Chapter 2 Husband's Brother

• A Few Weeks Later.
• Liora wiped off the lipstick from her lips and looked into the mirror.
• The woman in the mirror was only twenty-seven years old, but her face was pale and sickly.
• She looked at her reflection expressionlessly, picked up a pink lipstick to apply it to her lips, and then didn’t glance at the mirror again. She grabbed her bag and went downstairs.
• On the second floor leading to the first floor, the back wall was filled with oil paintings, most of which were painted by Leander. There were vibrant flower seas, colorful bird flocks against a bright blue sky, and receding crimson sea reefs.
• At the very end, there was a painting inspired by the Hungarian painter Mihaly Von Zichy’s work “Romantic Encounter.” In the painting, a demon killed the bridegroom on the bride’s wedding night and kissed her with lips covered in venom, causing her to die and ascend to heaven.
• Liora didn’t like the story of this painting, but Leander did. He said love was complicated, and emotions between people were even more complex and wonderful.
• Liora's nose tingled, she took a deep breath and walked towards the kitchen.
• The housekeeper Sable had already prepared the soup and kept it warm in a thermos on the dining table. Seeing her approach, she called out, “Ma'am, the soup is ready. Please have some food.”
• “No need,” Liora held the soup, “I don’t have much of an appetite.”
• “Ma'am, please eat a little. Hold on, eat something,” Sable said, wiping away her tears, “Mr. Leander will be okay. He's still young.”
• "That's what everyone keeps saying but I am worried, I just want to come home to a bed of roses with him waiting for me with a smile on his face.”
• "Sir Leander is a fighter, he will overcome this, just trust him.”
• "I do, I am so scared because he is giving up, I don't want to lose him, he is my everything, my life has become meaningless ever since the incident.” She was almost in tears again.
• Everyone around her has been saying this these days. Liora almost felt numb. She said nothing, took the soup, and walked out.
• She checked the person calling her phone, it was her mom, she refused to answer the call because she didn't need any negative energy that wanted her to leave her husband.
• The driver saw her coming out and had already opened the rear car door. As soon as she got in, he closed the door and drove straight to the hospital. However, as soon as they arrived at the hospital entrance, they encountered her parents' car.
• "Not again, can't they just let me breathe?” she murmured. She got out of the car and saw her parents. Pretending not to notice them, she lowered her head and walked towards the hospital lobby. Her mother Calista reached out, pulled her into their car, and immediately closed the door, asking her, “What are you thinking? Do you plan to endure with him forever or divorce him?”
• “Liora, you must think it through!” Her father Tiberius looked extremely worried, “Leander’s situation is not something that can be cured in a few years. His life is pretty much ruined. You are still young; you can divorce and remarry.”
• Liora looked exhausted, but her eyes were unusually determined: “I won’t leave, give up already, I love my husband and he needs me the most..”
• "You foolish child!" Tiberius her father pointed to the sixth floor of the hospital, his eyebrows furrowed deeply, "Do you plan to take care of him for the rest of your life? You are still so young, why should you live as a widow?"
• "Liora, your father means well. He is just worried and feels sorry for you," Calista's eyes were also swollen, and her face was smeared with makeup. Since Leander's accident, she had been inquiring everywhere, and all she could do was accept fate. She couldn't change Leander's destiny, so she had to force her daughter to let go. "I know you can't accept it now, but listen to your mother. You have to think about yourself. You are still young. You can't end up childless when you are old, right?"
• "Mom, let me ask you this, if dad was the one in this situation, would you leave him?”
• "Liora!!! I!! I...” Calista was out of words.
• "I knew it, the reason you won't be able to leave Dad is the same reason I won't be able to my husband, I have never disobeyed you both but now I am sorry.”
• Liora didn't want to hear these words. She opened the car door and got out, "I'll go up first, the soup will get cold."
• Tiberius wanted to persuade her again, but Calista raised her hand to stop him, "Let her go. She chose her path, she knows what she's doing."
• "What does she know? Can love fill one's stomach? She will regret it later!"
• "Yes love is not enough but she kind of makes a point, let's go.”
• "You need to talk sense into her.”
• Liora didn't stop walking. She knew what she was doing; she couldn't leave Leander.
• As soon as the elevator arrived, she saw her mother-in-law, Fiammetta, standing in the corridor talking on the phone, "He still wants to die... He asked me to let him die peacefully..."
• The Abernathy family was extensive, and their business was even more intricate. To avoid affecting the group's interests, they completely suppressed the news of Leander's car accident. Leander's elder brother, Dashiell Abernathy, had only visited once. When he heard about Leander's high-level spinal cord injury, he didn't say a word and just left. Dashiell is the opposite of his brother Leander.
• Liora knew that, to Leander's family, he was now useless, and the subsequent medical expenses were exorbitant. Fiammetta had no real power in the group. If she agreed to let Leander die peacefully, Dashiell would remove all life-support equipment.
• Fiammetta had been sleepless for a week. She could only rest a few hours each day with sleeping pills. When she woke up, her face was still full of exhaustion. Rubbing her sore eyes, she said into the phone, "He's at least your brother. Can't you come and persuade him?"
• No one could persuade Leander, who was determined to die.
• Yes, such a proud child of heaven, facing such a huge change at the peak of his life, would spend his whole life paralyzed in a hospital bed. He would never walk again, run, or even eat and drink like an ordinary person.
• The biggest difference between him and a vegetable was that he was conscious. He would suffer from all of this for the rest of his life.
• Liora put down the soup. Fiammetta hung up the phone and saw her. Without saying anything, she sat back on the bench, staring blankly at the shadows cast on the ground outside the window for a long time before saying, "Liora, can you help me persuade him? Persuade him to live well. If he promises to live well, I will cure him. I really can't accept... my son gives up on himself..."
• As Fiammetta spoke, she covered her face.
• Although her two sons were very successful, the one she loved the most was her youngest son, Leander. Perhaps it was because she didn't raise the eldest, Dashiell, when he was young, which made him cold and indifferent. Therefore, after giving birth to her youngest son, she always kept him by her side and taught him herself.
• With Leander's accident, although Fiammetta didn't shed a tear, she looked like she had lost her soul, often standing outside the intensive care unit all day.
• "Mom, stop worrying, my husband is going to live, leave everything to me, I am going to talk to him."
• "I am so lucky to have a daughter-in-law like you, I am so certain if it were to be some ladies, they would run away but you choose to stay beside him, it shows you love him.”
• "I love your son more than my life, that's why I am ready to do whatever it takes to make sure he lives, have some soup before it gets cold.”
• Fiammetta hugged her and thanked her.
• Liora looked at Leander through the protective observation window. He was rarely awake, and when he was, he refused to open his eyes.
• He didn't want to see anyone.
• Suddenly, the door of the operating room at the end of the corridor opened. Liora looked up and saw doctors and nurses pushing a bed out. The person on the bed was covered with a white cloth. The family members waiting outside the operating room rushed over, crying and hugging the body.
• Liora's fingers unconsciously tightened. Just imagining Leander lying there one day made her feel suffocated and unable to breathe.
• She rushed to the restroom and got consumed in sorrow, "Please lord, I won't be able to breathe if he dies.”
• A few moments later, she tried to get herself together and looked in the mirror, "I never wanted it to get to this extent but right now my husband needs a reason to live, I guess I have to do it, I am out of options, this is the only way.” She took a deep breath and remembered the memories he had together before the incident.
• As long as he is alive, there is hope,
• she will rekindle his hope of living.