Chapter 17
Isalah ignored his weakened, recovering body and rushed downstairs, searching through the hospital rooms one by one
Suddenly, he froze in place when a slender figare appeared in front of him, “Essie!”
His body reacted faster than his mind. He dashed after Esme without a second thought, fearing that she would vanish again if he hesitated.
Esme paused when she heard that familiar voice from a distance, her hand tightening on the door to Ruby’s ward.
She instinctively turned around and saw salah striding toward her. She then turned back and ran downstairs without hesitation.
She didn’t stop to wonder how Isaiah had found her. Right now, she wanted nothing more than to avoid him.
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Esme bolted out of the hospital and flagged down the first cab she saw. “Sir, gol quickly!”
Just as the cab started moving, Isaiah caught up and banged on the car window. “Essie, Essie! Listen to me! Please, don’t go!”
Esme ignored him completely and kept urging the driver to leave. As the car disappeared from view, Isaiah instinctively tried to chase after it.
But a sharp pain suddenly gripped his stomach, forcing him to bend over and clutch his abdomen.
At that moment, a furious voice rang out. “Isaiah“”
Nolan, who had come to take over Esme’s shift, witnessed the scene and was overcome with rage. He stormed over and punched Isaiah square in the face
“How dare you show your face here to bother Essie!” Nolan roared, delivering another punch to Isaiah’s body.
Already weakened by the stomach pain, Isaiah collapsed to the ground under Nolan’s blow. Pale and trembling, Isaiah reached out, trying to grab onto something
However, Nolan didn’t even spare him a glance. He just turned and walked away with a cold command. “Get lost! Don’t let me see you here again!”
The incident lett both Nolan and Ruby seething with anger and heartache. They were furlous that Isalah still had the audacity to seek out Esme after all this time.
But they were also heartbroken that Esme, who had finally escaped him, was now being drawn back into his mess because of Ruby’s hospitalization.
Ruby, who was feeling overwhelmed, declared on the spot that she wanted to be discharged immediately and return to the countryside so Esme could go back to Meliana as soon as possible.
Esme hurriedly held Ruby down and spent a long time persuading her to give up on the idea.
Lame knew she would eventually run into Isaiah from the moment she returned to Jonesville. After all, Jonesville was the Jabs family’s territory.
If Isaiah had wanted to, he could have pursued her from the moment her plane landed. She thought back to the scene of salah outside the cab, banging on the window and pleading with her.
With a deep sigh, she wondered what he could possibly have to explain. Everything that needed to be said or done had been laid out in her letter to him. If he truly understood it, he wouldn’t be looking for her now.
However, Isalah couldn’t give up so easily after finally seeing her again. He had so much he needed to tell her.
He wanted to explain everything about him and Audrey. He didn’t love Audrey–he only wanted Esme
Yet Esme seemed to be avoiding him deliberately. He waited outside Ruby’s ward for days, enduring Nolan’s and Ruby’s cold stares and the whispers of passersby.
Even so, he didn’t even catch a glimpse of Esme
That night, Isalah clenched his fists and prepared to leave after waiting late into the night without seeing her. Just then, a slender figure appeared at the end of the corridor.
Isaiah’s dull eyes instantly lit up. “Essie!”
Esme stopped in her tracks, her cold gaze meeting his. Then, she walked past him and shut the ward door behind her without a word.
Ruby had been moved to a different room earlier that moming, but some belongings had been left behind in the old one.
Esme had planned to retrieve them late at night, not expecting Isaiah to still be there waiting.
