Chapter 21: Chapter 21: You Have to Make a Scene, Don’t You?

Fresh from her shower, Noelle Sutton leaned over the desk and began to draw on a piece of fabric.

The fabric would fray after being cut, and since she didn’t have her own sizing tools, she had gone directly to a professional at the fabric market to have it starched.

Fortunately, she had often done paper-cutting crafts with Joshua Lawson over the past few years, so she wasn’t completely out of practice.

Her movements were fluid as she drew.

Perhaps because she had fainted from motion sickness that morning and ended up in the hospital, she wasn’t feeling her best today.

There was a faint ache in her abdomen.

When she was first diagnosed with cancer, she hadn’t believed it. She felt perfectly normal most of the time and had never experienced any pain.

The one time she had a stomachache so bad she went to the hospital, they had found the cancer.

’Life is truly unpredictable.’

The doctor had said that by the time the pain started, the situation would be very serious.

And so, ever since the diagnosis, she felt the pain often.

Noelle stood up and took a few pills. After the pain subsided a little, she went back to her work.

「About ten minutes later.」

DING.

Someone pushed open the door to her room.

She turned her head. Tristan Lawson was already striding in.

Her pupils contracted, and her brow furrowed.

Tristan entered, his face an icy mask.

His dark eyes swept over her desk.

Noelle lowered her head, ignoring him, and continued drawing on the fabric.

Tristan’s eyes were cold, his handsome features utterly indifferent.

’He came all this way to find me, and she won’t even greet me.’

A moment later, he lit a cigarette.

Noelle caught the faint scent of agarwood. Her hand faltered for a second before resuming its normal rhythm.

Tristan leaned against the side, and after a moment, he said coolly, "How long do you plan on running away from home?"

His voice was deep and rich, with a low rasp that was surprisingly pleasant to the ear.

Noelle kept her head down.

The bedroom was so quiet that the only sound was the soft SCRITCH of the pencil moving across the fabric.

Seeing her unresponsiveness, Tristan irritably stubbed out his half-finished cigarette in the ashtray. He snatched the pencil from her hand, tossed it onto the desk, and grabbed her chin, forcing her to face him.

"You just have to cause a scene, don’t you?"

Noelle’s expression was placid, but her beautiful eyes were veiled with a sheen of moisture.

Tristan’s heart clenched slightly.

After a moment, he released her jaw.

"I asked Grandpa about the marriage certificate. It had nothing to do with you."

He pulled a velvet box containing a ring from his suit pocket.

He took out the pigeon’s-egg diamond inside, pulled Noelle’s hand toward him, and slid the ring onto her ring finger.

The diamond sparkled with a mesmerizing light...

Noelle’s mind drifted to the past. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

With his family background, talent, and looks, he possessed an innate, noble arrogance.

He was on a pedestal.

Untouchable.

She could never forget that late night when she was sixteen.

In the twilight, the halo of a streetlight cast him in a glow, making him look like a god.

Before a terrified Noelle could even react, he had already beaten the thugs surrounding her to a pulp and sent them scrambling away.

He took off his trench coat and walked toward Noelle.

He had stormed into her world.

From that moment on, Noelle could never look away from him.

She had foolishly thought that if she spent her entire life trying, she could one day find a way into his heart.

But alas...

His heart had long been occupied by someone else.

If Tristan had given her a diamond ring on any other day in the past seven years, she would have been ecstatic beyond words.

But now, she no longer needed it.

Just as she was about to take off the ring, Tristan picked up her phone.

His long fingers danced across the screen. A moment later, he handed the phone to her.

"Try it. This ring can produce sound, too."

Noelle looked at the page on her phone screen. It was the same software interface that Wyatt Yates had helped her download the other night.

She froze for a moment.

Tristan pressed the phone into her hand, then bent down to gather the fabric from the desk and stuff it into a suitcase.

She stood up and pressed her hand down on his.

She signed, "I’m not going back."

Tristan’s expression immediately darkened, his face tight with anger. "I came to bring you home myself. What more do you want?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Tristan’s phone rang.

He pulled his phone from his suit pocket. Seeing it was a call from Sophie Hughes, he answered immediately.

"I’m Sophie Hughes’s attending physician. Is this Tristan Lawson?"

The voice on the other end was urgent.

Tristan’s brow furrowed instantly. "What’s wrong with Sophie?"

"Miss Hughes just had a fall. Her wound reopened, and she’s lost a lot of blood. The supply you arranged for last time isn’t enough. Could I trouble you to arrange for another bag of blood?"

"Understood. I’ll arrange it right away."

Tristan hung up and immediately made another call.

He was already rushing out the door.

A moment later, the door closed.

Completely cutting Noelle off from his sight.

The sound of the door closing pulled Noelle back to reality.

She looked down at the ring on her finger.

She took it off.

And placed it in the box Tristan had left behind.

She felt utterly ridiculous.

That was the first time Tristan had ever spoken softly to her.

’For a second, I almost thought he was serious.’

’I almost thought he bought me a sound-emitting diamond ring because he minded that another man had given me a sound-emitting necklace.’

She took the fabric back out and, lowering her head, resumed drawing.

On the way, Tristan arranged for an emergency blood delivery.

By the time he arrived at the hospital, Sophie Hughes was already out of the emergency room.

She looked extremely weak.

Tristan sat by the bed and immediately took her hand, his tone gentle and concerned. "How did you fall?"

"I was going to the restroom and my foot slipped. Tristan, I’m so useless. I’m always causing you trouble."

Sophie had a guilty expression on her face.

Tristan looked at her re-bandaged wound and asked in a trembling voice, "Does it hurt?"

Sophie bit her lip as tears instantly welled up in her eyes.

She nodded gently.

Tristan reached out and wiped her tears away. "It’s my fault. I should have come to take care of you sooner. I’m not going back tonight. I’ll stay here with you."

"Noelle is back now. If you don’t go home, will she be angry?"

Tristan had just made a special trip to pick Noelle up and even gave her a ring, only for her to give him a sour look. He said irritably, "Let her."

’It seems Tristan still cares more about me,’ Sophie thought, a warmth spreading through her heart.

"Tristan, you can’t always be so cold to Noelle. A woman’s heart is fragile. You’ll hurt her feelings this way."

"Hurt?" Tristan scoffed. He’d never seen her hurt. "She won’t be. Let’s not talk about her. Are you hungry? I’ll go get you something to eat."

...

The next morning, Noelle returned to Westhill Villa with the ring.

Mrs. Miller was overjoyed to see her return.

"Ma’am, last night when Mr. Lawson found out you’d left, he went right out to look for you. He didn’t come back all night. Was he with you the whole time?"

Mrs. Miller was beaming.

But Noelle’s expression froze.