Chapter 124 That Night I Was Willing
"Elliot is sick, so I brought him here."
Scarlett felt a bit awkward facing Ramon.
Seeing how tense she was, Ramon didn't try to approach her.
"I've been trying to reach you these past few days to discuss James's hospital transfer, but I couldn't get through to your phone."
Scarlett pressed her lips together. "Ramon, I'm worried James can't handle the flight and the foreign environment, so I've decided to keep him here."
Ramon was taken aback. "But we already agreed on this. The Astoria lab is ready to receive the patient."
Scarlett shook her head firmly. "I won't trouble you anymore. I've made up my mind. I'm sorry."
She turned to leave, but Ramon frowned slightly and suddenly asked with a tightened voice as he watched her back.
"Scarlett, do you know something?"
Scarlett stopped in her tracks. Since Ramon brought it up, she wanted to get things clear too.
She turned around and stared at Ramon.
"Are you talking about your car accident four years ago, when your mother, Mrs. Meza, wanted to arrange our engagement? Or about how the Astoria medical facility was established by you out of your own pocket specifically for James?"
Her gaze was somewhat cold.
She wasn't stupid. It was obvious why Ramon did all this.
But she didn't feel honored by it. She just found it incomprehensible and felt offended and uncomfortable.
Ramon's expression showed a hint of panic, and he stepped forward.
Scarlett instinctively stepped back. She didn't even know how to view Ramon anymore.
Maybe throughout this past year, Ramon being James's attending physician was all calculated.
Ramon gave a bitter, self-mocking laugh. His Adam's apple bobbed slightly before he said helplessly.
"I've imagined confessing to you many times over the years, but I never thought it would be like this. This is terrible. I'm sorry."
He spread his hands, then said seriously.
"You might think we first met when you were a sophomore in high school and I was a senior—that misunderstanding. But actually, that wasn't our first meeting."
Scarlett was stunned. She tried hard to remember but couldn't recall when she had met him before that.
Seeing her confused expression, Ramon took out his phone, opened his Facebook profile picture, enlarged it, and handed it to Scarlett.
"Does this look familiar?"
Scarlett took it. His Facebook profile picture was of a little orange cat.
The kitten was being held in Ramon's large palm, looking very well-behaved.
This must be Ramon's cat, but Scarlett didn't know why he was asking her about it. Could this cat have some connection to her?
During Ramon's second year of high school, she should have still been in middle school.
Scarlett thought hard. Suddenly, she remembered something.
One year, she found a little orange cat with an injured leg in the school woods. She carried the kitten to the infirmary, but the doctor wasn't there. Instead, she met a senior from the high school division.
The senior helped her stitch up the kitten's wound and apply medicine. She named the kitten Mimi and temporarily housed it in a small cardboard box. She often went to feed Mimi.
Occasionally, she would run into the senior who also came to check on the cat. She really liked Mimi and wanted to take it home, but Blair didn't like pets, so she couldn't keep it.
Later, during a heavy rainstorm, Scarlett worried about Mimi. After school, she went to check on it with an umbrella and ran into that senior again.
By then, Mimi's cardboard house had collapsed, and the kitten looked miserable and pitiful. Scarlett begged the senior to adopt Mimi, and he agreed.
"This is... Mimi?"
"You still remember?" Ramon's lips curved up slightly.
Scarlett felt a bit embarrassed. She did remember, but she only remembered Mimi. Her memory of Ramon was completely blurry.
"When you were a high school sophomore, we both took dance lessons with Ms. Langley because I heard you wanted to learn dance from her, so I visited Ms. Langley ahead of time.
We were both students then. I didn't want to disturb you, so I kept my feelings buried in my heart. I thought that when you went to college, I would definitely confess my feelings and officially pursue you.
But I didn't expect that the year you took your college entrance exam, I got into a car accident first and lost feeling in both legs."
Ramon was a popular figure at school, admitted to Zenith Academy through recommendation. After Scarlett's first year of high school, he graduated and went abroad.
He had his car accident abroad, and no one at school knew about it.
Scarlett remembered how teachers and classmates often mentioned the brilliant Ramon back then.
When everyone thought he was thriving abroad, he was actually enduring the pain of disability. She felt somewhat wistful.
"You were very strong. You stood up again."
Ramon's smile remained gentle, as if the pain he'd experienced had become a distant memory.
"I was desperate and broken at the time. I even took sleeping pills in my depression. It was only after my mother almost lost me that time that she accidentally discovered my diary."
Ramon gazed at Scarlett. "She saw you as the hope for saving me. She came back to the country and went to The Wilson Mansion to discuss our engagement. After I found out, I talked to her and promised I would pull myself together, so she went to The Wilson Mansion to clear things up. But by then, you had already..."
Ramon didn't finish, but Scarlett understood. Ramon meant that by then, she had already been involved in that scandal with Daniel.
No matter when it was mentioned, she couldn't remain completely calm about that incident. Scarlett's face turned pale.
"My mother guessed that you might have done something foolish to escape the engagement with me. She felt very regretful, and I felt guilty too, so I never dared to contact you again."
Scarlett remembered that at first, she did occasionally receive greeting texts from Ramon, but they stopped later. However, it was normal for friends abroad to gradually drift apart, so she hadn't paid much attention to it.
"Later, I recovered from my leg injury and switched to studying medicine. When I returned from abroad, James had just had his accident. I wanted to make amends for what happened back then, so I became James's attending physician.
When I saw you, I wanted to apologize, but I found that you seemed unaware of the engagement between us. I couldn't figure out why, so I never mentioned it again and never revealed my identity these past two years."
After explaining, Ramon looked at Scarlett seriously and said apologetically.
"Scarlett, I'm sorry. I sincerely apologize for the offense back then and for my concealment. I don't expect you to forgive me, but I hope you can give me a chance to make amends.
The Astoria lab really is a great opportunity for James. I hope I can help you wake James up."
Scarlett shook her head. Ramon's face showed disappointment, but then he heard Scarlett say.
"I forgive you, so you don't have to do this. As for James, I can't accept your kindness. I'm sorry."
Scarlett didn't harbor much resentment toward Ramon, probably because she had a similar experience with unrequited love.
They both only dared to pour out their feelings and thoughts on paper in the dead of night and then seal them away.
Scarlett felt some empathy and understanding toward Ramon.
The person who drugged her wasn't from the Meza family either. What happened between her and Daniel that night probably had nothing to do with the engagement proposed by the Meza family.
Even though the Meza family's decision to arrange an engagement between Ramon and her was somewhat disrespectful, Ramon didn't know about it. And Ramon's dedication to James over the past year had long made up for it.
"You really don't blame me?" Ramon was pleasantly surprised.
Scarlett nodded with a smile. "It's good that we've cleared things up. You don't need to feel too guilty because..."
Scarlett looked at Ramon and said directly, "What happened back then had nothing to do with my engagement to you. I did it willingly."
Ramon's fingers clenched. He understood this was Scarlett's rejection of him.
She was saying that she willingly had relations with Daniel back then, that it had nothing to do with Ramon or their engagement.
She had rejected Ramon again, without any hesitation.
Ramon smiled bitterly. "Okay, I understand. My mother has always wanted to apologize to you in person..."
Before Ramon could finish, something suddenly jumped out from the flower bed, startling Scarlett. She swayed and started to fall to the side.
Ramon quickly caught her and steadied her. Scarlett, still shaken, said, "Thank you."
It was a mischievous stray cat that had climbed up a tree.
Scarlett looked up but noticed Ramon's gaze was fixed on her lower abdomen, where her hands were still tightly clasped.
"Does Mr. Wilson know you're pregnant?" Ramon suddenly asked.
Ramon had just seen Scarlett touching her abdomen and talking to herself, which made him suspicious.
Scarlett was shocked. "How did you..."
"I've seen too many pregnant women at the hospital. The way they protect their babies is exactly like what you're doing now. I guessed it."
Scarlett grabbed Ramon's arm. "He doesn't know. I hope you'll keep this secret for me."
Ramon's gaze was complicated. "But Scarlett, being a single mother is very hard, especially being a single mother alone abroad, far from home! Mr. Wilson doesn't seem like an irresponsible man. Maybe you two should talk things through properly. Impulsively going abroad to escape isn't the solution. The child needs a father too."
Scarlett didn't expect him to advise her too. She shook her head and withdrew her hand.
"I've already made up my mind, Ramon. I'd like to be alone for a while."
"Alright." Ramon didn't say anything more and turned to leave.
He had just reached the bottom of the inpatient building when he ran into Daniel, who was hurrying out.
Ramon and Daniel's eyes met, and Daniel walked toward him.
"She's in the garden," Ramon volunteered.
Daniel stared at him coldly. "You're being nosy."
Daniel was about to walk past Ramon when Ramon hesitated, then raised his hand to stop him.
Looking at the icy Daniel, Ramon said, "Mr. Wilson, instead of being randomly jealous and hostile toward men around Scarlett, you should pay more attention to Scarlett's health and give her more sense of security."
Daniel's eyes narrowed dangerously and coldly. "What do you mean by that?"