Chapter 68 Children Can’t Be Without A Father
The situation right now, no matter if he drove her away or she took the initiative to leave, seemed hard to handle.
Why would she even want to stay there and be subjected to humiliation. She just didn't dare to disobey due to strong pressure from him.
Thinking this, Riley smiled slightly, looking worn out, "Me? Doesn't matter. I just want the selection process go by smoothly. They say that when you are frustrated in your love life, you find happiness in the workplace. I hope this is true." William smiled, his expressions relaxing, "I didn't expect you to be so open-minded. Someone else in your place might have cried and made a screaming match out of it. You take it so natural, it is surprising."
Riley had already gotten up to leave, "No need to compliment me for this. I am really grateful to you for helping me with my thesis. I will go now."
William also stood up with her, "Since you are on vacation right now, can we have lunch together?"
Lunch? Under the current circumstances, she had no appetite and no intention to have lunch with him, "Maybe some other day, Mr. Hardesty. Please take your time, I am just leaving by myself."
William was about to walk towards her when her words made him stop in his tracks. In the end, he still managed to say the words that were on the tip of his tongue, "Dr. Watson, I hope you won't call me Mr. Hardesty in the future."
He wanted to hear her call his name, he knew that it was too much for him to ask her to call him William, but it would be grateful even if she added Hardesty.
Riley lifted her small black bag, hung it on her shoulder and said with a smile, "I expect you to be promoted Mr.Hardesty."
She joked even though knew what he actually meant.
However, how could she just go along with what he meant?
What surprised Riley was that Euan never came back in the next few days after Lydia moved in, and she had no idea what he was busy with.
Lydia woke up every morning on the same time, spread out a yoga mat in the large living room on the first floor and did yoga while blasting her soothing piano music on the loudest volume possible. The whole villa felt at unease with the noise. Riley worked on her paper day and night and already slept very late every night; the loud music made her unable to sleep well in the mornings.
"Is it necessary to tell the world that you are doing yoga every time? How can others sleep when the music is so loud in the morning?"
Finally, she couldn't help it. She lifted the quilt off herself, put on her slippers and stormed towards the living room. Her room was on the first floor too. She walked through the long corridor and entered the living room to see Lydia spread out in an extremely weird posture on the yoga mat wearing workout clothes that exposed her navel.
Riley had to admit that her figure, which was just like a celebrity's, was pretty good.
Lydia sneered, "Who others? It's so late, only you are still sleeping. Oh right, by others you meant you... because you will soon be an outsider."
Riley hadn't been able to sleep very well and she felt dizzy. She rubbed her temples, "Lydia, do you enjoy being so loud and annoying? Euan and I are not getting divorced. At best, you are a pretty bird in a golden cage."
Lydia changed her posture, folded her hands together and took a deep breath, "That is still better than you. You are just bound together with him by a piece of paper. You are just an ugly crow!"
Riley still had the sense to not respond and go back. Jodie said to her with a smile, "Young lady, you didn't get enough sleep, come, I made soup for you. It will calm your nerves."
Riley was moved by Jodie's attempt to resolve the situation.
Lydia got up and said hurriedly, "Jodie, what did you call her just now? Young lady? Call her by her name in the future! I am the Young Lady of the house. I, pregnant with Euan's child, I am the Young Lady!"
Jodie did not directly refuse or agree. After serving the George family for many years, she knew very well how intense were the internal fights of a rich family. She still vividly remembered an incident that had happened in the George family around twenty years ago like it was yesterday. She smiled politely, "Miss Lydia, I can't make a mistake. No matter the status or identity, even Mrs. George is here, she will also guide me to do so."
Lydia gritted her teeth. She was waiting to be married to Euan so she could kick all of these wretched creatures out of the house!
Riley sat down in the dining room and smiled lightly, "Thank you, Jodie."
Riley, who usually didn't talk much and never smiled, unexpectedly smiled today. She looked very beautiful when she smiled.
"You're welcome, Young Lady. Please have some soup."
Smash!
Lydia picked up the soup bowl and threw it on the ground with a resounding smash. The soup was splashed all over the floor as the white porcelain bowl broke into pieces, making a mess of porcelain shards and soup on the floor.
"Riley, I am warning you! Look at your situation clearly, this is just the beginning."
Pleased with herself, Lydia folded her arms, thinking that in this battle of status and identity she had the chance to win.
Riley didn't care about her attitude at all, "Lilah, come and clean this up."
The end of that month seemed to arrive in the blink of an eye.
With that month ending, the summer officially kicked off. Spring had passed and the flowers were flourishing beautifully in the garden. The only regret was that there were so many kinds of rare and precious flowers in the garden but there wasn't any cape jasmine. Riley's thesis was finally successfully published after being revised three or four times.
Around the same time, her arm also recovered and she told the hospital she would be going back to work.
As for Euan, there was still no news.
There had been no phone call or any message from him.
It was not surprising for Riley. After three years of neglect, there had been some ups and downs in their feelings for some time due to some things, it was still impossible to turn it into a long-term stable relationship.
He didn't care about her, didn't think about her, of course, he wasn't going to tell her where he was going.
Riley didn't know that when she would return to the hospital after such a long time, she would be greeted with gossip and scandals that had been silent for a long time.
"She is really Euan George's lover. It's confirmed, he personally flew a helicopter to the AIDS village to pick her up. Such a show off!"
"What's more, someone recently took pictures of her living in YJ Villa! Think about it, only celebrities and politicians live there, if it weren't for Euan, would she be able to live there?"
"Ah, so when she said she was talking leave to heal... she actually... hahaha!"
There was no end to it! All of this was exposed again.
However, just like the butterfly effect, the gossip, which she thought was pretty boring, brought serious consequences with it.
It somehow became directly connected to her job evaluation.
Riley received the notice and went to the dean's office. As soon as she entered, she saw several departmental heads sitting inside including William.
The Dean, Boris, sighed and shook his head while holding her resume.
"Mr. Houston, why was my selection result disqualified?"
Boris pushed his glasses further up his nose and said regretfully, "Dr. Watson, I know that your skills and abilities are inferior to no one. You absolutely meet the selection criteria... but... the professor must serve as a role model for others. The professors in our hospital must lead our graduate and post graduate students towards success... so the reputation of the professors is very important."
His meaning was obvious. She was now considered notorious, and had been labeled with many horrible words like lover, mistress etc. Of course, the hospital and the school, both had problems with it.
She didn't try to fight for herself, nor did she try to explain forcefully. Any try on her part to clear her name was only going to further smear it with slanders. She just thanked them politely and left the office.
Walking towards the balcony, her footsteps were dull. She had been terribly unlucky recently; how come everything went wrong?
William's warm aura came from behind. The stifling hot summer wind blew on his face but his fragrance stayed clean and fresh.
"Sorry, I couldn't be of any help."
His apology softly made her feel guilty.
"It was not your responsibility. I am very grateful for all the help you have given me." She responded tiredly, feeling mentally and physically exhausted.
William wanted to say something more, but she didn't want to listen, "Mr. Hardesty, I want to be by myself, please."
Her voice was cold and deep, showing the bitterness of her heart.
"Okay... If there's anything I can help with, just tell me."
He was worried about her being alone, but he couldn't dare to ignore her wish.
Riley sorted out her mood as quickly as possible and returned to the office in ten minutes.
When Serena and Margot heard about the disqualification, they felt very bad for her and tried to cheer her up, "Dr. Watson, don't be sad. Have faith, your hard work will definitely be rewarded someday!"
"It's just so odd that... that Moriah Curry next door was selected to be a professor even with those abilities. she will definitely mislead all the students with her skills."
"Dr. Watson is the real trump card. She is the best doctor!"
Riley squeezed out a smile, "Don't console me, I'm fine! Ok? I have a lot of work and I have no time to think about all this."
Indeed, she did not have any time to immerse herself in grief because a second later the internal alarm in the emergency room rang.
"The patient is a five-year old girl who accidentally fell from a building causing bleeding in the heart! She needs emergency treatment!"
Riley didn't care about internal medicine and surgery, she just picked up the stethoscope and ran over quickly. The pale little girl was lying in the stretcher with an oxygen mask covering most of her face.
"Dr. Watson, the patient's heartbeat has dropped suddenly! Blood pressure is unstable!"
Riley held the little girl's face with both her hands and called her softly, "Can you hear me?"
Tears fell down the girl's face... She couldn't make a sound; she could only shed tears.
"The patient is still conscious; the situation is not the worst."
"Sweety, don't be afraid. We will treat you immediately and you will be fine once you wake up. Don't be afraid, be a good girl, okay?"
Riley lowered her voice and said, "Internal bleeding is accompanied by a ruptured valve. Arrange for immediate surgery!"
Just as the stretcher was about to be pushed away, the little girl suddenly grabbed one of Riley's fingers with all her remaining power. Riley was shocked by how strong her hold was and patted her hair, "Don't be afraid. When you will wake up, I will be by your side." The little girl let go of her hand.
The operation lasted for a long time and Riley was able keep her promise. After the girl was sent to the recovery ward, Riley checked the approximate recovery time. Then, she put down the medical record in her hand and walked over to see her.
The girl's mother was already there sobbing quietly, unable to cry loudly. She was relieved to see Riley walk over.
She held Riley's hand in gratitude, thanking her again and again.
"It's our duty, please don't be like this. Plus, I didn't even perform the surgery. If you want to thank then you should thank the doctor who did the surgery."
"No matter what happened, my daughter is alive thanks to you! Thank you, Doctor! Thank you so much!"
Riley checked the girl's postoperative condition. She was doing very well.
After a while, the girl woke up. She breathed weakly and her heart still hurt.
She grabbed Riley's finger and smiled weakly, "I thought... you won't come to see me... just like... when dad left..."
Her father had left her and her mother a few years ago. There was no news of him since then. The little girl had seen a familiar figure from the balcony and thought it was her father, so she had jumped directly...00000☐☐☐☐☐☐☐