CHAPTER 234: CHAPTER 234: THE DAY I NO LONGER NEED TO RELY ON YOU...

Elias Langley walked to the bedside, his expression unchanged from usual.

He placed the lunchbox on the bedside table and gently asked, "Just now you said... you want to send someone away?"

His gaze calmly landed on her face, so naturally it was impossible to find a trace of probing.

Juliana tilted her head and thought for a moment, "Without relying on you, how capable do you think I am to send away someone I don’t like?"

Elias Langley chuckled softly at her words, his fingertips brushing through her hair.

"So, madam, don’t hide anything from me if there’s something going on."

Juliana curled her lips, "I want to be strong myself, wait until the day I don’t need to rely on you..."

She stopped halfway through her sentence.

Elias Langley, who had been listening intently, saw her stop and reached out to embrace her, lifting her chin lightly with his fingertips.

"I’m curious, on the day you don’t need me, what would you do?"

The light in Juliana’s eyes twinkled with a touch of mischief.

"Probably like this, only it’ll be me holding your chin."

Elias Langley laughed softly, placing a kiss on her lips.

"You can switch anytime you want; every time I hand over the initiative to you, you can’t last ten minutes. Is it I that don’t let you be strong?"

Juliana blushed at his ambiguous words, testing half-seriously, "What if one day I change, what would you do?"

Elias Langley’s smile imperceptibly froze for a moment, then deepened at the corners of his eyes.

He tapped her nose lightly.

"Married is married, whether it’s good or bad, it’s my fate as Elias Langley."

Juliana raised an eyebrow, "If I turn into someone like Leona Sheridan, would you still like it?"

"Your soul wouldn’t let you become her."

Elias Langley’s tone was calm but certain, then it was tinged with a hint of indulgence.

"If you really were to become like her, I’d only have one word—pamper."

All of Juliana’s probing words were blocked back by him.

That night, Elias Langley stayed to keep watch overnight.

Juliana had just moved to a regular ward and was very fatigued, falling asleep quickly.

In her dream, the world spun fiercely.

Metal grated with a screeching sound, and the scenery outside the car window spun wildly.

It was still that memory.

Her body was trapped in the back seat, and the scream of a woman rang inside the car.

The next second, the back of her head slammed into the window frame, pain and darkness engulfed her instantly.

Soon, the freezing river water poured in from all directions...

"Elias Langley, save me!"

Juliana cried out the same words as in her dream.

But unlike in her dream, here she grasped a solid muscle.

"Juliana..."

Elias Langley brushed aside her sweat-drenched hair,

Juliana was pulled back to reality from her dream, gasping as she looked at the man in front of her for a long time, only realizing that 14 years had passed, her eyes instantly turned red.

"Had a nightmare?"

Elias Langley held her in his arms, patting her gently.

Juliana caught her breath on his chest, not speaking.

Actually, she really wanted to ask him, since he was so good to her, why did he choose to give up on her back then?

Could it be that, to a man, protecting a ’valuable’ person was always more important than protecting a ’loved’ one?

Juliana’s nose tingled.

At this moment, Elias Langley’s voice came lightly from above, "Don’t be afraid, with me here, I won’t let go of you ever again."

Actually, he wasn’t sure if she had recovered her memory, but in that sentence lay the guilt he hadn’t expressed for years.

The defenses Juliana had built around her heart quietly loosened at that moment.

She closed her eyes, allowing herself to indulge in this warm embrace.

Perhaps the future might be confrontational, but the warmth in his embrace at this moment was real.

On the other side, at Mercy Hospital.

Rosalind Linton was still in her son’s hospital room.

"Mom, you’re also a patient. Please return to your room, I’m fine," Adrian Langley said.

Rosalind Linton put away the medicine to promote blood circulation and eliminate blood stasis.

"It’s okay, Mom can be discharged tomorrow. Then I’ll make you some bone broth. The doctor said your ribs need another month to heal before you can take a flight, so let’s book the tickets for a month later."

"Where are you going?"

At some point, Victor Langley had already stood at the ward door.

Adrian Langley instinctively wanted to get up, but Rosalind Linton held him down.

"He’s an irrelevant person, just take care of yourself first."

After Rosalind Linton said that, she pushed Victor Langley aside from the ward door and went back to her room.

Victor Langley didn’t step forward to show concern for his son; instead, he immediately took off his coat to drape over Rosalind Linton.

"It’s one thing to be mad, but don’t take it out on your health. You just had a miscarriage, cherish your body."

Actually, Rosalind Linton’s hospital room was just next door. He was only doing this to express concern.

Rosalind Linton, while walking into her room, threw the coat back at him.

"Go be with your wife, I don’t need any hypocritical concern."

She said that and lay down on her hospital bed. At that moment, she noticed a thermos jar on the bedside table.

Victor Langley walked to the bedside and opened the jar to serve her some soup.

"This is pigeon soup I specially had the kitchen make for you."

The spoon was fed to her lips, but Rosalind Linton turned her head away.

"I’m afraid your wife might have poisoned it, so I dare not eat."

Victor Langley sighed and set the bowl down.

"Rosalind, please don’t be angry. The Langley family’s lineage is precious, and there can’t be any mistakes with me. Besides, for the sake of our child’s future, this test must be done."

"Hmph!"

Rosalind Linton wiped away her tears.

"The child is gone; he no longer has a future. In the past, you only pretended to like me, never trusted my character; now in your eyes, I’m still a woman for everyone. There’s nothing left to say between us... Just go away, and never come back."

"Rosalind..."

Victor Langley’s face showed pain. He sat by the bed, holding her hand.

"... When I found you initially, I truly wanted to spend my life with you, but who would have thought my father’s company would go bankrupt? I had to marry Leona Sheridan to pay off the debts. I didn’t abandon you."

Rosalind Linton withdrew her hand, her face full of anger.

"You were playing the role of someone else’s husband and prospective father while hiding everything from me, even letting me get pregnant. When I was pregnant, you dared to say the child wasn’t yours. Victor Langley, how can you be so shameless!"

"Back then, I only knew Langley men couldn’t naturally conceive. I didn’t realize that under highly compatible gene conditions, there could still be rare exceptions. And... you need to understand my situation at that time."

Victor Langley’s tone carried a trace of helplessness.

But Rosalind Linton remained cold-faced and said, "Sorry, I couldn’t understand back then, and I can’t understand now. I won’t be with a coward. Go back and fawn over your wife who can bring you pride."

Having said that, Rosalind Linton resolutely turned her head away, no longer looking at him.

Victor Langley’s jaw tightened, and he spoke in a somber voice, "I can’t defend my past actions, but this time, I will prove to you that the one I always wanted to marry is you!"

With that, he stopped lingering and turned to leave decisively.

Seeing he wouldn’t return, Rosalind Linton patted her chest in relief.

Then she took the bowl of pigeon soup to the bathroom to dump it out.

Trash men only deserve to be clowns!

Three days later, Juliana was discharged.

Elias Langley personally brought her back to the apartment.

During her hospital stay, he had pushed aside all affairs to accompany her the whole time and even seriously learned from the nurse how to change her wound dressing.

Elias Langley fulfilled the tenderness and responsibility of a husband to the fullest.

His kindness made Juliana indulge, but the old wounds of being abandoned still burned within her memory.

Meanwhile, at the Langley Residence, Victor Langley hadn’t returned for three days. Leona Sheridan couldn’t sit still any longer and began venting her frustrations to Mason Sheridan.

"It’s Juliana; it must be Juliana stirring trouble, keeping Victor from returning to reunite with me. Is she really the one you’re looking for? Is she?"