the Shaw and Squire families, was a chasm Richard Shaw could never bridge in a lifetime.
She felt a surge of disgust and hatred, already strangers, yet why should she look back in the coming years, to accompany her with a brief, firework-like warmth, only to cruelly remind her of the past’s entanglements and grudges.
It’s laughable that in thirty-some years, except for brief clarity, she lived in lies for the rest.
Leah slept in a haze, vaguely hearing the sound of Richard Shaw coming in.
The man reached out to touch her forehead, sullenly questioning the doctor. The doctor meekly examined her and administered a sedative.
Leah could only be thankful for the aftereffects of the hypnosis. If not for the unbearable headache and drowsiness, she wouldn’t even know how to face Richard Shaw eight years later. She didn’t even have the desire to question him. Things have a time to come together and a time to part, beyond anyone’s control.