linda Linton looked at him gently.
The sunlight outside the floor-to-ceiling window shone on her face, making her complexion look better. Or perhaps seeing Mr. Thornton brought a hint of life to her long-pale face.
She said, "I’m doing well, Annie is very promising and very filial. She bought a big house and brought to the city. It’s just that my health is not very good; I’ve had two heart surgeries."
Quentin Thorne nodded with red eyes: "Your attending doctor has told . The most important thing for you now is to rest well. Your body will recover quickly. You must never go back to the village to farm again!"
linda Linton followed his advice: "I understand, Mr. Thornton."
The conversation hit a montary silence.
linda Linton was always reticent. When they were in love, Quentin Thorne was always the one teaching her things. Now, with Quentin Thorne’s emotional turmoil and silent contemplation, she too fell silent.
They sat mutely for a while, and Quentin Thorne composed himself and said, "linda, I’ve co today mainly to tell you two things."
linda Linton looked at him tenderly: "Go ahead."
Quentin Thorne’s eyes remained red.
He organized his words: "Back then, after I returned to the city, sothing happened to my family. By the ti I could co back to Wrayhaven to find you, half a year had already passed. I went to your ho, learned that you were turned out by your parents, and started looking for you from nearby villages, but..."
The ever-calm linda Linton finally shed tears at this mont. Yet even in tears, she only wiped them quietly, not daring to cry aloud.
She had developed this habit over the past thirty years.
When she slept next to Felix Raines, even when thinking of Quentin Thorne at night, she dared not cry aloud, often biting the quilt and weeping silently. Over ti, this silent crying beca habitual to her.
At this mont, her tears completely shattered the emotions Quentin Thorne had managed to stabilize.
Quentin Thorne suddenly stood up, moved to the bedside, and held her in his arms. But he simply hugged her, keeping his hands properly, daring not to overstep any boundary.
Holding linda Linton, he wept and repented: "I’m sorry, linda, I’ve wronged you. I’ve wronged you for a lifeti, and if there’s another life, I, Quentin Thorne, am willing to be your servant, to repay the suffering you’ve endured for ... linda, I’m sorry... so sorry..."
The linda Linton trembling in his arms, yet still silent.
He sensed sothing was wrong, released her from his arms, and looked down.
linda Linton’s lower lip was bloody.
To keep from crying aloud, she bit her lip hard!
Yet her tightly clenched hands were shaking, just like her body.
Quentin Thorne quickly let go of her, helped her to lie down on the bed, tucked her in after, and strode to open the door, stopping Auntie King who was sweeping outside: "Do you have a dical kit?"
Auntie King was startled and ran towards linda Linton’s bedroom: "Linton? Linton?"
Seeing linda Linton’s bleeding lip, Auntie King hurriedly went to the fridge for ice, then returned to linda Linton’s room and took out the dical kit, intending to treat her lip wound, only to have the kit suddenly taken by Quentin Thorne.
Quentin Thorne said coldly: "Please leave, I’ll handle it."
Auntie King was dumbstruck, uttering two "oh"s before coming to her senses: "Wait! Who exactly are you? How could you let Linton get hurt?" Saying which, she rushed to grab the dical kit.
Quentin Thorne raised the kit high, saying sternly: "I’m Lawyer Thornton’s father."
Auntie King: "..."
She quietly retreated, even closing the door.
Quentin Thorne sat by the bedside, opened the dical kit, first disinfected linda Linton’s lip wound with an iodophor swab, then wrapped ice in antibacterial gauze, gently pressed it on her lower lip to reduce swelling and bleeding.
His actions were gentle and tender, patient throughout, continuously comforting linda Linton with the world’s gentlest voice.
Once linda Linton stopped crying, he finally asked: "linda, do you resent ?"
linda Linton shook her head gently: "It wasn’t your fault, I don’t bla you."
"But after I couldn’t find you, I got married. You don’t bla for that either?"
"I know you must have had your reasons, I trust you."
Everyone longs for understanding and trust. In thirty years with Ian Grant, Quentin Thorne never found understanding, while with linda Linton, he gained it effortlessly.
He had made her life unbearably bitter, yet she understood and trusted him. Trust is a precious thing; thirty years with Ian Grant, he had never attained trust, to the point he forgot what it felt like to be trusted.
Quentin Thorne felt his whole being relaxed, the regret and guilt buried for thirty years seed redeed at this mont.
.
Fifteen minutes later, linda Linton’s lip finally stopped bleeding, Quentin Thorne removed the ice and carefully applied ointnt with an iodophor swab.
"In the future, if you cry, cry loudly, don’t hold back anymore, it will hurt yourself, the harm to your body is great." Like scolding little linda for past mistakes, he explained to her while applying dication.
linda Linton obediently nodded, without refuting anything.
Once the wound was treated, Quentin Thorne returned to his chair: "I want Annie to change to my surna, join the Thorne Family Registry, do you agree?"
linda Linton didn’t hesitate: "I agree. Annie is your child, she should bear your surna. I was too foolish back then, recorded her surna wrong without knowing."
Recalling linda Linton’s accent, Quentin Thorne chuckled: "It’s been over thirty years, you still say my surna wrong. Just now when I ca in, you still called ’Mr. Thornton’."
"Sorry... Mr.... Professor Thorne!" linda Linton corrected her pronunciation with difficulty.
Quentin Thorne laughed: "Alright, you got it right this ti, the teacher won’t punish you."
They chatted for a while, linda Linton hesitated for a long ti before cautiously asking: "What does your wife do for work?"
Quentin Thorne said: "She worked at a bank when she was younger. After having children, she wasn’t satisfied with my mother’s way of taking care of the child, so she retired early from the office to concentrate on household chores and childcare."
He dared not say after Mina Thorne started school, Ian Grant mainly mixed with a group of wealthy ladies, regularly either playing mahjong or spending ti at the beauty salon.
However, even if Quentin Thorne had indeed described Ian Grant’s comfortable lifestyle, soone like linda Linton wouldn’t harbor envy. She was so pure and good-natured that even when her things were taken away, she hardly showed any temper.
Yet Quentin Thorne, in his youth, liked this purity in her. She made him feel needed, made him feel like the world to her.
The more he liked linda Linton’s purity in his youth, the more he ca to dislike Ian Grant’s opposite character later.
After sitting for a while longer, Quentin Thorne saw that ti was running late, and got up to leave.
He stepped forward, tucked linda Linton’s quilt lightly, and softly instructed: "linda, take good care of yourself. Our daughter is old enough to marry; you must take care of yourself well to help care for the grandchildren in the future."
"Alright."
With a response, Quentin Thorne, leaning over, stood up, deeply looking at linda Linton montarily, then turned to leave, yet was held back by linda Linton tugging at his wrist.
He turned back.
Only to see linda Linton pleading with a tangled expression: "Professor Thorne, can you promise one thing?"
He chuckled, gently patting her hand back to encourage: "Alright, I’ll promise you. Speak slowly, no need to rush."
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