Reborn, Reawakened, Rekindled novel Chapter 153

My mood would have probably stayed in a happy bubble for a while if it wasn't for Kate's call.

"What will it take for you to stop hurting Bonnie?" Kate's question almost made me burst out laughing.

"Why don't you just get her out of my sight?" There I was, lounging in the yard, soaking up the sun on a rocking chair, munching on fruit.

Kate snorted, "Shouldn't you be the one to vanish?"

Just then, I heard the rumble of a car outside the gate. I got up to take a peek and sure enough, Neil's car was parked in front of my house again.

Wasn't he supposed to be at the hospital taking care of Bonnie? Why was he here again?

Neil got out of the car and seemed a bit taken aback as he saw me staring. He then walked towards me.

"Shhh." I made a shushing gesture.

Neil frowned slightly, but although he was puzzled, he did not speak. I continued on with Kate, "Why should I disappear? Even though Neil and I are divorced, I was once his wife, doesn't that make Bonnie the homewrecker?"

At my words, Neil's expression shifted.

He asked me not to call Bonnie the homewrecker, and now that I was saying it to his face. He must be pissed. Kate couldn't hold back either. She always saw Bonnie as a replacement for Karina and couldn't stand anyone tarnishing her sister’s image.

"Irene! You're the homewrecker! You should be the one disappearing! If it wasn't for you marrying Neil, would Karina have committed suicide?" Kate accused me heatedly, "Now you're targeting Bonnie, making her life difficult. If something happens to her, may you rot in hell! Redeem yourself for their sake!"

"Kate, I'll say it one last time, when I got married to Neil, I had no idea about your sister!" I responded coldly.

Kate retorted, "So what? Even if you didn't know about my sister, couldn't you feel that Neil didn't love you? I heard he refused to marry you at first, and only reluctantly agreed due to his grandfather's illness. If you had any dignity, you would have turned down the marriage. His grandfather wouldn't have blamed him, you wouldn't have gotten married, and my sister wouldn't have committed suicide!"

She seemed to know a lot about it.

Neil's face darkened. Before I could respond, he reached out and took my phone away.

"Karina's situation has nothing to do with Irene. You can blame me for not being firm enough, or blame your sister for being too sensitive, but stop harassing Irene. Do you understand?" Neil warned sternly.

I was taken aback. This was Karina's only sister, the only other one from the Aaron family.

As expected, Kate was furious, "Neil, do you realize what you're saying? Why are you at Irene's? Bonnie is still at the hospital, why don’t you be by her side!”

Neil seemed done with the conversation. He ended the call and blocked Kate's number right in front of me.

I watched his actions, suddenly unsure why he was here today.

Originally, I thought he was here to confront me as I had told Bonnie about Karina, which ended up scaring Bonnie unconscious.

But judging from his attitude towards Kate just now, he didn't seem to come to accuse me.

I deliberately let him hear Kate's words, curious to see how he would defend those two women.

"What brings you here?" I took my phone back and looked at Neil, standing behind the gate.

"Mitch told me something, so I came to confirm it with you." Neil looked down at me, his voice calm.

As if the stern man warning Kate just now wasn't him.

A few minutes after we went back inside, Neil drove away.

"Rena, why did he come to see you? You shouldn't see him, if your dad was home, he would have chased him away with a broom!" my mom chided.

"He came on his own, I don't know either," I shook my head, "but don't worry, he just came to ask some questions, nothing more."

My mom looked at me skeptically, "Really?"

I quickly assured her, "Really, once I recover a bit more, I'm planning to travel abroad. Maybe I'll bring back a foreign husband!"

"Ha!" my mom laughed, "You're still such a romantic! Despite being hurt so badly by Neil, you're still thinking about marriage? Don't you plan to stay single for the rest of your life?"

"I won't do that, because I can't give up the whole forest for one tree," I replied.

My mom gave my arm a satisfied pat. I knew she and my dad didn't want me to stay single all my life.

I was not sure if Neil would seriously mull over what I said once he's back, but I reckoned it wouldn't make a damn difference even if he did believe me. Wasn't this just Bonnie playing dumb about the whole Karina situation? What's the big deal anyways? Just a simple girl with an occasional selfish streak, that's all.

Stella gave me the lowdown on Bonnie's status every day, all straight from Mitch's visits.

Bonnie was probably laid up in bed for about a week before she started getting better.

She's like a fragile doll, with a whole troop of folks fussing over her, worried sick about her running into trouble.

Neil hired a professional caregiver, and Kate, Ada, and Dean rotated shifts to look after her while Malinda, one of Bonnie's biggest fans, was reportedly planning to return from abroad. But what caught me off guard was that Russel was back even quicker.