Connor finally came home at 1.00AM. He was shocked when he found Olivia awake, and he asked with a guilty conscience, “Why are you still up?” “And why are you back at this time?”
“I was drinking and chatting with Carter! I would need to get a picture of his project that I invested in,” he lied. As Olivia was clueless about investments, she took his word for it. At this point, they did not have common topics of conversation despite sharing the same bed.
Ellen woke up early in the morning. She visited the flower shop nearby to pick a bouquet of flowers and some decorations for the grave visit. When she was done, she received a call from Jared telling her that he was on his way to pick her up.
At 8.30AM, a black SUV stopped at the entrance to her neighborhood. She hopped into: his car, and they took off in the direction of the graveyard with bodyguard vans in tow.
The graveyard was far away in the outskirts and it would take them three hours for a roundtrip. Ellen had a heavy heart on her brother’s death. anniversary because she had gradually lost her memory of his appearance, but what stayed with her was his love and protection.
“What’s his name?” Jared asked tenderly.
“Kevin. He passed away when I was seven. I was too young to understand it and did not even say my final farewell,” she explained with a guilty look.
“How did he pass?”
“Brain cancer. End-stage brain cancer. It was too late to treat it.” Her eyes were misty as she recalled the unjust fate that befell her family. First, her parents passed away when she was young, and then, her only older brother could not grow healthily.
Jared felt sorry for her and gave her a sympathetic look. He had never seen anyone with a more miserable fate than Ellen. It seemed that everyone she loved had left her.
“I will be by your side from now on,” he comforted her.
She glanced at him gratefully. “Okay!”
Then, she added, “The last time I saw him was on the burial day. I held onto his urn. It was raining, and I refused to leave the grave. My uncle had to forcefully drag me away.” She vividly recalled the scene from years ago, which she would revisit every year when she visited Kevin’s grave. Each time, she lacked the strength to face his death. The more she thought about it, the sadder she became.
While they waited at the lights, Jared reached out and patted her softly on the shoulder. He also put on some light music to distract her from the painful memories.
He did not know that Kevin was his heart donor because his parents made all the arrangements on his behalf. Moreover, his parents kept the details from him because they didn’t want him to shoulder the burden of knowledge.
Still, the heart donation was a medical miracle, for Jared’s body accepted Kevin’s heart without any complications, as though the two entities were one. Kevin’s heart received a second life in his body.
Due to the smooth process, Jared was not exposed to more information about the heart donor. Plus, he was only ten years old when the accident happened, and the near-death experience greatly affected him, to the point. that he wallowed in the trauma for a long time. At this moment, the mention of Kevin did not raise any suspicion.
At the graveyard, they walked all the way to the middle of the hill. Ellen found herself by a grave in a corner overgrown with weeds. She placed the stuff in her hands on the ground and started pulling out the weeds. Similarly, Jared did not care that he was dressed in a luxurious suit and helped her to clean the site.
He glanced at the name on the headstone but did not find any photo of the deceased. The grave was minimalist in design, and even the headstone was a simple rectangular slab that appeared rather miserable and lonely.
“Ouch!” When Ellen was pulling out a bunch of weed with sharp edges, she accidentally cut her finger, after which blood started oozing from the wound.
Jared immediately hurried over and started bandaging her finger with a napkin. “Take a rest at the side. I’ll pull the weeds.”
