Chapter 393 Will You Marry Me?

Chapter 393 Will You Marry Me?

When Caspian returned to the hospital, it was already dark.

He came to Coralie's room. Coralie was still lying there quietly, just as when he'd left, showing no signs of waking up.

Caspian sat down in the chair beside the bed, took Coralie's cold hand, and said wearily, "Something happened to Harriet, did you know?"

"Everyone says the Romanov family has power and influence, but what's the use? As her brother, I can't suffer in her place, and I can't help her either."

"Coralie, I've never felt as useless as I do right now. I can't make you wake up, I can't make Harriet wake up, and I can't protect our child."

"Coralie, why were you so foolish? Why did you rush out to protect me? I should have been the one hit. You and the baby should have been fine."

"Coralie, wake up. As long as you wake up, I'll give you whatever you want. Haven't you always wanted to marry me? I'll agree to it. We'll get married, and I'll never bully you again. Just wake up, and I'll do anything you ask."

On the bed, Coralie's fingertips suddenly moved. Tears slid down from the corners of her eyes, and then she slowly opened them.

She moved her lips with difficulty, "What happened to Harriet?"

Caspian's head shot up, almost thinking he'd seen wrong. "Coralie, you're awake?"

"Harriet..."

"Don't talk yet, I'll get the doctor!"

The medical team rushed over and examined Coralie. "Mr. Romanov, Ms. Walker's body shows no abnormalities. She just needs to rest well for a while and she'll recover."

Caspian breathed a sigh of relief. "Good, take good care of her. Nothing can go wrong."

"Don't worry, Mr. Romanov."

After the doctors left, Caspian had the servants bring food.

A servant fed Coralie half a bowl of porridge.

After the servant left, Coralie asked urgently, "What happened to Harriet?"

"To break the curse on her body, Harriet took a highly poisonous new spell, fighting poison with poison," Caspian said honestly. "Ms. Smith said she coughed up a lot of blood on the spot, then fell into a coma."

"How could this happen!"

"She was under too much pressure and wanted to solve this too badly," Caspian said. "Especially after what happened to you. With her intelligence, it wasn't hard to guess that Griffin was behind what happened to me. She must feel that you fell into a coma and lost a life because of her."

"How can she blame herself for this?" Coralie immediately tried to get up. "I need to see her!"

"Your body hasn't recovered yet. You need to rest in bed." Caspian pushed her back down. "Besides, Harriet is in a coma right now. You going there won't help. Your health is what she cares about most. If you get better, she can have peace of mind."

Only then did Coralie stop insisting. "Okay, I'll get better as soon as possible, then go see her."

After a moment of silence, Caspian said, "You woke up because you heard what I said, didn't you?"

Coralie didn't deny it. "These past days, I could hear you all talking. I really wanted to wake up, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't open my eyes. Just now, maybe I was too worried when I heard about Harriet. I don't know how, but I was suddenly able to open my eyes."

Caspian looked at her. "So you heard everything I said."

"What do you mean?"

"I said... I'm willing to marry you."

Coralie's face showed no extra emotion. She just said softly, "Caspian, the most important thing right now is Harriet. Let's talk about everything else after she wakes up safely."

"Okay." Caspian readily agreed. "We'll talk about it later."

Days passed, and soon it was late autumn.

Harriet had been in a coma for over two months. During that time, she was transferred to the hospital after suddenly coughing up blood and had been through several emergency resuscitations.

She lay quietly in bed without an oxygen mask, looking as if she were asleep.

Tristan stayed by Harriet's side day and night, never leaving the hospital. Even when he slept at night, the slightest sound would wake him from the sofa, afraid of missing any movement from Harriet.

In the afternoon, Tristan wiped Harriet's body and dressed her.

"Honey, it's autumn now. I had Iris bring your favorite blanket. It's covering you right now."

"I know staying here isn't as comfortable as home, but you haven't been behaving lately. You've needed resuscitation so often, it scared me to death. For safety's sake, it's better to stay at the hospital."

"But I've replaced everything in the room that could be replaced. Can you feel it?"

"Do you smell the osmanthus? It's from that tree in our backyard. I had someone bring a few branches over."

"Oh, and Coralie has been discharged. Her body is recovering well. Your mom is taking good care of her. She says Coralie has no lasting effects. Although she lost the baby, it won't affect her getting pregnant again in the future."

"Harriet, I know you're sad about our unborn nephew. He was your family, but because Griffin was taking revenge on us, he couldn't come safely into this world."

"But honey, no one blames you. I'm begging you not to take all the responsibility on yourself."

"In Coralie's words, this was the child's fate. She and the baby didn't have enough of a connection. She says if anyone's to blame, it's herself."

"Harriet, what happened has happened. Let's not dwell on regrets we can't change. Wake up, and we'll look forward together."

"Don't you really want to settle things with Griffin? I've got Griffin under control now. When you wake up, you can go settle things with him."

"Harriet, you wouldn't bear to leave me and our daughter, would you?"

Tristan held her hand and kissed it. "I haven't watched the video you left. I don't want to see your last words. I want you to wake up and talk to me yourself."

"Harriet, we still have so much more to say to each other."

Late at night, Tristan was woken by a sound!

He opened his eyes suddenly and turned his head to find the monitor by Harriet's bed was beeping!

"Harriet!" Tristan immediately got up. Doctors rushed in and quickly began resuscitation.

Tristan stood at the foot of the bed, anxiously watching Harriet. He couldn't do anything but silently pray.

But no matter how hard the doctors tried, Harriet's condition kept getting worse, until the rising and falling line on the monitor became a flat line.

Tristan felt his head buzzing, his headache so intense it felt like it would split open!

"Mr. Lancaster, I'm sorry," the doctor came forward. "We did everything we could."

"Harriet!" Tristan's eyes flew open, only to realize he'd been dreaming!

He breathed a secret sigh of relief and got up to smoke a cigarette, when he suddenly noticed the hospital bed was empty!

"Harriet?" Tristan's heart lurched violently. He quickly got up and rushed to the bathroom, but there was no one there.

Tristan completely panicked and opened the door to search outside. "Harriet... Harriet!"

This floor only had Harriet as a patient, and it was the middle of the night. The silence around him was terrifying.

His frantic voice echoed down the corridor.

Tristan felt everything spinning before his eyes. He braced himself against the wall with one hand to barely stay standing.

Just as he was about to grab his phone, he suddenly heard a gentle voice beside him, "Tristan?"

Tristan froze, slowly turned around, and saw Harriet standing behind him in a hospital gown, holding an ice cream cone.

Tristan strode forward in a few quick steps and pulled her into his arms, holding her tight.

"Harriet..." Tristan's voice trembled slightly. "I'm not dreaming again, am I?"

"Of course not." Harriet leaned against him, feeling his strong heartbeat. "Tristan, I'm fine. I just woke up and saw you sleeping, so I didn't wake you. I went next door to see Mom. She examined me. I was going to come back to sleep, but I suddenly really wanted something sweet, so I went to buy ice cream. Let go of me first, the ice cream is melting!"

Tristan released her, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. "How can you eat ice cream right after waking up?"

"I'll just have two bites."

"Go back and lie down. I'll have the doctor come examine you."

"Okay."

At daybreak, everyone received the news that Harriet had woken up, and learned that there were no more signs of the curse on her body.

Ondine wasn't reassured and went to find Tamsin.

When Tamsin heard the news, her face turned white as paper inch by inch, then she burst into loud laughter. "She actually succeeded? Sure enough, even heaven is on her side! Heaven! Why do you favor her!"

Ondine asked, "What should we do about the secondary curse on Tristan?"

Tamsin wiped the tears from her face, pulled at the corners of her mouth, and said, "Once the primary curse is removed, the secondary curse will naturally disappear. There's no need to do anything about it."

Only then did Ondine breathe a sigh of relief.

She had just turned to leave when she heard Tamsin speak, "What are they planning to do with me? Will they kill me?"

"I don't know, but you need to understand that whatever you end up facing is your own choice."

Harriet stayed in the hospital for a week before finally being discharged and going home.

Coralie was waiting for her at home. As soon as they met, she came forward and hugged her.

"Harriet, you're finally back safe!"

"Coralie, I'm sorry." Harriet choked up. "I got you and your child caught up in this."

Coralie shook her head hard. "Losing the baby was my fault. I didn't choose to protect him. If anyone's to blame, it's me."

"But you protected Caspian." Harriet's tears fell. "If not for your protection, Caspian would have died. Coralie, thank you."

"That was my choice. You don't need to thank me." Coralie sniffed. "All of that is in the past now. Let's not talk about it anymore."

"Okay."

After lunch, Harriet brought Coralie to her study.

"Harriet, you have something to tell me, right?"

Harriet nodded. "How are things between you and Caspian lately?"

Coralie answered honestly, "Caspian seems different toward me than before."

"After people experience life and death, they always gain some understanding. Caspian is just late to realize how deep your feelings for him are." Harriet looked at her. "Coralie, Caspian wronged you in the past, but once someone like him wakes up to it, he'll definitely make it up to you. Of course, how to move forward is your choice."

"Harriet, I understand what you mean." Coralie curved her lips slightly. "These past days, I've been thinking about how to move forward too. I won't run away. I'll go find Caspian and talk things through with him face to face."

"Good. Whatever decision you make, I support you. We'll always be family."

"Yes."

Caspian was in a meeting when he received the phone call.

He interrupted the meeting, got up and headed out while instructing Elijah, "I'm going to see Coralie. Cancel all this afternoon's work."

Elijah couldn't help but be shocked. It took him a long time to come back to his senses. "Yes."

Caspian had never paid much attention to Coralie. This was the first time he'd dropped work to see her.

When Caspian arrived at the beach, Coralie was already there.

She wore a light-colored trench coat with her long hair down, her manner as gentle and quiet as always.

Caspian came to her side. "It's windy here. Why did you come here?"

Coralie smiled. "Caspian, there's something you might not know. This is where I first fell for you."

"We've been here before?" Caspian frowned. "I don't remember."

"That year, I was fifteen. Yvonne insisted on dragging me here to swim, and we ran into a rip current. I almost got swept away by the water. You happened to come pick up Yvonne and jumped in to save me."

Caspian thought carefully and vaguely remembered something like that.

"Although I grew up with you, before that, I only saw you as someone to look up to, because in my eyes, you always seemed to shine. But that day when you pulled me out of the sea, my feelings for you suddenly seemed to change." Coralie laughed self-mockingly. "Maybe every girl at that age when love first blooms can't resist someone like you, especially when you're my savior."

"Coralie, I'm sorry." Caspian said in a low voice. "All these years, I've neglected you."

Coralie shook her head gently. "You don't need to apologize to me. Between us, no one has ever owed the other anything."

"In the past, I liked you, but you didn't like me. That was your freedom. If anything, I was the one who morally pressured you without meaning to."

"I knew you didn't like me, but I didn't refuse Grandpa's arrangement. I forced myself to stay by your side and caused you a lot of trouble. If anyone should apologize, it should be me."

"Coralie..." Caspian had just started when Coralie interrupted him. "Caspian, let me finish first."

"I know that because I rushed out to save you without hesitation, you were moved. Maybe you thought about all the little things I've done for you over the years and felt you owed me."

"That day you told me you were willing to marry me. I did hear it. These past days, I've thought about it over and over. To say I wasn't tempted would be a lie. After all, I loved you for so many years. Marrying you was once my dream."

Caspian turned to look at her. "So are you willing to marry me?"