Mia Grant gazed at Ian Sinclair, only one thought in her mind—
’Why is he such a crybaby now?’
’He cries even more than I do.’
After a long moment, Mia Grant sighed. "A couple more days won’t make a difference."
"You can come with me next week."
"...Okay."
Ian Sinclair didn’t understand how someone who had been perfectly fine could suddenly end up like this.
But Felix Sinclair had said it wasn’t entirely without warning.
She’d had symptoms of coughing up blood before, but for some reason, it had never been diagnosed back then.
The silver lining, however, was that it was still curable in the early stages.
It wasn’t too late.
But hearing this did little to cheer Ian Sinclair up. He forced himself to pull his emotions together and went to pick Mia Grant up from class.
He was tense the entire way, stealing glances at her profile, wanting to speak but stopping himself several times.
He had never had to hold back with such difficulty before.
In the end, he couldn’t hold back any longer.
The puppy-like boy wore a strained expression, trying to hold back tears. The sight made Mia Grant’s heart ache with warmth.
She patted his head and said with a smile, "Alright, that’s enough. If you keep this up, you’re going to make me cry too."
"I’m not crying." The boy turned his head away, hiding his reddened eyes. "It’s just my allergies."
Mia Grant didn’t call him out on it. "You should go home."
"Will you be okay staying in your dorm tonight? What if you feel sick..."
"Come to my place?"
he pleaded.
Mia Grant thought for a moment, then shook her head. "My brother is probably coming over later."
Ian Sinclair frowned instinctively, but then he remembered that she seemed to listen to Silas Grant. ’What if Silas convinces her to go to the hospital now...?’
At that thought, he reluctantly let go of her hand, pinning his hopes on Silas Grant.
"Then I’ll come find you tomorrow. I got your class schedule, so I’ll go to class with you. I’ve already taken time off from work anyway, so I have nothing else to do."
Mia Grant was helpless against him. The puppy was so clingy. She nodded in resignation. "Alright, alright."
"What do you want for breakfast tomorrow? If you can’t get up, just skip class."
"I’ll eat anything. Something simple is fine."
Ian Sinclair agreed.
After seeing Ian Sinclair off, Mia Grant didn’t go back to her dorm. She entered the elevator, then walked out again a moment later.
Ian Sinclair was already gone.
She walked down the steps and found a nearby bench to sit on.
Placing her backpack beside her, she fished out her phone to check her messages.
At the top was a message from Silas Grant, sent while she was in class—
[Landing in Jynsia at 5:30. I’ll pick you up for dinner.]
Mia Grant had snuck a quick "Okay" back during class.
Checking the time now, Silas Grant should have already landed and be on his way to Jynsia U.
She backed out of the conversation and saw a message Kian Keller had sent earlier that morning.
It was a list of recommendations.
From hospitals and doctors to the overall environment.
He said he could take her abroad for treatment.
Mia Grant had only given it a quick glance at the time and hadn’t replied.
Her mind was a mess, and she didn’t know what to say.
Now that she had a quiet moment, she opened the chat and typed: [No, thank you. Let’s just stay in Jynsia.]
[I’m a bit tired. I don’t want the hassle.]
[Okay.] Kian Keller replied instantly. [This medical team will arrive in Jynsia this week. They will coordinate with the doctors at the Hughes Corp’s private hospital.]
Of course, Kian Keller hadn’t just been waiting around. He knew her silence was a refusal, so he’d simply changed his approach.
Mia Grant stared at his message for a moment, stunned. [Thank you.]
Kian Keller didn’t reply.
Putting her phone away, Mia Grant carefully tried to sense the changes in her body.
Compared to yesterday’s anxiety and unease, she felt much calmer now.
’This is the reality now, anyway. It is what it is, whether I accept it or not.’
While waiting for Silas Grant, she idly started a chat with the system to pass the time.
She made a bit of small talk, but really, she was just listening to the system do all the talking.
It told her little stories about the previous world that she didn’t yet know.
The system told a few, but Mia Grant’s reaction was lukewarm; she didn’t seem very interested.
It also noticed that Mia Grant’s spirits had been low for the past couple of days, so it tried to actively lift her mood.
[I just remembered, you asked me about Yates Donovan’s ring last time. There’s actually a bit more to that story.]
Mia Grant raised an eyebrow, feigning an expression of rapt attention.
[He actually... got married.]
"..."
Just as expected, the system saw Mia Grant’s emotional value spike violently before quickly returning to calm.
"Oh." She nodded lightly, saying nothing more.
The system was taken aback. [Aren’t you shocked?]
"Shocked?"
Mia Grant laughed. "Why would I be shocked?"
She misunderstood the system’s intent and explained earnestly, "Everyone has their own life. No matter how much he liked me, I was already gone. Of course he has the right to get married and start a new life."
"People can’t stay trapped in the past forever."
The system was silent for a long moment before saying, [He didn’t get a marriage license. He just held a wedding ceremony.]
Mia Grant just kept nodding.
[You also know the other person in the wedding.]
Mia Grant’s eyelashes trembled slightly. "Serena Grant?"
"Oh, wait, she’s dead."
[It was you!]
"...Didn’t I die too?" Mia Grant froze, as if she had just heard a very bad joke.
[That’s why he could only hold a wedding ceremony.]
Mia Grant’s pupils contracted. She suddenly remembered that when she had reconnected with Yates Donovan in this world, he’d already had a plan to dig up her grave.
’Marrying a dead person... that’s exactly the kind of thing Yates Donovan would do.’
[But the wedding day didn’t go smoothly. Silas Grant brought people to stop the farce. Still, in Yates Donovan’s mind, you were already his lawfully wedded wife.]
[Later, he even wanted to move your grave to the Donovan Family’s plot. Silas Grant got into more than a few fights with him over it.]
[His life was very hard after that. Kian Keller was also giving him trouble. If it weren’t for his search for you, he might not have made it through at one point.]
[Maybe it’s karma. After all, affection that comes too late is cheaper than dirt.] The system also held some resentment toward Yates Donovan.
Because, in the end, the entire situation was single-handedly caused by Yates Donovan.
It was Yates Donovan who had imprisoned Mia Grant, which, by a strange twist of fate, led to the failure of the mission in the previous world.
And it was Yates Donovan who had controlled it.
No matter how you looked at it, the system hated Yates Donovan and sympathized with Mia Grant.
But after so much time, the hatred wasn’t as strong as it once was. It had been replaced mostly by a sense of melancholy regret.
Hearing this, Mia Grant couldn’t help but chuckle. It was the first time she had ever heard the system bad-mouth a male lead.
After a long pause, the system asked cautiously, [Now that you’ve remembered almost everything... do you hate him?]
Mia Grant tilted her head. "Did he ask you to ask me that?"
The system’s silence was an admission.
Mia Grant shook her head. "To me, all of that might as well have happened in a past life. I don’t see the point in wasting my emotions on something so long ago."
"I’ve actually thought about it. Whether I had stayed in the last world or returned safely to my original one, neither would have been easier for me than my life is now."
If I had returned to my original world, I would have continued to live a lonely existence.
If I had stayed in the last world, maybe I would have been happy, but it was full of uncertainty.
This is better.
I gained my freedom without losing myself, and I’ve also received so much affection that I never had before.
Mia Grant thought that while she might not be so lucky right now, she was, without a doubt, happy.