Matthew showed no reaction to what Ellie just said and just sat down.
“Your friend Clarissa?”
“Yes. What about it?”
“She’s not coming back to D City anymore?” He said after a moment of pondering.
“Uncle Matt, what are you trying to say here? Don’t change the subject. Clarissa is not involved in our problem. Let me just ask you, is Shermaine really going to be my aunt?”
Matthew gave Ellie a profound look. “What if she is?”
“Uncle Matt, you… “
Right then, Ellie thought about what Clarissa just said. I really can’t do anything about it.
Hence, she just snorted and gave up. “Clare was right. Being with Shermaine is your choice, I can’t interfere with that. Maybe she’s evil to me but you may have seen something in her. I can give you my blessing, but don’t ask me to like her. This is the limit of how much I can tolerate this.”
“Clarissa said that?”
“Huh? Yes?”
Ellie did not know what was going on. Why is he constantly shifting the conversation to Clare?
Immediately after, Matthew stood up and left. His eyes were dark and cold.
It all felt so ridiculous to Ellie, but she decided to take Clarissa’s advice and not be angry. Be like Clare. Have an open mind and stay calm.
One month had gone by.
Clarissa’s hometown was cooling as summer had come to an end. But, when she set foot in D city, she could feel heat waves plunging at her. The city felt like a big hot sauna and it was not very comfortable.
After leaving the airport, Clarissa immediately rushed to the hospital. At the hospital, she found Hilary, whose face was pale as snow under the light.
When Hilary saw Clarissa, her tears started streaking down her face, a sight that Clarissa was not used to seeing.
Hilary held Clarissa’s fingers tightly in her hand as she sought forgiveness from her.
“Clary, I know I made a mistake. Look at me, I’m not even living well. When I fell sick, it became clear to me that no one actually cares about me. The maids don’t give a damn, Zach is always busy, not to mention Yvonne. She never accepted me in the first place. I only have you now… “
Clarissa listened to everything Hilary said and came to a realization. She only thinks about me when she has no one else to take care of her. And now she wants me to take care of her for the rest of her life.
Clarissa doubted that falling ill would change Hilary so drastically. The illness was not even serious, to begin with.
However, Hilary was her birth mother. If no one took care of her, Clarissa would have to step in, regardless of how much she did not want to.
“I understand. I’ll take care of you until you’re discharged. Let me go book a room at a hotel nearby. I’ll come back when I’m done.”
“Alright. Clare, I’m really sorry for troubling you at a time like this.”
But no matter what Hilary says, Clarissa remained skeptical. More than ten years of abandonment was not something a few words could erase, or forgiven.
After Clarissa was done with the hotel, she headed straight back to the hospital and spoke with the attending doctor. She found out that Hilary had an ovarian cyst, so surgery was required. But, it was just a small issue that posed no danger, relieving Clarissa of her worries.
After that, Clarissa visited the hospital every day. Sometimes she would listen to Hilary nag at her, but most of the time, they did not talk. Clarissa would just sit there with her laptop and typed for an extended period of time.
In between, Jane called her to talk about the publishing of her new book and some issues with the adaptations.
Clarissa’s books were all hot commodities now and everyone was trying to get their hands on the copyright. Even her latest attempt at a new setting, albeit short, showed potential and caught the eyes of some people that wanted to get in while it was still hot.
This was something Clarissa would have never ever thought about.
At night, Clarissa took some time off from the hospital and went to a restaurant. Besides Jane, there were some other editors from the company present too. Even though they usually communicated via the internet, meeting them in person posed no problem. All of them quickly mingled with each other and had some fun, improving their team cohesiveness in the process.
After the meal, the gang split into two cars. Jane and another young editor called Tessa were in charge of driving. Because of how good Clarissa’s books were selling, Jane had proposed to buy them drinks at a club. Hence, everyone cheered as they headed out.
Their fun was about to be cut short, however, as something unexpected happened.
When they almost reached the club, Tessa slowed down her car, but a car suddenly appeared from the fork of the road at a dangerous speed. Tessa, being a new driver, panicked, even forgetting to step on the brake as she just screamed. In the end, the two cars crashed.
Clarissa was sitting at the back, so her body got thrown forward and slammed into the seat as the crash occurred. Nevertheless, Tessa had already slowed down prior to the crash, so no one suffered any serious injury.
Jane was stunned by what just happened, so she stopped her car behind them. Everyone else quickly got out of the car.
When they saw the car in front of them, they all had a small panic attack.
Tessa had it the worst as she looked at Jane. Jane gave her a comforting look as the people in the sports car came out.
Since the sports car stopped, a long line of luxurious cars soon came stopping one after another after it.
“Wow, Luke. It’s a brand new car. It’s not even been a day yet. Tsk tsk… I think someone’s gonna explode.”
“Explode? Who? Look at those idiots. I think they’re the ones that should kill themselves before Luke does anything. Hahaha… “
A whole lot of people stood by the car. They looked like a bunch of rich playboys with the women beside them, everyone taking a shot at Clarissa and her friends as they joked around.
The owner of the car came out. It was a young man named Luke, in a pair of jeans and a simple t-shirt, nothing too over the top. If he was not driving a sports car that symbolized his wealth, no one would be able to tell that he was from a rich family.
That sports car was imported and just arrived not long ago. Luke waited a long time for it and it was his favorite car. But now, it got crashed within a day of arrival.
He had never been a good-tempered person, and as of that moment, it was like the others had said. He was fuming with rage.
“What the f***! Who was driving this? Are you people trying to get yourselves killed? Goddamnit… “
A series of foul mouths and vulgarity came flying out in an extremely loud manner.
Everyone on Clarissa’s side was stupefied. All of them had unknowingly backed away, wanting to hide and not get involved in the situation. Tessa drew the worst end of the straw and she was scared to tears by Luke’s reaction.
She was just a small editor that joined the company not long ago. The company had not even gotten her the basic insurances yet, and the car she was driving was one of the colleagues’. She was only driving because her colleague was drunk.
Listening to Luke’s curses, she could already envision the darkness that was about to loom over her future. There’s no way I could afford this. I’m going to jail…
With that in mind, Tessa started crying a river.
Clarissa, on the other hand, was just as scared. But even though she did not know how to drive, she knew that Tessa might not fully be at fault for this.
While all those rich kids just sat there enjoying what was going on, and while all the other colleagues were panicking, Clarissa took out her phone and called the traffic police. “Hello, we’ve got into an accident. the location is… “
Clarissa looked to the roadside and found a sign stating the address. There were also some big buildings and landmarks. So, she gave all that information to the police. Luke’s cursing had stopped by then as everyone on his side was listening to Clarissa’s beautiful voice, stunned by the hidden beauty right in front of them.
After Clarissa was done with the call, she instructed her colleague to call the insurance company. It was then that the colleague snapped out of it, and quickly took out his phone.
All of a sudden, the air became still.
Until someone broke the silence with a whistle.
“Hey! There’s a pretty lady over there! Luke, you trading a car for a lady? It’s a good deal, isn’t it?”
Clarissa did not like what she heard, so she knitted her brows while Luke sneered.
“I don’t really lack any woman. Do you f**king think she’d be more expensive than this car? Ha! Police? Be my guest. I’m gonna make you guys pay with everything you have or my name’s not Harrison!”
Hearing that made everyone’s heart sank, no one was able to keep calm from that.
“You… The one that called the police, were you the one driving?”
Luke started walking over to Clarissa, staring at her as the people behind him started cheering.
“It’s not me,” Clarissa said after taking a step forward.
“Oh? It’s not you? So you’re standing up for your friend then? Seeing how that these people behind you look like they’re about to wet their pants, you are actually quite calm.”
Clarissa did not respond.
“It’s not going to end well for you people tonight, pretty lady. It took me so long to bring my baby here home. Within a day, she’s already hurt by your friend. Do you know how much she cost? I can tell you that, the insurance company’s going to do jacks***. The only thing your friend can do is either go bankrupt or stay in jail for a long, long time. But, I can offer you a discount. For everyone night you spend with me, I’ll decrease the payment by 1 million. How’s that? The longer you stay with me, the lesser they have to pay.”
Having said that, Clarissa did not look at Luke as she saw the police car arrive, along with people from the insurance company.
When both parties came out and saw what happened, the insurance immediately prayed for Clarissa’s side.
As for the police, they asked nothing and just stood by Luke, greeting him with a smile.
“Mr. Harrison.”
Clarissa’s heart sank when she heard that.
“You know me?” Luke replied.
“Everyone knows that your car just arrived,” the traffic police was being really respectful.
“Ha! That’s good then. Go tell those idiots. And hey! Insurance company, come here! Let them know that they won’t be able to pay me even if they sold their bodies and organs.”
The traffic police looked at Clarissa and her colleagues, paying extra attention to the beautiful Clarissa. However, before they could say anything, Clarissa spoke.
“Sir. I personally don’t drive nor do I know the law behind it. But I do know that, in this situation, you should be going around understanding what went on here and determine both sides’ responsibility, and not just stand there and exchange pleasantries.”
