Standing before Love

Matthias felt disappointed after hearing Heather’s question. It turned out that to Heather, his love for her wasn’t genuine. Since Heather thought of him as such, there was nothing else he would like to say either.

“Heather, it seems that I’ve overestimated myself,” Matthias said with a cold smile. He had overestimated Heather’s feelings toward him.

Should he have known that Heather’s feelings toward him were merely mediocre, he wouldn’t have kept having wishful thoughts. Staring at Heather, Matthias felt like he barely knew her.

Heather remained silent as she could perceive the disappointment in Matthias’ gaze. In fact, she was extremely disappointed in herself too. She felt as if she had been messing up her own life since a long time ago.

“If you insist that Leon will be able to bring you happiness, I wish you all the best in the future.” Matthias solemnly gave up. Since Heather had already driven him into a corner, there was no point for him to continue persisting anymore.

There was a slight change in Heather’s expression, but it quickly faded. Rendered speechless, she, too, thought it was sarcastic after hearing Matthias’ words. Seeing Matthias leave, Heather felt like she was never going to see him again. The door was closed with a bang before Matthias disappeared from her sight.

While walking along the corridor, Matthias bumped into Leon and gave him a cold stare. He knew Leon had nothing to do with this matter, and he had no right to blame him for this.

On the other hand, Leon forgot to greet him as he was taken aback by Matthias’ cold eye contact. As they brushed past each other, Leon felt uneasy being stared at by Matthias. When he turned around to look at Matthias, the latter was walking in the opposite direction in wide strides, and it was daunting to look at his upright figure.

This must’ve got to do with Heather. Leon opened the ward door carefully to find that Heather had already gotten out of the bed, so he quickly walked up to her as he was worried that she was throwing a tantrum again.

“Why did you get up, Heather?” Leon felt as if Heather didn’t acknowledge herself as a patient, so no wonder Matthias had to ‘educate’ her earlier on.

“I’m feeling much better. So why can’t I get up?” Heather refuted. She was in a bad mood currently, so she naturally wouldn’t speak kindly.

“A patient should stay in the bed and have more rest, Heather,” Leon said in dissatisfaction. At this moment, he wished Matthias was around because he was the only one who could control Heather.

“Who says a patient should always stay in bed. Patients need to do adequate exercises too. You can get even sicker by lying in bed the whole day,” Heather continued to rebuke Leon, having known some basic medical knowledge.

“Fine, fine. Whatever you say.” Leon didn’t intend to continue arguing with her.

Sure enough, Heather had a dominant personality but not Leon, so he would rather let Heather do as she pleased. From this perspective, Leon had always been doing a better job than Matthias because the latter would only insist on whatever he thought was right and would never compromise.

“What were you doing outside? What took you so long to come back?” Heather directed the topic toward Leon. She had been waiting for him to come back in and resolve the awkward situation, but he had been running away all the time.

“Nothing.” Leon smiled guiltily. Truth was, he was too bored in the corridor earlier, so he accosted one of the good-looking nurses. Leon liked pretty girls and he would never deliberately shy away from them. That was who he was, but this didn’t hinder him from having a secret crush on Heather.

“I want to be discharged as soon as possible. Please help me rush the doctor.” If it wasn’t that Heather was feeling weak, she would have gone to talk to the doctor on her own.

“Heather, the doctor has said that you can only be discharged after the examination reports are released.” This time, Leon didn’t go along with Heather. He couldn’t possibly allow her to be this willful.

“I don’t want to go for examinations anymore. The basic ones we did yesterday are enough. The examinations arranged by the doctor for today are unnecessary.” Heather didn’t want to waste more time in the hospital as she still had a lot of matters to attend to.

“You have to listen to the doctor, Heather,” Leon insisted. It was better to have Matthias around under the current situation because Leon was so used to submitting to Heather he couldn’t bring himself to go against her at all.

“You guys are annoying,” Heather said subconsciously as she was reminded of Matthias. She felt her heart squeezed. She thought Matthias would insist on staying just now, but little did she expect that he would just simply turn away and leave. The more Heather thought Matthias had not loved her as much as she had imagined, the more agonized she was.

Despite already making up her mind to marry Leon, deep down, she was actually hoping for something else. No matter what it was, she was yearning for Matthias to fight for her. Just then, she recalled the day when Matthias was at Myra’s wedding, she could tell a lot of emotions were hidden in his eyes.

That day, Heather thought that Matthias would do something––in the end, he didn’t. At this thought, she realized Matthias wasn’t that courageous either when it came to relationships. He turned into a coward at the most crucial point of time. Heather thought Matthias would change this time, but it seemed like she had overestimated Matthias and his feelings toward her.

“Heather, did you chase Matthias away?” Leon asked in curiosity while taking the opportunity to change the topic.

However, Heather became even more agitated when she heard that. “He left on his own,” she enunciated each word slowly. Truth was, she was still disappointed at Matthias’ reaction just now.

“Heather, Matthias is actually a nice person. It’s unfair to him for you to hurt him repeatedly like this,” Leon said in all fairness. Although he would occasionally deem Matthias as a love rival, he had a good impression of him most of the time.

“Is this why you refuse to marry me?” Now that there were only ones in the room, Heather brought up the topic from yesterday again.

Leon looked at Heather in resignation. “Take a seat first, Heather. Let’s sit down and talk.” He felt rather weird to keep standing.

With that, Heather sat on the bed while Leon sat on the seat which Matthias previously sat on. Facing each other, both of them were able to observe each other’s expressions clearly.

“Heather, to marry you in this lifetime is my greatest wish of all. However, I do not wish to see you compromise. Everyone could tell that you’re in love with Matthias. You should only marry someone whom you love.” It was very rare for Leon to be this serious. Unlike his usual cheeky manner, he said these words sincerely.

What he said was a principle that everyone understood. Heather had always taken marriage seriously but she had no choice this time around.

“Loving someone doesn’t mean that you must marry them,” Heather said nonchalantly. “There’s a saying that women should marry the one who loves her more.” Of course Heather couldn’t tell Leon the true reason. Nonetheless, she couldn’t possibly tell him that he was the one whom she actually loved either because such a lie was too obvious.

“Heather, that saying existed because women were regarded as a vulnerable group. Do you think you’re an incapable and vulnerable woman?” Leon refuted Heather reasonably this time. He wouldn’t buy those nonsense sayings. Just because everyone believed so didn’t mean that it was right.

“I am, and I yearn to obtain happiness. Marriage and love are different. I can’t possibly chase after love all the time because only marriage is the ultimate attribution for a woman.” Heather attempted to use the old cliché to persuade herself.

“I don’t believe this is something you would say, Heather.” Looking at Heather, Leon felt like she was a stranger.

“Perhaps you just don’t understand me.” Heather smiled faintly, thinking that maintaining formalities while living a life with Leon in the future didn’t seem that bad after all.

“Heather, I’m not sure why exactly you said these to me, but I can tell you firmly that I love you, so I hope you can go love who you love too. Besides, I won’t be able to provide you the happiness you’re seeking for. You’ll only be truly happy being together with someone you love.” Leon rejected her resolutely. Last night, he was still tossing and turning in the bed as he couldn’t make up his mind, but today, his decision was a firm no.

Heather stared at Leon in disbelief as this outcome was out of her expectation and plans. It turned out that loving someone didn’t mean that one wouldn’t draw the line. In fact, Heather had witnessed Leon’s bottom line today.

“Even you are rejecting me.” Heather was disheartened. It seemed like she didn’t understand Leon enough.

“Heather, your proposal is indeed tempting, but you’ve mistaken one thing—when we enter into a marriage, I won’t be the one giving you happiness but in contrast, you’ll be the one giving me happiness. You have to know that if the happiness that I offer you is not something that you want, it can end up being a burden to you.” Leon understood love clearly. If two people were forcing themselves to settle for each other, the party who didn’t love his or her partner would suffer more.

Leon was rather certain that Heather wouldn’t fall for him in this lifetime, so he knew he wouldn’t be able to provide her happiness in their marriage. As such, he wouldn’t agree to marry her because he didn’t wish to become the one that brought agony to her in the future.

Heather was stirred up after hearing Leon’s words. It turned out that she indeed didn’t understand the essence of love. What Matthias said before this was true. She was too stupid, and her decision would only cause agony to all three of them.

“Perhaps you’re right.” Heather was persuaded by Leon. She shouldn’t display her filial piety toward Robert in such a way. She could have done it in many other different ways.

This time, Heather wanted to take the shortcut, which looked tempting at first, but it came with a big price––costing her future. There was no shortcut to success, as one should reap what he or she sowed.

“I’m glad that you’ve thought it through, Heather. Please stop bringing up the proposal. I’m afraid I won’t be able to resist the temptation.” Leon smiled brightly. He was nearly persuaded by Heather.

He had just pushed his happiness away that was presented right in front of him. As long as he agreed to marry Heather, he would be the happiest man in the world from then. However, he couldn’t be this selfish to build his happiness at the cost of her suffering. Sometimes, he reckoned Heather would have these ridiculous thoughts because she hadn’t stumbled and learned a lesson before.

Nevertheless, Leon couldn’t bear to let Heather experience it. He’d rather her not experience the sufferings, so he had been staying by her side and carefully protecting her, hoping that she would be happier.

“Will you get engaged with me then?” Heather wore a cunning smile. Since Leon had already made himself clear, an engagement didn’t sound like a bad idea.

“Not again, Heather.” Leon was speechless at her relentlessness.

“Don’t reject me so readily yet. Hear me out.” Heather was much more relieved at this moment. Since she still had some doubts toward Matthias, she would take it as giving a trial to him this time.