Lance heard this and looked over in confusion, asking, "Why?"
"Julia is pregnant. She doesn't plan to keep the baby and is going for surgery tomorrow. I'm worried about her, so I want to be there with her."
Deanna didn't hide anything from Lance.
Talking about this, she felt she should be blamed.
If she hadn't encouraged Julia to attend the social gathering, Julia wouldn't have had that accident with Mr. Grant!
She also blamed herself for not following up earlier, thinking it wasn't her place to meddle in matters of the heart. Otherwise, the two wouldn't be in this situation now.
Lance didn't know Deanna's thoughts but seeing her guilty expression, he frowned deeply.
"What exactly happened?"
"Julia didn't tell me the details. I only know the baby is Mr. Grant's. They probably got together on the night of the social event."
Deanna shared what she knew and then blamed herself, "I actually noticed something odd between them at first, but I didn't expect this to happen. I thought Mr. Grant was interested in Julia, which is why he asked me for her contact information."
Seeing the guilty Deanna in front of him, Lance pulled her into his arms, gently patting her back to ease her emotions.
"Don't overthink it. This isn't your fault. You just wanted to help your friend find love. What happens at a party is unpredictable and uncontrollable. Besides, they are adults and capable of handling their actions. Although I didn't talk much with your friend today, I noticed she has come to terms with it. So, you don't need to worry too much. Otherwise, you'll constantly remind your friend of what happened."
Lance comforted Deanna and analyzed Julia's thoughts for her.
Deanna felt there was some truth to his words.
She nodded lightly but couldn't help regretting, "No matter what, I wasn't attentive enough as a friend. You know, I only found out today that Julia likes Landon. If I had known earlier, I wouldn't have let her attend any social events and would have helped her pursue Landon directly. But Landon, that guy, I don't think he's good enough for Julia. He's been changing girlfriends frequently since childhood, one every day. Julia would definitely suffer if she were with him."
In the end, Deanna felt conflicted.
She didn't know how to help her friend find happiness.
Seeing Deanna slowly going off-topic, Lance raised an eyebrow and didn't know how to respond.
In the end, he gave up trying to reply and chuckled, "Alright, this is your friend's private matter. We shouldn't discuss it too much. It's getting late; you should rest early since you have to accompany your friend to the hospital tomorrow."
"You're right. I'll go rest now. You should finish up quickly and rest early too."
Deanna nodded at Lance's words and reminded him as well.
...
Early the next morning, after seeing off the kids and Lance, Deanna took Julia to the hospital.
On the way, Julia was very silent, her expression tense and fearful.
Deanna saw her hands trembling slightly on her abdomen and reached out to hold them, comforting her, "Don't be afraid. I'm here with you."
Julia turned to look at her and pretended to be strong, "I'm not afraid. It's just a minor surgery. Besides, I have you, my miracle-working friend. What do I have to fear?"
But her smile looked forced no matter how you saw it.
"Julia, if you don't want to smile, then don't. Do you know how ugly your forced smile looks?"
Deanna directly exposed Julia's fake smile.
Julia looked at her and pouted, muttering, "Is it really that bad?"
"Do you want me to get a mirror for you?"
Deanna didn't coddle her and spoke bluntly.
Hearing this, Julia felt frustrated, "Forget it. I don't want to see myself looking ugly."
After saying that, she turned her head to look out the window, her forced smile fading away.
Suddenly, a soft voice came from her mouth.
"Deanna, under what circumstances did you decide to give birth to Gregory and Chloe?"
"Me?"
Deanna was a bit surprised that her friend would ask such a question.
She recalled the situation back then and said softly, "You know that during that time, my mother chose to commit suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning because of my scandal. I felt like my world had collapsed. My closest person chose to leave me in such a way. After that, I only had my grandmother left. But my grandmother said I wasn't alone; I had my children too. Although we didn't know who their father was, they were still lives and had half of my blood. So they were also my closest family. That's why I decided to give birth to them."
At the end of her words, Deanna looked up at her friend, hesitating to speak further.
She really wanted to persuade her friend to let go of Landon. Landon was someone who could be a friend or a buddy but definitely not a suitable lover.
But she thought it was ultimately her friend's private matter and not something she should interfere with too much. Besides, when it comes to matters of the heart, no amount of advice from others would help; only the person involved knows best.
So all she could do was stand by her friend's side unwaveringly no matter what happened.