Chapter 170
Wouldn't it have a good ending?
Was Ella talking about him?
Joshua suddenly felt a sour, bitter feeling rise in his heart. Looking at Ella's attitude toward him, neither warm nor cold, it felt as though she was simply treating him like an ordinary friend.
He grew uneasy and asked in a low voice, "In your eyes, am I already getting what I deserve?"
Ella looked up at him, realizingthat her earlier words might have been a bit harsh. She wanted to deny it, but felt it was the truth.
If Joshua hadn't been so arrogant back then, if he hadn't tried to use his power to suppress her and take away her children, but had instead been honest with her, they might have been living happily together long ago.
Now even Dorian didn't want to acknowledge him. Wasn't this a kind of payback?
Ella didn't want to discuss these things with him. After finishing his massage, she prepared to leave.
"Aurora, come down. We're going home."
Aurora hugged Joshua's neck, unwilling to let go.
"Mommy, can we stay here and keep Daddy company? If we leave, Daddy will be all alone and so pitiful."
Ella felt helpless. "Your grandparents will come to keep him company soon, and the doctor will be with him too. Let's go."
She reached up and firmly picked Aurora up.
Aurora pouted, about to cry, and waved at Joshua, "Daddy, you need to take care of yourself and get better soon."
Joshua knew that Ella came to help him every day after work.
Ella was already working so hard, he didn't want to keep her and delay her rest time.
Hearing Aurora's soft voice, Joshua felt genuinely comforted and said gently, "Daddy will try hard to get better soon. Then Daddy can be with Aurora every day and take you to and from school. Go home with Mommy for now."
"Okay, bye, Daddy." Aurora waved her little hand and obediently left with Ella.
The mother and daughter had just left the hospital room when they ran into Mason, who was coming to see Joshua.
The siblings came face-to-face.
Although Mason had an injury on his back, he could still move around freely.
Thinking Joshua was next door, after getting his back injury treated, he came over to check on him.
He didn't expect to run into Ella.
When the siblings met again, the air instantly became tense.
Neither would give in to the other, both unwilling to acknowledge each other.
But Aurora spoke up with concern, "Uncle Mason, is your injury better? Does it hurt?"
Mason looked at the child, his heart couldn't help but soften.
His voice was quite gentle too, "I'm not in pain. Go home quickly, it'll be dark soon."
"Then can you keep Daddy company for me? Otherwise, Daddy will be so lonely here alone."
"Okay, I'll keep him company for you."
Mason unconsciously glanced at Ella.
But Ella didn't even look at him, taking Aurora's hand and brushing past him like he was a stranger.
This made Mason feel even more uncomfortable.
But what could he do?
Between them as siblings, there was already resentment and distance. They probably could never repair it.
Mason also pretended not to care and pushed open the door to the hospital room.
Seeing Joshua leaning against the headboard, looking much better, he spoke sarcastically, "You're really lucky, escaped death again."
If Ella hadn't been bringing the child here every day, he definitely wouldn't have woken up.
That he woke up was probably entirely because Ella and the child called him back.
This was Mason's first time visiting Joshua after he woke up.
Thinking of what Ella had just said, Joshua's expression wasn't good. He asked, "I heard you cheated during your marriage?"
Mason sat down nearby, knowing without thinking that Ella had said it.
He laughed quietly, meeting Joshua's gaze, "Didn't I learn that from you?"
Joshua's face fell, "What do you mean, learned from me? Mason, since you're married and have a child, why don't you treat them well? Why keep a mistress outside?"
His situation before was different from Mason's.
He hadn't known that Ella's two children were his.
And Scarlett was always acting pitiful in front of him.
He had been blind at the time, couldn't see anything clearly.
Mason sighed, "When you were married to Ella, weren't you always being ambiguous with Scarlett outside? Neither of us should laugh at the other, we're pretty much the same."
He just couldn't stop thinking about Scarlett.
When he met Opal and saw that her face looked almost identical to Scarlett's.
He couldn't control his emotions, so he took the initiative to get to know her, then gave her a car, a house, everything he wanted to give Scarlett.
But he was very clear that the person in his heart was Scarlett, not Opal.
So for the past year, no matter how good he was to Opal, he never touched her.
His family decided he was cheating during marriage. He didn't argue, it didn't matter anyway. He would get divorced.
"You're beyond help." Joshua was somewhat angry, clenching his fists. "If I could get up, I'd give you a beating."
He had recognized the mistakes he had made before.
And wanted to change.
When he got better, he would make it up to the children and Ella many times over.
But Mason knew that doing those things would destroy his family, yet he still followed his example.
"Come on." Mason mocked, "With those legs of yours, we'll see if you can even get up."
"And also, if you don't go back to the company soon, the Thomas Group will be completely divided up."
These three years, if it weren't for him and Brian, and Ella helping support the Thomas Group, it would have been finished long ago.
Having done this much, Mason felt he had done his best.
Joshua fell silent.
His gaze unconsciously looked at his own legs.
If Mason hadn't reminded him, he would have almost forgotten that his legs still had no feeling at all.
He stared at Mason, "Samuel said that as long as I don't give up and slowly recover, it shouldn't be long before I can walk."
Mason laughed again, "If you can get up and walk, that would be great. I'm just afraid that you might never be able to walk again in this lifetime."
Mason felt uncomfortable too. After provoking Joshua, he got up to leave.
Joshua didn't believe it.
He propped himself up and tried to move his legs.
But there was no feeling at all, he couldn't move them at all.
Could he really recover like this?
Were Samuel and Ella just saying positive things to comfort him?
Joshua suddenly felt a bit panicked, and his emotions became irritable.
Ella had just gotten home with the child when she received a call from Samuel.
On the phone, Samuel asked, "What did you say to Joshua when you came with the child just now? How come as soon as you left, Joshua went crazy insisting on getting out of bed? He even fell on the floor and still wouldn't give up."
Ella felt confused, "I didn't say anything."
"Then can you come back and check on him, talk some sense into him? Right now, he thinks I'm lying to him no matter what I say, and he won't cooperate with me at all."
Ella fell silent.
She suddenly thought of Mason.
When they left, hadn't Mason gone to Joshua's room?
Could Mason have said something to provoke him?
A grown man, how could he lose control just because someone said a few words?
Ella asked Vida to help watch the child, then turned around and went back to the hospital.
When she arrived, Joshua was still on the floor, not letting Samuel touch him, not letting his parents nearby either. He kept trying to get up over and over.
But his leg nerves were severely damaged. No matter how hard he tried, his lower body remained completely numb.
He was exhausted, covered in sweat, gasping for breath, but still trying.
It broke Ava's heart to watch. "Joshua, don't do this. You can get better with slow recovery."
"Yes Joshua, we definitely still have hope. Don't torture yourself like this."
Joshua wouldn't listen, still trying to stand up using the bed for support.
But repeated failures made him feel desperate. He looked at Samuel with dim eyes.
"Answer me honestly. Will these legs of mine never work again?"
He clearly remembered that both his legs had been shot.
Then he was thrown into the sea.
As for how he was rescued, he had no idea.
Thinking that he had been lying in a hospital bed for three years.
Three years to wake up, but his legs had no feeling. Then he really had no hope of getting better.
A man who couldn't even stand, what was the point of living?
Joshua's heart sank to the bottom.
Samuel came forward to help him up. "You need to cooperate with my treatment first. I used to think you'd never wake up either, but didn't you wake up? You have to believe that miracles can happen."
"I don't believe in miracles. I only believe in reality. If my legs can't get better, you might as well let me die quickly."
Joshua couldn't imagine a life in a wheelchair forever.
These past days, when Ella came to take care of him and help him with hygiene issues, he felt ashamed.
If he had to be taken care of for the rest of his life, he'd rather end this miserable existence sooner.
"Do you want to die that badly?" Ella strode forward, looking at Joshua coldly.
"Don't you want to make it up to Aurora and Dorian? Have you already forgotten what you promised Aurora just moments ago?"
If she had known he wanted to die so badly, she shouldn't have saved him in the first place.
She wasted three years coming here every day to take care of him.
If he died now, what would her three years of effort mean?
Joshua looked up, seeing Ella's face full of extreme disappointment in him. His heart was bleeding.
His voice was trembling too. "But my legs won't get better. What can a man who can't stand do?"
Even if he wanted to be good to the people around him, he was willing but unable.
He would even need people to take care of him.
This kind of life had no meaning.
"By your logic, should all wheelchair users in the world go die?"
"Should everyone with disabled legs go die?"
"Joshua, don't make excuses for your irresponsibility and weakness. If you want to die, none of us will stop you. It would be better if you died - save me from running here every day doing useless work."
Ella was somewhat angry.
She didn't have the patience to carefully coax Joshua.
He could choose what he wanted. Otherwise, she'd comfort him one moment, and he'd act up the next - who could stand that?
"Ella, how can you provoke him like this?" Ava couldn't listen anymore and spoke up to stop her.
Jasper quickly pulled Ava, signaling her not to interfere in the young people's business.
But Ava still felt sorry for Joshua and came forward crying to comfort him.
"Joshua, don't be like this. Think about Aurora. She looks forward to you getting better every day. If you give up on yourself, how heartbroken she'll be."
Joshua calmed down quite a bit.
Especially seeing Ella's face showing disappointment that he wasn't living up to expectations.
He suddenly felt his heart painfully wrenching, particularly uncomfortable.
He wanted to get better too.
But he simply couldn't get better.
A lifetime with a wheelchair - he couldn't even imagine that kind of life being taken care of.
He shed tears, his voice becoming hoarse. "I don't want to drag you all down."
Samuel said, "What do you mean drag us down? You have plenty of money. For money, I can do anything for you for the rest of my life."
"If you think Ella is too tired, you can give her money too, give her the company, give her everything she wants. Everyone gets what they need, and if you're good, we're all good."
Other people go bankrupt trying to get treatment when they're sick.
This guy just wants to die and be done with it.
This kind of irresponsible behavior actually coming from Joshua.
Samuel was quite disappointed in him.
Ava chimed in, "Yes Joshua, if you feel bad that Ella comes every day to help you wash and massage, give her money, give her company shares. Would that make you feel better?"
If Joshua didn't return to the company, it would collapse sooner or later.
Rather than dragging it out until the company was drained and divided up by those old board members, better to give it to Ella.
After all, these three years, she had seen what Ella had done for Joshua.
Joshua fell silent, looking at Ella.
Ella actually thought their suggestion was pretty good.
The company was currently working on a very large project that needed funding.
Meeting Joshua's gaze, she said matter-of-factly, "How about before you die, you give me all your money? I'll save it for the kids?"
Joshua was stumped.
Seeing Ella's indifference to whether he lived or died, it would be a lie to say his heart didn't hurt.
But since she wanted money, wanted his company, he would give it to her.
"Have Brian come over. I'll transfer my company shares to Ella."
Jasper pulled out his phone to call Brian.
Several people helped lift Joshua onto the bed together and covered him with a blanket to make him presentable.
Ella added, "Give me all your assets before you die. Don't worry, after taking your money and property, when you die, I'll give you a grand funeral."
She said it without changing expression, giving the impression she was hoping for Joshua to die.
Ava glanced at her, signaling her not to speak so heartlessly - what if Joshua really couldn't think straight and died?
Ella didn't care about that and continued, "These three years I've done so much for you, and gave birth to two children for you. It's only right I inherit your estate!"
The more Joshua listened, the more uncomfortable he felt.
Although he had no hope for his body.
He was a bit reluctant to leave Ella alone with two children.
That way she'd have to run the company while taking care of the kids - how exhausting would that be?
If he were around, at least he could help watch the children, and occasionally help Ella handle some work matters.
He suddenly didn't want to die anymore.
But he didn't want to tell them what he was thinking.
Looking at Ella, Joshua said, "Can you stay tonight? I have something I want to say to you alone."
Ella agreed, stepped forward and pulled over a chair to sit down.
Samuel and the others tactfully left with Jasper and Ava.