As she kept her head down, she didn’t realize Bill was looking at her with a gentle gaze. Joanna threatened him after she finished treating his wounds, “If you get hurt again, I won’t bandage your wounds! Next time you get injured, ask the nurses to do that!”
“Understand.” Bill nodded as if he didn’t take her threat seriously.
Joanna was immediately disappointed because she did not receive the response she wanted. She slammed the rest of the medicine and gauze into his hand, “Please return these to the nurses! By the way, a nurse just asked why she hadn’t seen you these days.”
It took Bill a moment to sense that Joanna was irritated. He was surprised and couldn’t figure out why she was angry even if he thought about it really hard. “Okay, I’ll give them back to the nurses right away. Why don’t you drink the soup right now?” He replied.
As she watched him get up and leave, Joanna was enraged, not knowing why Bill still acted like he didn’t sense her feelings for her. In a fit of anger, she took the pillow in her hand and slapped it against his back. To her surprise, the half-knit sweater she had hidden under the pillow fell to the floor the next second. And a blue ball of wool rolled to Bill’s feet.
Bill had pretended not to notice Johanna knitting him a sweater every day for the past month or so. He knew, however, that he couldn’t keep pretending.
“Is this for me?” he asked shyly, picking up the sweater.
Joanna quickly grabbed the sweater and tucked it under the covers. Bill became embarrassed when he realized Joanna did not want to discuss it. The second thing he feared was dealing with an angry woman.
In Joanna’s mind, as long as Bill said something sweet to her, she would admit it. However, to her disappointment, Bill remained silent for a long time and then walked out.
Seeing his reaction, Joanna was both angry and amused. She stopped being mad at him because she knew he’d never learn to understand the implication of people’s words.
A while later, Bill opened the door and walked into the ward.
“Drink the soup now. It’s starting to cool!” Saying that, Joanna picked the chicken out of her bowl and put it into Bill’s.
Then, much to her surprise, she noticed something pink. When she looked up, Bill was holding a balloon toward her, smiling at her in a goofy way.
“What is this?” She asked.
Bill tied the balloon to her bed and told her how he saved the little girl on the road. “Her mother said I was a good person, and that’s the second time I’ve heard someone say that to me,” he murmured, staring at the pink balloon.
Joanna stopped eating. She told Bill he was a good man because she was naive when she first met him. And she wouldn’t think of him that way after everything she’d been through with him. “You are a good person. You just did some bad things because you were young and ignorant back then,” She said, trying to comfort him.
“So, do you mean I still have a chance to redeem myself?”
Joanna didn’t answer him and remained silent while stirring the soup with her spoon. It was clear to her that Bill had no chance of going to heaven. He had committed crimes that neither morality nor the law could tolerate. Otherwise, it would be cruel to the people he had harmed.
Bill embraced her tightly. He desperately needed comfort, but he didn’t want Johanna to be sad for him. Snuggling in Bill’s firm chest, Joanna slowly told him her story, “My father used to be a big gambler. Later, at the casino, the debt collectors chopped off one of his hands severed and murdered my mother. Back then, I hated those bad people, but later, I only hated my father.”
Bill’s T-shirt was soaked through with her tears. He assumed Joanna meant to blame the bad people, but she did not. Instead, she laughed softly and said, “When I was in Ireland, I couldn’t sleep well every night because I was so worried about you. I just wanted to follow you back then, and I still do. But I can’t sneak up behind you any longer. Well, you know…” Looking down, she started straightening the hem of her hospital gown.
“I’ll cure you,” Bill said seriously.
“I used to believe that if someone commits a crime, they would be doomed. But you seem to be fortunate, and it seems that God wants to give you another chance. So, I hope you can keep on being a good person. I don’t care if I can be healed any longer.”
She raised her arm, and her thin fingertips traced the balloon’s outline. Her eyes were gentle when she looked at the balloon.
Bill remained silent, his arm relaxed on the edge of the bed. Johanna’s words had both shaken and touched him.
Later on, Johanna leaned on his shoulder and fell asleep, and he felt the warmth of her breath on his neck. After putting Johanna to bed, he left the ward and turned off the light.
He texted as he walked wearily to the dimly lit long corridor, “I’ll go with the second option. See you tomorrow at 10 a.m.”
Throughout that week, it rained nonstop in Birmingham. The city had become even colder due to the late autumn rain.
Bill sat in a run-down little restaurant, dressed in a black leather jacket. He had a bowl of noodles on the greasy table, and the heat and aroma filled the small room.
The woman sitting opposite him was wearing a black baseball cap, which made her out of place. Her attitude was condescending, as if she didn’t want to be there. She sat up straight, trying not to touch anything in the room.
The sound of rain on the tin roof of the house distracted her. “I didn’t come here to watch you eat noodles,” the woman said as she removed her black mask.
Bill took two sips of soup before pulling a flash drive from his pocket and placing it in front of her. As he watched the woman become nervous, he said, “You are still wanted in Ireland. So hiding in Birmingham is not safe, either.”
“What do you mean?”
Bill wiped his mouth with a napkin and said, “Nothing. Turning you in is no good to me because I need your money. I promise to keep everything a secret as long as you keep your word.”
The woman wrapped her arms around her chest, and her face was contemptuous. “Are you threatening me?” she snorted.
“No, I’ve never liked threatening others. So, I’ll do whatever I promise you. And you must promise to pay for the entire operation after it is done.” Bill’s face was expressionless as he said this, “And, I want an extra $50,000 for her.”
The woman laughed, leaning in and approaching him slowly. He was close enough to notice that the foundation on her face couldn’t conceal the scars on her face.
She stopped smiling and had a terrifying expression like a spooky ghost. With murderous attempt in her eyes, she asked, “What if I change my mind? Do you think you can intimidate me with that?”
Seemingly, Bill had predicted her response. He pushed the bowl in front of him aside and locked his gaze on her. Then he put on an expression as fierce as hers.
“You escaped a bullet in Ireland, so why are you screwing things up again now that you’ve arrived in Birmingham? Why do you despise Anna Wright so much? You know you’re doing something risky, but you still want to revenge. Even if you don’t want to live any longer, you should care more about Gary. Don’t you care about your son at all, Ada Xavier?” he said after a brief pause.
“You!”
As she stood up, Ada’s big eyes widened. With a sharp clatter, the chair scraped against the white floor tiles, causing Bill to frown.
Bill laughed as Ada became increasingly alarmed and angry.
“How dare you look into me! You son of a bitch!” Ada shouted. She then smashed the soup bowl on the table to the floor angrily. With a loud thud, shards flew everywhere.
With composure, Bill laughed softly and attempted to break her down once more. He took a picture from his pocket and showed it to Ada, saying, “I heard you were once a big star, but now you’re a wanted criminal with a disfigured face. You must feel awful, don’t you? Look how beautiful you were back then! And take a look at yourself now!”
Ada’s body continued to tremble, and her clenched fists turned pale with grief. She’d had numerous surgeries but still couldn’t get her face to look the same as before. She felt like she was back in the fire as soon as she touched the uneven scars on her face.
In the past five years, she frequently woke up in the middle of the night. She was living in the dark as if she were a cockroach. She’d lost her zest for life, and hatred was the only thing keeping her alive.
“It was all her fault! Damn you, Anna Gabriel!”
Ada blamed Anna for everything because her life seemed to be deteriorating ever since Wayne met Anna. In her mind, if it weren’t for Anna, she would’ve had the opportunity to marry Wayne and live a prosperous life. However, in reality, she became a wanted criminal. Therefore, Ada would go insane whenever someone mentioned Anna to her.
Ada laughed as she pounded her fist on the table, “I don’t want her to die, I just want her to suffer! I want her life to be worse than mine!”
Her frantic movements did not frighten Bill. He raised his head coldly, meeting Ada’s sinister gaze. Snorting, he said, “If everything goes well, she could spend the rest of her life in prison. Is that something you want to do?”
He hadn’t finished speaking when he felt Ada’s grip on his collar tightened. Ada gritted her teeth and said, “Money is no longer important to me. I’ll give you the money you want as soon as she’s arrested.”
She then calmed down. After that, Ada let go of Bill’s collar and straightened up while reapplying the mask. “But if you dare tell anyone who I am, Joanna will die,” she said as she lowered the brim of her hat.
Bill’s face became gloomy after she left. He poured himself a wheat tea, sipped it, and then left.
Several minutes later, Bill got in a cab, and closely followed the car in front of him. The car rounded a few corners in the pouring rain before turning onto the main road and slowly approaching the city center.
There was a lot of car parking in the downtown gymnasium’s underground parking lot. Ada took the elevator from the parking lot to the second floor, and she found that it was crowded. The pleasant sound of violins spread from the surrounding sound to the center. When the music stopped, almost everyone cheered and applauded.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.