That year, Mr. And Mrs. Harrisons got into an accident and passed away. Stefan, their only child, got sick after kneeling at the graveyard for a whole night.
He didn't want to see anybody then and locked himself in his room in depression.
He couldn't accept the fact that his parents who were deeply in love had died.
The Doyle family and the Harrison family had been in a friendship for many years. And Maxwell went to see Stefan when he heard it.
But Stefan refused to open the door to anyone or get out of his room.
Martha, who was 14 at that time, was there with her father Maxwell. She didn't want Stefan to keep locking himself in the room, so she came up with an idea.
She showed up outside his room at the same time every day with a mask on, singing to him and telling stories to make him feel less lonely.
She also folded many little paper stars with positive and encouraging words written on them.
She forgot how long those days lasted. The one thing she knew was that he would open the door and take away those little paper stars from her hand every evening.
They didn't talk to each other but she was still very happy.
She was also upset that Mr. and Mrs. Harrison died unexpectedly.
But one should not indulge himself in the past, but move on, right?
So she hoped that one day Stefan could pull himself together and take the responsibility he was supposed to.
Till that day, he finally opened the door in the morning and smiled at her.
He looked at her with much tenderness in his dark eyes and said softly, "Have you been here for me all this time?"
Martha slightly nodded with surprise and joy in her eyes. And the rabbit mask was still on her face.
She didn't expect that he would talk to her.
Stefan smiled and touched her head gently because he didn't know if he could get through this without her.
"Thank you for always being there for me. I'm fine now."
Hearing this, she was really happy at that time. She was also happy for him.
She wanted to take off the mask and let him see her face but then she thought it would be too brusque if she suddenly did so.
At last, she nodded in a shy manner, looked up at him and said with a smile, "If you really wanna thank me, remember to protect me in the future!"
"I'll always protect you."
Stefan looked at her seriously with determination in his eyes.
After hearing his commitment, Martha turned and left shyly.
It turned out that Hollie had taken the credit for all this.
No wonder he would take her side and wouldn't let anyone hurt her.
He was keeping his promise but accidentally hurt the one he should truly protect.
How ridiculous!
At this moment, Martha who was standing in front of Stefan sneered with her long eyelashes fluttering.
'Stefan, what would you do if one day you realize that girl was actually me?'
'But for now, I don't need you to know this.'
'You better not know this for the rest of your life.'
'Because I don't wanna see your remorse! So hypocritical!"
Martha sneered even more at this thought, "It looks like you've been protecting her for a reason."
Stefan nodded slightly, "You don't know what happened back then."
She looked at him impassively and said still aloofly, "Sure, I don't know but I don't want to."
He looked up and met her dark eyes.
"I am only nice to Hollie out of gratitude, but not out of love."
"Just stop it. I don't wanna hear all this."
Martha looked away at the vacant ground like what Stefan had just said had nothing to do with her.
At this moment, trapped in this place, she suddenly missed Jimmy so much.
With her eyes down, she murmured as if unintentionally, if you are a bone marrow match for a child who is not related to you, would you save him?"
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