Meredith looked distraught the entire night and Charlie started feeling uncomfortable with the fact that Meredith looked distraught and absentminded throughout the entire evening.Meredith understood what Charlie was implying but still, she insisted, "Charlie, let's head home now."Nia suddenly grabbed Meredith's hand and said, "Mommy, Papa Charlie, can we stay here instead?""Why?""I want to spend time with my great-grandma. She looks exhausted after a long day. And I want to visit Daddy at the hospital with my great-grandma tomorrow.""But who is going to look after you?""Mommy, I can take good care of myself."Seeing how Nia was eager to stay, Meredith could not bring herself to reject her. But she thought that Josiah's grandmother might not be in the mood to have Nia around."Nia, darling, your great-grandma has had a long day and I'm afraid that you might cause her inconvenience if you stay with her. Why not…""Don't worry, Mommy, I promise that I'll be good," Nia said,
But she did not want to start getting suspicious of Charlie just like how she did toward Josiah.Hence, before Josiah's grandmother said anything further, Meredith smiled and reassured her, "Don't worry, Grandma. Charlie only resented Josiah because of me. But now that I'm married to him, I don't think there's any other reason for Charlie to not like Josiah.""You haven't been in contact with Joe recently, have you?" Josiah's grandmother asked."Rarely." Meredith felt slightly guilty.Even though she had not been in contact with Josiah, Josiah was the one who was concerned about her and he was also the one who stayed with her at the hospital whenever she got ill.But Charlie knew nothing about these.Leaving the house, Meredith and Charlie sat side by side at the back of the car.Because it was New Year's Eve, the roads were crowded and lively. The colorful street lights would occasionally be reflected into the car.Charlie looked as if he was tired with his back leaned against
While he had to be bound to the wheelchair and had to cut himself to relieve the pain in him, Josiah's legs were only scratched and cut by the glass shards.Josiah had always been luckier than him ever since when they were young.Charlie ran his wound under the hot water to numb the pain. After some time when he could not feel the pain anymore, he turned off the showerhead.After struggling to put on his clothes, he heard Meredith's concerned voice again, "Charlie, are you done? Can I come in now?""I'm done." Charlie opened the door."Are you okay, Charlie?" Meredith helped to push him out of the shower and said, "Let me dry your hair."Meredith stopped his wheelchair in front of the vanity table and started blow drying his hair.When his hair was dried, she then moved him onto the bed and adjusted the blanket over him."Thank you, Edith," Charlie said while staring at her.Meredith shook her head. "We agreed to skip all these formalities between us, right? We're husband and
"From Quincy.""And how did she know about it?""Quincy said that the news was published online but was taken down immediately after. I guess things work differently with big corporations, huh? They are even worried that news about the CEO getting injured would cause a commotion."Goldie lowered her voice and went on, "I even heard that Mister Josiah's car ran into the green belt area to avoid a car that was driving in the opposite direction to the flow of the traffic. Isn't it ridiculous that people these days would dare to do such a thing when the traffic rules are so strict?""Perhaps the driver was drunk."Though Meredith looked unfazed on the surface, her mind was running wild.It was another car accident caused by reckless driving.Meredith thought that the accident was oddly similar to the one that happened to Charlie.After a while, Meredith said to Goldie, "Alright now, let's stop the gossiping. I need you to help me look into something.""What would you like me to do
"Oh wait, you were only asked to clean the toilets of the pub, you weren't even qualified to serve the customers."Meredith was not fazed by her taunting but instead, she smiled. "Well, you're right. I guess you're more capable than me."But I'm not here today to compare myself with you. I wanted to ask you about someone," Meredith cut to the chase and said, "I'm looking for her.""Yena, that pea-brained girl? She asked me for a few hundred dollars this morning and left in a rush. I'm guessing that she's hiding underneath some bridge.""So it is true that Yena is involved with you!""Yeah, what's wrong with that?" Studying Meredith, Quinley asked, "But why are you looking for her? Don't tell me it's because of Mister Josiah again?""How did you know?""Something that you need to know about me is that, even though I never got to have Josiah to myself, I've always been interested in his life. How could I possibly miss out on such happy news - that he got into a car accident?""Wh
Meredith thought about Quinley's words and thought she was right.Back then when she was about to be forced to sleep with some guys, Josiah would somehow show up and get her out of the situation.Even though his methods were cruel and ruthless, Josiah did help her to avoid ending up like Quinley, being trampled and slept around by men.Quinley smirked, "Josiah loves you so much but you chose to marry another guy and even got him into an accident. It is no wonder you'd be this worked up and are hunting down Yena to get back at her.""Miss Quinley, don't waste your effort on wanting to drive a wedge between me and Charlie," Meredith said flatly, "but if you do think that being locked up in jail is way better than being a hostess at a night pub, I'll fulfill your wish.""Meredith Leighton, you-"Meredith did not want to waste another second on her. She turned around and walked out of the pub."Miss Meredith, did you manage to find Miss Yena?" When Meredith returned to the office, G
Charlie's hands on the handle of the wheelchair curled up slightly as the look on his face changed slightly.With a solemn look, Meredith stared at him and said, "Charlie, during the dinner party, Yena came and looked for you, didn't she?"Charlie hesitated before nodding. "Yes. Is there any problem with it?""What exactly did she tell you?""She told me that you and Josiah had been spending time together every day and on Christmas day, it was him who took you to the hospital to get your wound treated. Tell me, Edith, was she wrong?"Meredith was suddenly at a loss for words.Even though she was not with Josiah every other day, it was Josiah who took her to the hospital on Christmas day. Meredith finally realized that Yena had no plans of leaving her alone, and she was even looking into her whereabouts."Edith, why do you always have to lie to me?"After a moment of pause, Meredith finally said, "Charlie, I admit that I've been meeting Josiah recently and it was also him to tak
Charlie was forced to meet her eyes. He then asked, "Will you tell him the truth, Edtih?""That's not the point.""Okay. Then is your heart still with me?" Smiling bitterly, Charlie asked, "You've never really loved me, have you? You're only staying by my side because you feel indebted to me. You're going to leave me someday, I know it. Once I'm locked up in jail, you'd be free then. Shouldn't you feel happy instead?""If that's how you want to think of me, then I have nothing more to say."Sighing helplessly, Meredith added, "Charlie, I've promised that I'll never leave you and that I'll stay by your side for the rest of my life. Why don't you believe me?"Rage gripped Charlie all of a sudden and he flung away her hands, yelling, "What I want is for you to love me willingly! I don't want you to stay by my side for the sake of it and go out and flirt with other men!"Looking at his face distorted in anger, Meredith waited a while before saying, "So what is it that you want? Tell