steal my heart

<20> Did It Strike A Cord ?

When a person has fallen down to a
certain degree, the baseline is just to
be alive.
Grace looked at Ruby, Ruby's young and soft face, and her promising and colorful life, had all been beyond her reach her whole life.
"Grace! How can you just stand
there and laugh?" Ruby stamped her
feet. "Grace, I am telling you, no matter how much money you earn, it's
all useless because everyone thinks so
low of you! The female models in the P.R. department with their sugar daddies are better than you! What you
did you don't even have any self-respect! Who would respect
you?"
Having finished saying what she wanted, Ruby snorted, not even looking at Grace anymore. Grace stood there quietly for a long time before going back to her bedroom Tiredness was evident on her face and Ruby's words I only came here to earn some money for tuition and living expenses. I would never do anything like that for money like you. Grace smiled. She too, just
worked here to earn some living. expenses, to have this place to shelter
her from the rain and wind. Just so she could eat enough and not have to beg on the streets. Who wanted that kind of money?
If she had known that, at that time,
in the 606 room, her concern about
Ruby and what the others were doing
to her would cause her this much
trouble today; if she was allowed again
to choose between stepping in or ignoring would she do the same?
Grace fell asleep thinking about it.
She woke up to find herself in the hospital.
"You are awake!"
Grace opened her eyes and called
out in a low voice, "Gloria, where am
I?" Her throat hurt when she spoke.
"Hospital." Gloria replied as she
peeled an apple and cut it into small pieces. She picked up a piece with a
toothpick and fed it to Grace, "Eat
something first and then talk."
Grace was a little flustered at the
sudden care, but she still accepted the
fruit and ate it, "Gloria, why am I in the hospital?"
Hearing this, Gloria felt angry. She pulled a long face, "You don't know why you are in the hospital? I want to ask you, for how many days have you had a high fever?" If it wasn't for the fact that she didn't see Grace come to work last night and decided to check up on her because she was worried, Grace might have died of a high fever in the staff dormitory.
"I didn't see you in Royal Club last
night, so I went to your place to see if
you were alright. Your temperature was so high that I could even have
fried eggs on you. I called 120 in a hurry. When I sent you to the hospital,
your fever was already around 42. degrees, and you were severely
dehydrated. Even the doctor said that
if I was even a little bit late in sending
you here, no doctor on earth would
have been able to save you."
Saying this, Gloria who was still in
shock from what happened, added,
"Didn't you tell your roommates when
you had high fever? You tried to act
strong, alas, but you almost ended up
losing your life!" Caden Grace listened to Gloria ramble on and on. Although Gloria sounded really fierce, she could hear her concern through her anger. Her heart felt warm and bitter. Her eyes that had not shed tears for many years became tingle and moist. Gloria's care somehow became the only window in her entire life in darkness, through which a ray of light came in.
However, she was more worried about gaining and losing, for if she gained nothing then there would be nothing to lose and no pain of losing. By this point, Grace had already had a very deep understanding of this through her experiences.
"... Why?" After a long time, Grace
finally summoned up the courage to
ask in a trembling voice.
Why are you so nice to me?
A piece of apple was stuffed into
Grace's mouth again. Gloria gave her
a complex look and said, "There is no
one in the world that is nice to you. If
even I don't treat you nicely, then who
else will love you?" Gloria saw her past
self in Grace; maybe what she said to
her in that moment was for her past
self too.
The world is not good to you. If even I treat you badly then who would ever love you, Idiot! To love Grace was also a way of loving her past self.
They both were similar kind of people.
Gloria looked at the woman lying in
the hospital bed. She tried to hide her
feelings, but her trembling eyelashes
revealed her inner feelings.
She sighed silently again. Aah! This
idiot.
"Grace, can I ask you a question?"
"Yeah, ask."
"What happened between you and
Mr. Shaw?" Caden Shaw, that man
was really cruel, but he should not be
like this to a woman.
"Is it hard for you to say?" Gloria
saw Grace's expressions stiffen for a
moment and added, "If you can't say it
then forget it!"
"Three years ago, I killed the
woman he loved."
Gloria's hand which is holding a
piece of apple paused for a moment,
then she fed the apple to Grace and
said, "But you didn't actually kill her,
did you?"
"You are not the kind of person to
do such crazy things like killing people.
Gloria said as if she was quite sure
about it, "What actually happened?" At this moment, Grace, who never
cried or said a single word even after
suffering so terribly from repeated
attacks and humiliation, burst into
tears! Caden! Did you see it? Even Gloria who met me less than six months ago knows me so well!
Caden! We've known each other for
most of our lives! Caden! Did you hear it? Someone finally believed that I did not kill anyone, that I did not do such horrible things!
"Waaaaaa - hnnngg..."
Gloria put down the toothpick in her
hand. She didn't try to persuade Grace to stop crying. She just softly touched her furry head with her palm and stroked slowly, "It's OK. I know, I know, an idiot like you can never have the courage to kill someone. No, wait... should say, you silly little girl, you have
too much pride to go and kill someone.
Continuing, she said, "I guess you loved him very much. But you would never kill the woman he loved in order to get him. Grace, you have too much pride to think about doing such an unworthy thing."
Grace's tears fell like rain! The
feelings she had restrained for years,
were suddenly released.
That afternoon, Grace didn't stop
crying She told Gloria in incoherent words, "I didn't do it. He didn't believe in me. No one believed in me."
"He hates me, the whole world directly ate my body. In the extreme winter, the cold water stung my bones like daggers, but even when suffering
the pain I didn't dare to say a word.
When I went back to the cell, someone
would just always turn up to beat me
up. No matter how hard it was, I'd
been through it all. What is this compared to those times?"
"Gloria, she died. She died to save
me! I'm just a vicious person who can only hurt people. I owe her so much. I can't die. I have to live for her and achieve her dream of Erhai Lake for her." Gloria accompanied Grace quietly
and listened to her incoherent rambling. Grace vented so many years' of grievances that day and the secret hidden in the heart also came out in broken words.
What was the dream of Erhai Lake?
And who was that girl? Gloria didn't
know. But she vaguely guessed that
this girl that Grace had mentioned was
more important to Grace than she
herself. The sun went down and the
afterglow of the setting sun shone into
the ward. Gloria stood up and looked gently at the hospital bed. The woman on the bed was sickly pale. In the warm light of the setting sun, she huddled in the quilt and fell asleep again. Just as she was about to leave the ward, Grace suddenly opened her
eyes and murmured, "Gloria, I have to
pay my debt. I have nothing left, I only have myself. Is it okay for me to use myself?"
As soon as she finished speaking,
she closed her eyes again and fell asleep.Gloria felt as if her heart was
pricked by needles and felt many
emotions at once.
Grace was so much in pain and so
determined in paying back her debt.
Gloria could not believe that such a
person would do that kind of horrible
thing.
Grace said that everyone was
scolding her for being mean and
lowly -- Grace? Mean and lowly? If
Grace was lowly and mean then who
was noble and righteous in the world?
This silly girl...Gloria admired her
pride!
Back at that time, Gloria would cry bitterly when there was no one, and
she even thought about killing herself,
but Grace, a silly girl, bore all this
without even saying a word.
In other people's eyes, grace sold
her dignity for the sake of money. But
this woman didn't even glance at the
money once and handed it over. .
Others didn't understand, but Gloria
knew this silly little idiot didn't need her dignity; and what she exchanged for it was not money - it was freedom.
That man, Caden Shaw, used five
million to take away an innocent woman's freedom.
These five million are an astronomical figure for her now, and she was bound firmly to this kind of invisible shackle.
Right now, Grace, this silly woman, was exhausting all her strength to break away from the shackles.
When an egg runs towards a stone
to hit it, it knows clearly that it will
break, but it still doesn't surrender. Mr. Shaw, aren't you going a bit too far with this?
As the night fell, Gloria returned to
the Royal Club
Just as she entered the office,
"Where is she?"
"Mr. Shaw? Who are you asking
about?" Gloria didn't expect that
Caden would be waiting for her in her
office. "Grace James, where is she?"
It was fine until he mentioned Grace.
Hearing him say Grace's name, Gloria
felt angry for no reason.
The person opposite to her was her
boss, and his methods were cruel, so
she had no power to show her opinion.
Suppressing her anger deep in her
heart, Gloria said reluctantly, "Grace
James asked for a leave today."
"Go and call her," The man on the
sofa said indifferently, "Who allowed
her to take leave. Did she earn five
million?"
Gloria gritted her teeth and said,
"Mr. Shaw! Grace is ill!"
"You seem to be quite resentful
towards me..."
"No!" Gloria's expressions changed
as she quickly said, "Grace fell ill in the staff dormitory last night. If I hadn't rushed to the dormitory in time, she would have lost her life. When the ambulance took her to the hospital, she had a high fever of 42 degrees. The doctor said that if I was even a little bit late, he would not have been able to save her."
Something popped into Caden's
mind as he heard that she was ill; his
black pupils shrank suddenly.
One second Two seconds...Three seconds, Caden suddenly sprang up with his tall body.
Without saying a word, he walked
out of the office. When passing by
Gloria, he asked, "Which hospital?"
Umm... What did he mean?
Gloria subconsciously said, "The
First People's Hospital, inpatient
department Ward No. 7012." In order
to give Grace a good recuperation
environment, plus that Grace's
condition was very bad at that time,
Gloria decided not to save money and
arranged a personal ward for Grace.
According to the doctor, IV drip for
some days would help her recover
better and faster.
Gloria looked at Caden's retreating
back and suddenly called out, "Mr. Shaw, I just came back from the hospital. When I left, she had just fallen asleep." She meant to imply that it was not a good idea for him to visit her and interrupt her rest.
"After she has rested a bit, I'd go
and tell her about today's work and will make some soup for her and send it to her." Gloria said.
While Caden's long legs did not
show any signs of stopping. Gloria
repeated, "You don't have to go. I'll
send someone with the soup to her."
'What even, Caden Shaw? What do
you want?' Gloria thought, looking
strangely at Caden's back disappearing around the corner.
Downstairs, Caden got into the car
and made a phone call, "Humbert, go
to the Pearl Restaurant, buy some hot
porridge and send it to the inpatient
department of the First People's
Hospital, 7012 ward."
"Okay, who is the patient?"
"Don't ask questions, just buy and
deliver it!" Caden's powerful voice
suddenly rang through the phone as
he ordered, "You have half an hour to
deliver."
"Fuck! Am I Superman? I can't fly!"
Thankfully, Caden had already mercilessly hung up the phone so he
did not heard Humbert explode with
complains.
Shit!
Humbert quickly put on his clothes
and ran downstairs.
As he went downstairs, he called
the Restaurant and ordered the food...
"Yes, that's all. I'll be there to receive it in fifteen minutes. Please be quick.
"After that, he hung up the phone and
began to curse Caden and his. ancestors in his heart.
Who was the patient anyway? Who
made the indifferent and cold Caden
order people around for them?
Even when Wallis was ill back then,
Caden didn't move this fast to order
food for her. Caden walked into Grace's ward and nodded in approval in his heart for the single person ward chosen by Gloria, praising Gloria for knowing how to do things.
Gloria, however, did not choose this
ward for Grace to make Caden happy.
He walked toward Grace's bedside
and gazed at the woman on the bed,
his dark eyes full of inexplicable and
complicated emotions.
Caden never thought that a person
could change so much in just three
years.
In three years, her small and
delicate face had become somewhat
unrecognizable; the skin had lost its luster. Only by looking carefully, one
could still find the remnants of the
features of the beautiful daughter of
the James family, but there was no
longer the original aura around it.
Puffy under-eye bags, messy eyebrows, dry lips, rough skin in just
three years!
At that moment, the woman on the
hospital bed moved her head slightly
to the side; the bangs covering the
forehead slipped aside, revealing the
scar on her forehead.
Caden's eyes became sharper. He
frowned and looked at the eye-catching scar for a long time. He
couldn't help but stretch out his hand.
As soon as he touched the scar on Grace's forehead, she woke up.
In an instant!
She dodged his hand in horror! How did he come? What did he want to do!
Caden could not believe it.
She dodged his hand?
As if he was not convinced, he reached out to touch Grace again... In an instant Grace almost subconsciously picked up the quilt over her head and hid behind it. Caden was furious and looked at the woman hiding in the quilt. His face was cold and horrible!
This damned woman was really hiding from him!
Staring quietly at the woman who
curled up herself into a ball in the quilt, he could see her shaking beneath the quilt.
Grace hid under the quilt and began
to regret it. Why did she hide in the
quilt? If Caden wanted to do something to her, then even hiding in a
grave won't help her. What was the
use of hiding in a quilt?
With a rustling sound, Caden pulled
away Grace's quilt off her head with
one big hand. His voice was cold and
piercing as he opened his thin lips and
asked slowly "Are you shunning me?"
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sorry for the late update😬
Lots of love
Stay safe
I purple you 💜