I Walked Away Seven Years Too Late But Right on Time novel Chapter 87

As soon as Harold left, Luke asked his parents to leave.

"Mom, Dad, you should go back. I want to sleep."

With that, he closed his eyes. Eleanor and Arthur stood by his bedside for a long time before finally letting out a heavy sigh and quietly walking out.

They had told Victoria that Luke's friends had dragged him out drinking to celebrate the upcoming wedding, pushing him too hard. They claimed Luke was just too polite to refuse, which triggered the bleeding.

But both of them knew the truth: Luke had done it on purpose.

This wasn't the first or second time something like this had happened. Eileen slashed her wrists and swallowed sleeping pills to force the marriage, and to avoid it, their son had crashed his car and drank himself into the hospital multiple times.

"How can this keep going on? One of them is going to end up dead. Arthur, my heart breaks seeing him like this."

Eleanor wiped her tears as she spoke. It had only been six months, and their son was in the hospital for the third time. If this dragged on, his body would completely give out.

"How can we be so ungrateful? Unless Harold breaks the engagement, this isn't up for debate. If he really can't let that girl go, setting her up in an apartment on the side isn't entirely off the table."

"You..." Eleanor was so furious at Arthur's words that she couldn't form a sentence. "How could you teach our son that? They're already broken up, and Eileen still stormed over there and threw industrial bleach at her! If he keeps her as a mistress, someone will actually get killed! Do you really think Harold and Victoria would turn a blind eye to that?"

Arthur frowned, remaining silent.

After a long pause, he finally spoke. "Looking at Harold's attitude today, he's frustrated with Luke, too. He definitely knows what Luke is trying to pull. The problem is still Eileen. But we can't just stand by and watch Eileen do something drastic again, either."

Neither of them said another word. They had had this exact conversation countless times. Arthur refused to let anyone call him ungrateful, so all his hopes hinged on Eileen giving up first.

When Harold got home, Victoria was waiting in the living room.

"Where's Eileen?" he asked.

"She took her sedatives and went to sleep."

Victoria glared at him. "What are we supposed to do? Luke obviously did this on purpose. I don't even know how to tell our daughter. I'm terrified she'll have a breakdown and do something terrible."

Harold sank into the sofa and rubbed his temples. He had a massive headache, too. He would give his daughter everything within his power, but he couldn't control human hearts.

"When Luke was hospitalized last time and they issued the critical condition notices, you heard what Eileen said. She said if he died, she wouldn't live either. It sends chills down my spine just thinking about it. She loses interest in everything else in three minutes, so why is she so fixated on Luke Lawrence?"

Getting no response from Harold, Victoria grew angry. "Did you hear a word I just said? Eileen is incredibly unstable right now. I don't know what the hell you're so busy with, but could you please come home early for once and spend time with your daughter?"

At first, they were just having fun, and she had kept her drinking under control. But eventually, she just kept drinking more and more, until Gwen had to step in and try to cut her off.

Sophie got up, washed her face, and walked into the living room. Seeing the back of her mother in the kitchen, she called out, "Mom."

"You're awake?" Sarah walked over to check her daughter's face, but Sarah's own expression was incredibly stiff.

"Mom, are you mad at me?"

Sophie trod carefully. Her mother had never liked her drinking, and getting wasted last night had clearly upset her again.

"Eat some oatmeal first." Sarah served her a bowl and sat down across from her.

"When you applied for that job, I was against it. You said you couldn't find a better one at the time and just wanted to use it as a stepping stone, so I accepted it. I can tolerate you drinking for work, but you've already resigned. Why did you drink so much last night? Don't you know how bad it is for your body? Besides, acting like that—weren't you afraid of embarrassing Gavin?"

"Did I do something crazy last night?"

All Sophie remembered was Gavin carrying her home. As for what she had said or whether she had thrown up, her memory was completely blank.