Unloved Unwanted Unstoppable (Seraphina and Dominic) novel Chapter 147

The old woman stared at her, a sudden spark of light seeming to gather in the depths of her cloudy eyes. She raised a frail hand and waved Seraphina over.

"Child, you're here."

Her voice was raspy, but it carried an indescribable sense of intimacy.

Seraphina offered a gentle smile.

She didn't know if Beatrice Cole actually recognized her, or if she had simply mistaken her for someone else.

The last time they met, Beatrice had held her hand and told her that her eyes looked just like her daughter's.

"Grandma." She walked over and crouched beside the wheelchair, bringing herself to eye level with the old woman.

Beatrice reached out and gently touched her cheek.

"You've lost weight."

She wasn't wrong.

Seraphina had indeed lost quite a bit of weight recently, the stress of everything piling up on her.

"You've lost weight too, Grandma." Seraphina gently held the old woman's hand in return. "Have you not been eating properly?"

Beatrice pouted, looking as though she had suffered some monumental injustice, and her eyes suddenly rimmed with red.

"They won't let me go outside, and they never give me anything good to eat. It's just the same old stuff every single day."

She pointed an accusatory finger at the dishes on the table, her face a mask of pure disgust.

Seraphina followed her finger, took a look, and then turned back.

"Are you hungry, Grandma?" she asked.

Beatrice nodded vigorously. "Hungry! Starving!"

Seraphina's lips curled into a smile. "Wait right here, Grandma. I'll go make you a bowl of noodles."

She glanced at the virtually untouched plates of food on the table, then brought her gaze back. "Ms. Lennox, right now, what Grandma needs most isn't perfectly balanced nutrition. It's food. She's starving."

Yara's brow furrowed even tighter. "She's not eating because she's throwing a temper tantrum, not because she isn't hungry. We cannot compromise our health management principles just because an elderly patient is being stubborn."

"Principles exist to serve people." Seraphina's tone remained perfectly calm. "She's throwing a tantrum because she's sick and tired of eating this food. You could prepare it in ten different ways, and it would still be the same ingredients. She still wouldn't touch it. Right now, she wants noodles, so we make her noodles. Once she actually eats something, her body can absorb the nutrients. What's the point of strictly managing a completely empty stomach?"

Yara opened her mouth, struggling to find a solid counterargument.

She turned her head to look at Gideon.

Gideon's expression was unreadable as his gaze shifted to Seraphina. "Let her try."

Yara's lips pressed into a thin line, but she finally stepped aside.

She backed away, lifting her chin to watch Seraphina, her expression clearly telegraphing: 'I can't wait to see what kind of mess you make.'

Watching the exchange, Seraphina felt a flicker of surprise. The rumors always painted Gideon Cole as a tyrannical, authoritarian figure whose word was absolute law, but seeing him now, he was actually quite open to reasonable discussion.