He Never Noticed Me Until I Loved Someone Else novel Chapter 120

Jarrod's gaze immediately dropped downward, landing directly on her painfully red and swollen ankle.

Suddenly, it clicked. When she had been endlessly "Typing..." that afternoon, had she been trying to tell him about this?

"I'll settle the score with you later!"

With a furious huff, Grandpa Fuller suddenly stood up from his chair.

Instinctively, Stella tried to stand up to support him, completely forgetting the intense pain in her foot.

The second she put weight on it, she winced sharply and dropped back into the chair.

"Does it hurt a lot?"

Jarrod rushed over to Stella's side in a few long strides, reaching out to grab her foot and inspect the injury himself.

With the entire family watching them, Stella was entirely too embarrassed to let him inspect her ankle like that. She yanked her foot back defensively. "It's nothing major. I just forgot for a second."

"Call Dr. Bennett and have him come take a look," Grandpa Fuller commanded.

Dr. Bennett was the Fuller family's private physician, primarily responsible for managing the old man's health.

Stella didn't want to make a massive scene out of it. "Grandpa Fuller, please don't go to all that trouble. I already applied some ointment when I got home."

"Even if you applied ointment, he needs to look at it."

With that, Jarrod pulled out his phone and directly dialed the number.

He occasionally called Dr. Bennett to check on his grandfather's condition, so naturally, he had the man's direct line.

Seeing that it was already in motion, Stella didn't try to decline again.

"Stella, you two wait here for Dr. Bennett. I'm going to take Grandpa Fuller back to his room to take his medication," Silas announced.

Silas helped Grandpa Fuller up and led him away.

Feeling awkward leaving just the younger generation in the living room, Edward and Eleanor excused themselves to the dining room to check on dinner preparations.

Jasper was still wearing his headphones, oblivious as he aggressively played his game.

Jasper scrambled up the stairs like a monkey, intentionally goading her from above. "With those short legs, you think you can catch me?!"

Infuriated beyond belief, Serena bolted up the stairs to chase him down.

The living room plunged into a suffocating silence.

Stella stared at the tightly clenched line of Jarrod's jaw. "You don't need to ruin your relationship with Serena for my sake," she said softly. "She's right, anyway. We're going to be divorced soon, and after that, we'll just be strangers."

Jarrod stared into Stella's perfectly calm face, a deep frown carving into his brow. "If you're in pain, just admit you're in pain. There's no shame in saying it. Aren't you exhausted pretending everything is perfectly fine all the time?"

Stella stiffened slightly.

She hadn't expected Jarrod to see right through her facade.

Seeing that Jarrod was still staring intensely at her, clearly waiting for an honest answer, she finally broke.

Stella forced a bitter, self-deprecating smile. "If I don't pretend everything is fine, then what exactly do you expect me to do? Face them all head-on?"

"You know exactly what my position here is. You stood up for me this time, but what about next time? Will you always be around to protect me?"