Chapter 228 If You Can't See It, Pretend It Didn't Happen
After Cordelia ended her call with Deborah, she walked toward the elevator while looking down at the data in her work group chat on her phone.
Evelyn and Bruce followed beside her. Once inside the elevator, Evelyn pressed the button for Cordelia's floor.
Cordelia was so absorbed in the data that she didn’t even notice when the elevator stopped at her floor.
"Cordelia, we're here."
Evelyn reminded her.
Cordelia nodded slightly, her mind still on Molly's test report.
Evelyn knew she was thinking about treatment plans, so she didn't disturb her. Only after seeing Cordelia to her room did she feel relieved.
"Didn't expect Cordelia to be such a workaholic." Bruce had a flattering smile on his face as he looked at Evelyn, waiting obediently outside Cordelia’s door.
Evelyn's gaze was calm as she glanced at him.
"Are you ready to sleep on the couch tonight?"
Bruce's expression froze. "You didn't forget?"
He thought Evelyn had already forgotten about it.
Evelyn raised an eyebrow slightly and said gently, "My flaw is that my memory’s too good."
Bruce quietly begged for mercy, trying hard to please Evelyn.
The elevator door opened, and Janet stood inside. When she saw Bruce and Evelyn, her expression changed, and she consciously moved to the corner.
Upon seeing this, Bruce said softly to Evelyn.
"Honey, let's wait for the next one."
Before he finished speaking, Evelyn had already stepped inside. She glanced at Janet and sneered.
"Why should I wait?"
Bruce said seriously, "I'm afraid some people's fakeness will disgust you."
Evelyn pulled her lips slightly, looking at Bruce with disbelief.
"I didn't know you'd learned the skill of identifying whether others are fake."
Bruce naturally put his hand on Evelyn's shoulder. "I learned it from my wife."
Evelyn smiled faintly, her mood lifting a bit.
"You're off the hook tonight."
Bruce's smile deepened. "Thank you, honey."
Evelyn acknowledged this, then added, "Since you've learned a new skill, you should teach it to your good friend too. Good things shouldn't be kept to yourself."
Bruce agreed readily.
The elevator stopped at Janet's floor.
Janet bit her lip tightly, practically pressed against the elevator wall as she walked out.
Throughout the whole process, she didn't even dare to look at Evelyn and Bruce.
No matter how Evelyn mocked her, she didn't dare make a sound.
Evelyn watched Janet walk past them with her back hunched, a mocking glint in her eyes as she said it to Bruce beside her.
"Look at her."
Bruce immediately picked up the thread. "Honey, you don't need to pity her."
Evelyn glanced at Bruce standing beside her and said flatly, "My sympathy hasn't overflowed to that extent."
"I just can't understand, seeing her so pathetic like this. What exactly does Alaric like about her?"
"I can't understand it either." Bruce consistently stood on Evelyn's side.
Evelyn gave Bruce a cold look. "Don't think I don't know you guys used to treat Janet as the most beloved person in your friend group."
Bruce protested his innocence.
He and Janet were never that close.
In his memory, after Janet started dating Alaric, Alaric rarely brought Janet to their gatherings.
But he was busy being lovey-dovey with Evelyn during that time, in the heat of their romance, so he rarely hung out with Alaric either.
After Janet joined their friend group chat, Sebastian and Jack rarely spoke in the group.
Julian was the one who kept in touch with Janet the most.
So Janet was the most beloved person in their friend group?
That was pure slander. He didn't know who spread such rumors, but if he found out, he'd tear their mouths apart.
After Cordelia entered her room, she saved Molly's test report on her computer.
She reviewed each report from the first one down, comparing data and changes.
Only after having a clear understanding of Molly's condition in her mind did she go into the bathroom to wash up.
She lay in the bathtub, and from overusing her brain plus physical exhaustion, she leaned against the bath pillow and dozed off.
In the middle of the night, the water temperature dropped, and she woke up cold. Opening her eyes, she felt her head was heavy.
She dragged herself out of the bathtub with difficulty and dried her hair with a hairdryer in the room.
Having lain in the bathtub for so long, she felt dizzy. Worried she might catch a cold and get a fever tomorrow, Cordelia took out backup cold medicine from her bag and took it.
After taking the cold medicine, she got into bed and soon fell asleep.
Throughout the whole process, she barely glanced at her phone.
In the pavilion in the hotel's back garden, Alaric held his phone. He had called Cordelia earlier, but she didn't answer.
Then he sent her messages, but Cordelia didn't reply to those either. The chat window only showed the messages he had sent.
At 9:10 PM, he sent the first message.
"I'm waiting for you in the pavilion in the hotel's back garden. I have something I want to tell you."
At 9:30 PM, he sent the second one.
"I want to talk to you about the bracelet."
At 10:00 PM, he sent the third message.
"Cordelia, come down and meet me, okay?"
At midnight:.
"I didn't give the bracelet to Janet. It was meant for you from the start. The sketch Janet took wasn't the final version."
At 1:00 AM.
"Cordelia, you haven't replied to any of my messages. Do you not want to see me?"
This was the last message Alaric sent to Cordelia.
It was now 2:00 AM. After hesitating, Alaric dialed Cordelia's number again.
But it indicated the phone was off.
When he made the first call, Cordelia's phone wasn't off. Now it showed as off, which was clearly Cordelia's doing.
She never replied to his messages or answered his calls. Her attitude was clear-she didn't want to see him.
Alaric gripped his phone tightly, sitting in the pavilion in a daze for a long time.
Robert waited outside the pavilion. His feet had gone numb from standing.
Ravenshollow had a big temperature difference between day and night. When a gust of wind blew, Robert felt his legs were both numb and cold.
Alaric sat motionless in the pavilion holding his phone. Robert even wondered if Alaric had frozen stiff.
He called out softly.
"Mr. Hughes."
Alaric was pulled back from his thoughts by Robert's voice.
Perhaps the taste of being silently rejected was too painful. He clicked on the messages in the chat window, wanting to recall all the messages he had sent to Cordelia.
But because too much time had passed since he sent the messages to Cordelia, they couldn't be recalled at all.
"How do you recall messages once the time limit’s passed?"
Alaric in the pavilion suddenly spoke. Robert's brain couldn't quite process this for a moment, and he hesitantly replied.
"Maybe just delete the messages and pretend they were never sent?"
Alaric shot him a sharp look, but Robert still felt his answer was perfectly reasonable.
As long as you can't see them yourself, it's like they were never sent.