Beryl muttered, "I don't know. I just like him."
"You are still a little girl. You don't know anything about adults..." Emily whispered. She did not want to indulge Beryl's fantasies. At the same time, Emily did not take her words seriously thinking it was just her temporary infatuation. From her point of view, Beryl was a child and her interest in Jacob was just a passing fancy, soon to be forgotten after a few days. "I'll take you to wash your face and brush your teeth. Don't be unruly any more, okay?"
"Okay," Beryl replied quickly. She attempted to placate her mother's anger.
After putting Beryl to sleep, Emily tossed and turned in bed, unable to sleep. Riddled with guilt, she gave in to the urge of calling Jacob's number, but she regretted it as soon as he answered the phone.
A jovial voice came from the other end of the phone. "Emily!"
Somehow, Emily calmed herself down and apologized, "I'm sorry for what happened today. I was so worried about Beryl that I lashed out at you without any reason. I didn't mean to do that, but please don't ever take her anywhere without my permission. You know, if something happens to Beryl, I'll go crazy."
It was quiet on the other end of the phone. Jacob did not speak, so Emily eventually assumed that he had hung up the phone. Then Jacob's voice rang through the phone again. "I know how you felt," he said in a low voice.
"Thank you for your understanding. If there is nothing else to discuss, I will hang up," she said.
"Okay," Jacob whispered. And just as she was about to hang up, he suddenly added, "Emily, I miss you very much."
Suddenly, Emily experienced a sharp pang of pain in her heart. The nausea swirled unrestrained in her stomach.
Neither of them hung up. Bereft of speech, they listened to each other's quiet, regular breathing. Moments later, their hearts beat faster and their breathing became irregular.
Finally, the silence was broken by Emily's words. "Jacob, let's forget the past.
The past is gone. It doesn't matter what happened back then and who is Beryl's father. She will always be my daughter and the most important person in my life. No one can take her place in my heart," she explained softly.
Their relationship was doomed from the start and there was no way to turn back time.
If they continued to fight their fate and persist on being with each other, it would only make them both miserable.
At last, Emily hung up the phone. She paused to close her eyes and take a deep breath, entombing her memories of him in thick walled ice. Her lungs struggled for breath against ribs of stone and her heart was shattered into tiny pieces.
Did she do the right thing? At this moment she wasn't so certain about the answer.
……
At the hospital in Jingshi City, Jacob gripped his cell phone so tightly that all his fingers turned pale. His black eyes lost their luster, as if he was being dragged into the depths of despair again.
'Forget the past? That's impossible. I can never forget the past!' Jacob strengthened his resolve.
Jacob had given Emily his heart and all his love. How could he let her go?
In truth, Jacob missed Emily dearly. He missed the sweet girl from the past, who was always dependent on him, who acted like a spoiled child in front of him. He missed the sweet times they had spent together in the past. Unfortunately, there was no place for him in Emily's heart anymore.
All her love and affection belonged to Beryl.
Much to his displeasure, Jacob found himself in the same position as Jack. They were both stuck in the past, unable to move forward into the future with the person they were deeply in love with.
Emily was a forbiddingly cruel woman.
"Mr. Gu, may I come in?" Just then a gentle voice came from outside, followed by a knock on the door.
"Yes, please," Jacob replied, and he gazed unseeingly out of the window without looking back.
The bright moon outside cast a pale light on Jacob's handsome face, illuminating his gloomy and desolate demeanor. As if lost in dismal thoughts, he stood in one place, expressionless and seemingly hard to approach.
The psychiatrist, who had done a psychological evaluation for Jacob, came in with the test results and handed it to him. "Mr. Gu, there's been a serious deterioration in your mental condition," he said.
Instead of continuing his analysis, the doctor directly suggested, "I suggest you take some medicine to help you stabilise your mental condition. Otherwise, you might suffer from dissociative identity disorder. Even if you don't care about yourself, you need to think about the people around you. It can ruin your life for years and sometimes you don't really recover. You might lose people close to you, people you love."
Jacob took out a lighter from his pocket and burned the test results with a deadpan expression on his face. The bright flames lit up his handsome face. "Prescribe some medicine for me," he said.
"Yes, Mr. Gu."
Jacob did not have to worry about his privacy since he was the owner of the hospital.
After Jacob left, the assistant, who had just been ordered by the psychiatrist to fetch Jacob's medicines, quietly hid in the veranda and dialed a number on his phone. "I have switched his medicines. So when can I get the reward that you promised me? Give it to me quick..."
The thick dark clouds in the sky slowly masked the moon, and the dim light of night completely disappeared. All the dirty deeds were hidden in the darkness, far from the knowledge and reaches of anyone.
……
The next morning, the front page of the network news was occupied by a title — "President Jacob's Secret Marriage and Daughter". When the people clicked on this link, a picture of Jacob and Beryl popped up on their screens. Although Beryl's face was not clear in the picture, everyone acknowledged the existence of Jacob's supposed daughter.
The picture showed Jacob and Beryl sitting face to face, as he reached out to wipe her face with his handkerchief. The way he looked at her with soft, loving eyes, clearly indicated signs of intimacy between them. There was no denying that he looked like a good father in the picture.
This news report stirred up intense debate among the people and brought up a deluge of criticism.
"That is impossible! My idol could not possibly have gotten married in secret! This little girl must not be his daughter. This news report is absolutely nonsense! I thought Mr. Jacob was still in love with Emily!"
"I think it could be true. To be honest, I want to be President Jacob's daughter! She must be very happy."
"This little girl looks like she's three or four years old! I still remember that Emily died four years ago. In other words, the little girl must have been born shortly after Emily's death. Such a playboy! Jacob, you don't deserve Emily's love."
"Your accusations are baseless. Emily had already passed on, so why couldn't Jacob look for love again? You want him to be lonely for the rest of his life? You are making a mountain out of a mole hill. Jacob didn't have an immoral love affair. We are not qualified to scold him."
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