CHAPTER 66: CHAPTER 66: I DON’T WANT TO CHASE YOU ANYMORE

"Anna, there’s something I need to make clear to you. After your surgery and recovery, you can’t stay in Aethelgard any longer, but you don’t have to leave the country either...If everything goes well, I plan to propose to Marilyn next month!"

Hearing Conrad Sterling say this, the excitement on Anna Thornton’s face about the heated discussion regarding who might be lowering the child’s intelligence instantly vanished.

"Conrad Sterling, do you realize how insensitive you are? Why do you always have to bring up disappointing things when others are happy?"

As she said this, Conrad’s face darkened as well: "Who do you think is interesting?"

"There are plenty of interesting men, like Henry Willow!"

If Henry Willow were here, he probably wouldn’t be too thrilled upon hearing this; he knows well enough that being interesting is one of his virtues.

He might feel indifferent inside and just want to fold his hands and bow to Anna, begging her not to get him into trouble with Young Master Sterling again.

But it couldn’t be helped; Anna didn’t know many people after returning to the country, and besides Henry, she couldn’t come up with any other examples.

Sure enough, upon hearing this, someone’s face turned even gloomier: "Is he your second choice?"

"Who knows, Henry said he likes me, and we get along well in our child-rearing philosophies. If I were with him... who knows if it’d be suitable or not, but at least it’d be pretty happy. Besides, since you’re planning to propose to Marilyn Ford, I should start planning my own future. Anyway, I came back this time for two purposes, one is to get surgery for Pop, and the other is to settle the score for what happened four years ago. Since you refuse to take responsibility, then being with your brother and having your daughter call another man ’dad’ in front of you could be a form of revenge."

Anna spoke in a joking tone, but Conrad took it seriously.

"I warn you, don’t have ideas about Henry Willow; he’s different from me!"

"How is he different? He’s the young master of the Willow Family, one of the four big families in Aethelgard; his future might not be smaller than yours."

"Henry is not single; his girlfriend is the second Miss of the Grant Family, Sarah Grant. That woman is inherently unkind, extremely jealous, and most importantly, she has a ruthless and powerful brother."

It was rare to hear from Conrad’s mouth that someone else could be a threat. Anna thought he never considered anyone worth his notice, which made her even more curious: "Is this second Miss Grant’s brother so scary? Henry never told me he has a girlfriend!"

"Do you believe his lies?"

"The Grant Family is one of the four big families too, but they’re definitely ranked behind the Ford Family. I dared to openly compete with Marilyn Ford knowing I’m your backup, and I’m still doing fine. Why does it seem like getting closer to Henry means courting death according to you?"

Conrad probably didn’t carefully listen to what Anna said, as he didn’t even get angry at her remarks hinting he’s Marilyn’s backup.

The man only focused on holding Anna’s hand, forcing her to promise not to get too close to Henry: "Anna, don’t take what I say lightly. If you provoke someone you shouldn’t in Aethelgard, don’t expect anyone to save you."

"I get it, I won’t count on you to save me, okay?" Anna rolled her eyes at him.

Conrad rarely reminded her out of good intentions, yet this was her attitude?

President Sterling felt unsatisfied, and just at that moment, the little bundle on the bed turned over, chubby hands rubbed eyes still unable to open, peeking a small slit to look at Anna and Conrad, then turned back to continue sleeping.

Anna quickly shook off Conrad’s hand, went over to pat the child, then turned to glare at him and whispered: "Look, you’ve woken the child!"

Conrad: "..."

"Have you said what you wanted to say? Not leaving?"

President Sterling received a heartless eviction notice, and considering the child was sleeping soundly, he couldn’t act up.

He finally experienced a bit of the frustration Anna felt when she brought him soup a few days ago and didn’t receive any kindness.

As Conrad walked to the hospital room door, he suddenly remembered and turned back to ask: "Where’s my soup today?"

For the past few days, except for being unable to wake up in the morning, Anna had kept sending Conrad blood-replenishing meals both at noon and evening as she said she would.

But today, she seemed to have been too busy and forgot to send soup at noon.

With Conrad’s reminder, Anna retorted: "What soup? Pork liver soup? You don’t drink it anyway, so no delivery today."

Conrad: "..."

"No more deliveries in the future."

"Why?"

"You’re going to propose to Marilyn Ford already, what’s the point of me delivering soup? No matter how much effort I put in, I won’t win you over, so I’m giving up!"

"..."

When Anna first returned to the country, she intentionally appeared in front of Conrad multiple times, pestering him repeatedly.

She treated the man’s refusals as mere words in passing and insisted on taking care of him with blood-replenishing soup.

And now she says she’ll stop pursuing just like that, how can she be so casual?

Actually, Anna was just speaking a bit casually, but she decided to stop pursuing Conrad for her own principles.

When she first tangled with Conrad, no matter how the outside world judged or looked down on her, she felt she did nothing wrong since Conrad was single.

But hearing this man say he’s planning to propose to Marilyn, it seems they’ve reconciled and confirmed their relationship, possibly even moving forward rapidly.

Anna had been busy looking after Pop and was careless about this.

However, it couldn’t be helped; since the stage of fair competition had passed, even if she didn’t want to give up, she had to — she couldn’t become a shameless mistress.

In the following days, Conrad indeed did not see that woman delivering ’pork liver’ again.

Though his and Pop’s hospital rooms were adjacent, Anna didn’t come over even once.

Logically, Conrad should feel at peace finally.

But peace to this extent seemed not to satisfy President Sterling, and with the hospital and nearby restaurants’ food unappetizing, he ended up losing quite a bit of weight over those few days.

Granny Chandler offered to bring the cook from Sterling Residence to prepare meals for him every day in the hospital.

However, Conrad declined; who knew for whom this man was performing self-torture.

It made everyone in the hospital anxious; if they couldn’t attend to President Sterling properly, who could bear such responsibility?

Fortunately, Conrad didn’t make unnecessary difficulties regarding his physical condition with the hospital, and he cooperated actively with all pre-surgery checks and blood tests, simply instructing that the adjacent side be well looked after.

The child was only three years old, his body much more fragile than Conrad’s.

Now Conrad visited the adjacent room to see Pop more frequently, which had become a habit.

Anna and Mary were used to this and had gotten so accustomed to seeing that man come in that they didn’t even bother to greet him.

As usual, Conrad knocked on the hospital room door, and upon entering, seeing the sleeping little bundle sprawled on the bed, he instinctively lightened his steps.

Chemotherapy was tough, so getting more sleep is a good thing.

Conrad himself sat on the chair beside the bed, while the two other women in the room huddled together chatting about their matters, ignoring him altogether.

Especially Anna, since deciding to stop pursuing Conrad, she practically treated the man as air.