Francisco frowned and said nothing.
‘I agreed to show up to the meal arranged by that woman named Lucy only because she said that they
wished to extend their gratitude through a meal. It’d be rather rude if I were to say no to such a warm
invitation. To this day, all of Lucy’s actions have been very deliberate. It’s obvious that she’s trying to
make a couple out of Naomi and me. I’ m not really sure if it’s Naomi’s intention or if she arrived at such
a decision without Naomi’s authorization.’
After his incident with Maizie, Francisco had been very wary toward all women.
“Nobody can guarantee that I won’t run into another Maizie.’
At the hospital…
Mrs. Hannigan was sitting beside the hospital bed and feeding Nathaniel congee. Because Nathaniel
had just undergone a craniotomy and was still recovering, all he could do was basically lying on the
bed, and he would need someone to raise the head of the bed if he wanted to get up. Tanner came in
through the door at this time.
Nathaniel took a glance at him, took back all the words that were about to escape his mouth, and
chose not to look at him at all. “Tanner.” Mrs. Hannigan looked up at him.” Your father has just regained
consciousness, so please come and accompany him whenever you’re free.” Tanner responded with a
hum. Nathaniel did not even utter a word. He continued to eat the congee Mrs. Hannigan fed him.
“I’ll go back home and prepare dinner first.” Mrs. Hannigan stood up after Nathaniel finished his meal,
and she did not forget to adjust the height of the head of the bed and tuck the blanket for Nathaniel.
After Mrs. Hannigan left, only the father and son were left in the ward.
Nathaniel closed his eyes and refused to say a word from beginning to end.
Since he did not speak, Tanner only sat on the side silently.
Tanner stayed in the ward with his father for two hours, and his father had fallen asleep long ago. He
was very annoyed and went to the stairway to smoke. He leaned against the wall and went through half
a packet of cigarettes, one after another.
Sandy sent him another text message, saying that she could be discharged from the hospital and
would wait for him at home.
Tanner narrowed his eyes. He was not sure if his eyes were irritated by the smoke or if it was
something else. He put the phone back in his pocket after reading the text. He did not return home that
night but went to a pub for some drinks instead.
Pearl was woken up by a phone call in the middle of the night.
She fumbled for the phone and answered the call. “Hello.”
The other party said, “Excuse me, are you Mr. Hannigan’s fiancee? Mr. Hannigan has gotten drunk,
and he’s asked you to come and pick him up.”
Pearl opened her eyes, sat up slowly, and brushed her long hair backward with the palm of her hand.
“I’m not. You’ve called the wrong person.”
“But Mr. Hannigan said ” Before the other party could finish speaking, Tanner seemed to have grabbed
his phone back. His voice was almost unrecognizable, and he sounded very drunk. “Pearl, come and
pick me up. Can you please come and pick me up?”
“Mr. Hannigan, you’ve drunk too much.” Pearl suggested calmly, “You should call Sandy instead.”
“Sandy, Sandy, Sandy!” Tanner vented his dissatisfaction. “Why must you always mention her!? Don’t
you have anything else to say to me besides… Besides mentioning her?”
Pearl did not say anything.
Tanner leaned back on the back of the chair and covered his cheek with his palm. “Come and pick me
up, just this once.”
Pearl came to the pub when it was already closed. Tanner was lying on the back of the couch, and a
handful of wine bottles were lying on the table. He was only in a shirt, and his tie was extremely off-
center.
The door was open, so cold breezes would get in from time to time, making it feel freezing cold.
Uldulel 1213
‘Tanner,” Pearl called out his name. He moved a little, lifted the back of his hand off his eyes, and
looked at her.” You’re here.”
He sat up, stretched out his hand, and was
about to hold her, but Pearl ducked back and took out her phone. “I’ll call someone here to bring you
back.”
“I don’t want them to pick me up.” Tanner swept the wine bottle off the table, and the shattering of the
bottles attracted a lot of sideways glances from the waiters who were cleaning the pub.
Pearl looked at him. “Mr. Hannigan, please call someone else if all you want is to create trouble. I’m not
in the mood to waste my time on you.”
62fb1bb41dcb31934bd49bda