Chapter 40 Andrew's Intention

Clara followed Matthew into the hospital just after Andrew finished his meal.

Upon seeing them enter, his expression changed noticeably.

"Mr. Andrew, I've come to see you."

Upon hearing Clara's voice, Andrew's face lit up with a smile that gathered all the wrinkles together. "Good to see you finally. I was starting to think you'd given up on visiting me."

Andrew's slightly reproachful tone made Clara nervously touch her nose.

She hadn't really planned to come.

Meanwhile, Matthew sat silently beside them, feeling a pang of discomfort.

'Why does Grandpa act so cold as soon as I show up?' he wondered.

"Mr. Andrew, please don't get too worked up in the future. You're not getting any younger, and your health can't handle it." Clara, who always respected Andrew, naturally expressed concern for his well-being.

"Hey, getting old isn't easy."

Andrew sighed deeply, his gaze shifting between the two.

Just as he was about to broach the subject of reconciling the two, someone beat him to it.

"Mr. Andrew, there's no room for reconciliation between Matthew and me. I appreciate your care over these past three years, and if you need me elsewhere in the future, I'll do my best."

Clara interjected firmly, ignoring whatever expressions were on the faces of the others in the room, and maneuvered her wheelchair to leave.

Matthew frowned slightly, rising to go after Clara, but a sharp rebuke stopped him in his tracks.

"What good is it to fawn over her now? How did I end up with such a foolish grandson?"

Andrew's words were cutting, causing Matthew's mouth to twitch briefly. "If I were truly foolish, there would no smart person in the world."

The Garcia Group had made it this far under Matthew's decisive leadership.

Otherwise, it might still be lingering in the middle tier.

"Hmph, what good is your business acumen if you can't even keep your own wife?"

Andrew huffed, turning his head away in a display that resembled a sulking child.

Matthew had no response, remaining silent.

Click!

The hospital room door opened once more.

Andrew, expecting Clara to return with a smile, quickly restrained his expression upon seeing who was standing there, panting at the door.

"Why are you here?"

His tone was cold and distant, causing Lillian's heart to skip a beat.

Not oblivious to Andrew's change in demeanor, Lillian felt bitterness start to spread within her.

"Mr. Andrew, I heard you were awake, so I hurried over. How are you feeling now?"

Lillian put on a smile, pretending not to notice Andrew's look of distaste, and sat down beside Matthew.

Matthew lowered his gaze, furrowing his brows, and shifted away slightly.

"Yes," Andrew replied flatly.

Andrew didn't have any good impression to the Baker family. He then turned his attention to Matthew as if only the two of them were in the ward. "You need to go after Clara quickly. Besides her, no one else is worthy of being your wife."

There was an underlying implication in his words that caused a momentary crack in Lillian's composed expression.

Taking a deep breath, Lillian forced a smile. "But Mr. Andrew, Ms. Edwards has been seen with quite a few outstanding gentlemen lately. Matthew is so busy every day. Wouldn't this interfere with his work?"

"What interference?"

Andrew glanced at her. "As for you, isn't the Baker family about to return? Aren't you busy handling your own affairs rather than wasting time here?"

His words were sharp, leaving no room for sentiment.

Lillian's composure finally crumbled.

"I'll leave now and won't disturb you any longer," she said, slowly rising to her feet.

She had hoped that Andrew would at least offer a few words of consolation for the sake of the Baker family.

But neither of them even bothered to look her way.

A dark glint flashed through Lillian's eyes, and with a darkened expression, she left the ward.

As soon as Lillian reached the downstairs, she spotted a familiar figure.

Thinking of the humiliation she had just suffered in the ward, Lillian immediately quickened her pace, grabbing the woman by the hair and yanking hard.

"Hiss."

Clara, caught off guard, felt a sharp pain on her scalp and gasped.

Noticing the familiar clothes from the corner of her eye, her eyes darkened.

Quickly seizing Lillian's wrist as it was being pulled back, she exerted force and threw Lillian over her shoulder with a solid thud.

Thud!

The dull sound was followed by Lillian's cry of pain. "My back! Clara, what are you doing?"

She looked up to see the beautiful woman towering over her.

The chill in Clara's eyes made Lillian shiver involuntarily.

"What am I doing?"

Clara sneered, staring at her expressionlessly. "I'd like to ask what you're trying to do, Ms. Baker."

'Does she really think that because I'm supposedly incapacitated, I can't fight back?' she wondered.

"What did I do?"

Lillian roared as she stood up from the ground, noticing the disdainful glances from the surroundings, and tears fell down naturally. "If it weren't for you, my best friend Riley wouldn't have broken up with me, and Matthew wouldn't have left me either. You're a trouble-causing bitch, using your face to seduce men everywhere."

Mentioning the bitch and seducing men, several passing madams stopped in their tracks, edging closer to the two.

"I seduce men?"

Clara crossed her arms and chuckled as she settled back into her wheelchair. "Ms. Baker, are you implying I'm trying to seduce your man?"

Lillian's eyes flickered as she glanced around the room.

Not finding Matthew, she relaxed and adopted a look of reproach.

"It's you."

"Everyone! It's her, causing divorces and messing around with a man who's already engaged."

Lillian shouted loudly to the crowd, prompting the older women to join in condemning Clara.

The resentment that had been building up inside Lillian for so long was finally being unleashed.

"Well, look at this pretty little thing. Who would've thought she'd do something like that?"

"It's because of that beautiful face. That's why she went after a man."

"My husband was lured away by a bitch and left me. I have nowhere to vent."

The group gossiped.

Despite the security guard's efforts to keep the situation under control, the middle-aged women who were standing up for justice were difficult to restrain.

As they were about to take action against Clara, a tall figure cut through the crowd and lifted Clara in his arms.

"Dare to lay a hand on my wife, and I'll have you in the police station immediately."

Matthew's icy voice instantly quieted the heated crowd.

Clara's eyes darkened slightly. She didn't correct Matthew's words as she slowly turned her gaze toward Lillian, who was preparing to leave. "Matthew, since when did you become Ms. Baker's man?"

She deliberately raised her voice for everyone to hear.

Confusion crossed the faces of the women.

"What did you say, miss?" someone asked.

Clara sighed and leaned against Matthew's shoulder. "This is my husband in the legal sense. Ms. Baker has only recently returned home and already accuses me of stealing her man. I really have no defense..."