When I Was a Wallflower (Leo and Amelie) novel Chapter 56

Chapter 56 How Crazy Could She Get for Him
Julia’s heart skipped a beat when she saw Amelie falling silent, for it meant the answer was evidently close.
“So, you… you really donated your cornea?” Her voice became shaky, and her eyes were filled with incredulity and pooling tears.
The next second, she shoved Amelie and barked, “Are you mad?! How can you go this far?!”
“Julia…” Amelie grabbed her best friend’s hand.
“It was around that time, wasn’t it?” Julia flung Amelie’s hand away while glaring at the young woman. “You made me cover for you all of a sudden, wanting me to tell your dad you were staying over at mine while you disappeared to God-knew-where for two months. You actually… actually went to remove your cornea, right?”
Julia couldn’t utter another word anymore.
She had only ever heard of doctors removing the cornea of the dead. For a living, breathing human to have their cornea removed just like that… She dared not even imagine what it was like.
“You gave your cornea to Alston, didn’t you?” Julia’s voice sounded evidently shaky by the time she spoke, but the next second, she roared again, “How can you do something so absurd for that jack*ss?! You’re a madwoman, Amelie Dillon!”
Julia kept shoving Amelie with red-rimmed eyes, lashing out ceaselessly. However, what she wanted more was to turn back time and stop her best friend from doing something so horrifying.
“Julia!” Samuel ran up to Julia and held her back after seeing how worked up she had gotten. However, Julia shook him off and looked teary-eyed at Amelie. “Amelie Dillon, you *sshole! How can you make me an accomplice for what you did yourself?!”
Amelie knew what she did was wrong, so she silently lowered her head, letting Julia yell at her as she pleased. But it wasn’t why Julia was mad at her; she was mad at the fact that her best friend had behaved so insanely. Her heart ached for Amelie.
“I knew I should’ve been nosy! I knew I should’ve asked!” Julia bawled. “How could I have believed you just like that when you said you were going to look after Alston?! I’m such an idiot!”
“Alright, that’s enough tears. There are neighbors around. If they hear this and tell Mr. Dillon about it…” Samuel cooed as he held Julia, who finally stopped at that.
Meanwhile, Amelie opened the door with a spare key and let the couple in.
Julia still hadn’t calmed down when she sat down, and Amelie wanted to pour her some water, but because she didn’t stay here, there wasn’t any drinking water.
Fortunately, Samuel was attentive and brought two bottles of water over, one for Julia and the other for Amelie.
Finally, Julia calmed down a little after having a sip.
She glanced at Amelie, who stood silently in front of her with a lowered head like a misbehaved child, and held Amelie’s hand with an aching heart, caressing the back of it with her thumb. “Amy, I would’ve stopped you no matter what if I knew what you were going to do!”
Though she no longer cried, her eyes were still red-rimmed.
Amelie knew Julia had her best interests at heart, and so she gave Julia’s fingers a squeeze, comforting, “It’s all in the past now.”
However, Julia grew increasingly indignant the more she thought about it. “What do you mean it’s all in the past?! Can it even be left in the past?!”
She shot right up and grabbed Amelie’s chin at that. “You gave your cornea to that jack*ss, but look at what he used it for?! To live happily on this planet and be all lovey-dovey with Elyse! You didn’t donate your cornea back then for him to look at that woman or for him to trash you for four years! This will never be over! I’m going to look for that jack*ss right now!”
Julia meant what she said and really wanted to head out to look for Leo.
At that, Samuel stopped her, telling her to calm down.
As a result, poor Samuel became a victim of his fiancée’s wrath, being shoved while she yelled, “All you men are nothing but b*stards!”
Alas, there was nothing the man could do but rub his nose, defenseless and aggrieved.
Amelie knew Samuel could normally bring Julia well under control, but right now, the young woman was enraged, so it was rather difficult to get her to calm down for a moment.
With that, she dragged Julia back. “Leo and I have already divorced. If you go to him now, he’ll only think I’m not happy about the divorce, wanting to use this to tie myself back to him. Perhaps he might think better of me because of this, but so what? He has no feelings for me, and that’s a fact.”
At that, she sighed and massaged Julia’s arm. “I donated my cornea out of free will back then. I don’t want to use it to guilt-trip him. The kind of love I want is to give voluntarily and not exchange through gratitude. It’ll only make me look cheap. Julia, I’ve already made myself lowly once. I don’t want to live through it again.” She patted Julia’s shoulder.
Julia, on the other hand, was rendered speechless, standing still with her head drooped while tears rolled down her cheeks like beads of a broken string, dripping onto the floor.
Knowing her friend still felt aggrieved for her, Amelie cooed while saying, “Hey, I’m fine.”
In response, Julia wrapped her arms around Amelie and whimpered, “But you only made the sacrifice because you love him. You donated your cornea but gained nothing at all. That’s not fair!” She kept pounding Amelie’s back, but where it pained was her heart instead.
Amelie’s eyes turned red-rimmed in turn as a lump built up in her throat, and her nose became runny due to Julia’s concern and her own stupidity.
She wrapped her arms around Julia and gave her a squeeze. “I did it out of love. Though I didn’t get anything in return, I don’t regret it. Julia, I did all that I had to in this relationship and left no regrets. That’s what counts, no?”
“You…” As brokenhearted as Julia felt, she thought Amelie was right, so she just continued to hug Amelie as though only by doing so could her pain alleviate.
As Julia and Samuel came over spontaneously, they didn’t have a place to stay, and the bed here wasn’t ready either. Thus, Amelie could only take them to the hotel in town, but Julia insisted on sending her home first.
Albeit just a short distance, Amelie didn’t turn her down, and just like that, the two sat in the car together like any other day. However, their mindset was different this time.
“You really are a fool, Amy.” Julia sighed as her heart continued to ache.
Similarly, she found herself a fool for not noticing that something was off with her best friend’s eye throughout the past decade when she looked at Amelie’s obviously duller left eye.
“Yeah, I’m a fool.” Amelie smiled and sighed in response, leading Julia to hold her hand, asking, “Would you still do the same if you knew you and that b*stard would end up like this?”
The question stumped Amelie, but she said nothing in the end.
After arriving, she got out and bid the couple goodbye, only fixing her clothes and heading up the steps to open the door after the Bentley vanished from her line of sight.
At night, she lay in bed with an impassive gaze while she couldn’t help recalling Julia’s question.
Would I have done the same if I could foresee the future? Perhaps I would.
…
It was already close to 11.00PM when Leo rushed home, and tiredness showed on his face after a long drive.
Meanwhile, the lights in the living room were still lit, and Melissa, in her silk nightwear, was sitting on the couch with her legs elegantly crossed, flipping through something.
“Leo, you’re back, perfect.” She stood up with a smile upon seeing him. “Mrs. Hale has recommended a few socialites. Come and take a look at their profiles.”
However, Leo looked toward her impassively as his brows locked into a tight furrow. “No thanks,” he blurted plainly before continuing to head upstairs.
Despite having endured his impassiveness all these years, Melissa was still absolutely displeased about his response when she stayed up until now instead of getting her beauty sleep, worried about his marriage. Thus, a hint of anger laced her voice. “This is your marriage here. Can’t you take it seriously?!”
“Since it’s my marriage, don’t bother yourself with it!” Leo retorted bluntly as he tugged on his necktie.
At that, Melissa’s well-maintained face twisted and grimaced in all sorts of ways, looking grimmer by the second while she clenched her fists. “I am your mother!”
“Are you?” All she got in response was Leo’s nonchalant questioning.
His face was clearly expressionless. In fact, his gaze never changed at all, yet she felt utterly ashamed all of a sudden.
“Is it just… because of that?” she asked shakily moments later.