CEO Ex-Husband, Don't Bother Me-Chapter 89 - 87: Fatal Misunderstanding 6

Joy sat quietly on the sofa, playing by herself. Sean Donovan walked over, picked her up, and carried her to the piano in the living room, saying softly,

"Joy, come on. Let’s play some piano!"

The moment she was seated at the piano, a bright light sparked in Joy’s normally calm, large eyes. She sat obediently on his lap, her small hands reaching out to dance across the keys alongside his fingertips. Though she was far too young to recognize a single note, every sound she played was miraculously in tune. Anyone with a musical ear listening closely would discover that she was, in fact, composing a beautiful, original melody.

Sean Donovan had discovered her extraordinary talent by chance. He had taken Joy and Anna to a Western-style restaurant for dinner, and a pianist was playing an elegant piece nearby. He noticed her staring at the musician, her big eyes unblinking.

For a little girl so quiet and withdrawn, such a display of joyful focus was nothing short of incredible. After that, he made a point of buying her a piano, and discovered that she truly did have a gift for it.

He was an accomplished musician himself. He had once loved music and planned to make it his life, but for the sake of the Donovan Hospital, he had no choice but to study pharmacology and take over its management. His first dream had actually been to become a musician.

Hearing the beautiful piano music drifting from the living room, the woman busy in the kitchen couldn’t help but smile faintly. Perhaps the past had been so bitter that now, even a small, simple moment of happiness like this was enough to make her feel completely content.

She had prepared a simple, home-cooked meal: a soup with dried shrimp, kelp, and tofu, along with a few other dishes. Since Sean Donovan loved spicy food, she had added plenty of chili peppers to two of them. The three of them ate quietly at the dining table. Sean clearly relished the meal, and when they were finished, he didn’t forget to praise her culinary skills.

"Anna, your cooking is still the best. You’ve completely captured my heart—and my stomach. What am I supposed to do? It just makes me want to marry you all the sooner."

"Stop with the sweet talk and eat your dinner!"

She chided Sean with a smile, but her mind drifted to the man she’d seen today—that most familiar of strangers. ’That man... he never once said my cooking was good. He never showed me any of his emotions at all.’

Snapping back to the present, she refused to dwell on the past for even a second longer. She looked at Sean and began hesitantly,

"By the way, Sean, there’s something I need to tell you..."

Sean looked at her, gesturing with his eyes for her to continue. She said,

"I took Joy to Mercy Hospital today..."

Everyone knew Mercy Hospital was the arch-rival of Donovan Hospital. Mercy Hospital had seemingly sprung up overnight, capturing over half of Wincastle’s medical market in just a few short years. No one knew who founded it or what its background was, though rumors claimed it was funded by someone with ties to the criminal underworld. However, treatment there was said to be very affordable, and the doctors were highly skilled. This put a great deal of pressure on the profit-driven Donovan Hospital.

Until now, Joy’s condition had always been handled by specialists at Donovan Hospital, but the result was always the same. As a mother, how could she resign herself to the reality that her daughter had autism? So, refusing to give up, she had taken Joy to Mercy Hospital. Since the two hospitals were arch-rivals, she felt she owed Sean an apology.

"I just felt we shouldn’t be limited to one hospital. I wanted to visit a few more to get different opinions on treatment!"

Sean, however, didn’t seem to have a strong reaction. He simply looked at her apologetic face and smiled.

"Anna, there’s nothing to apologize for. What you did is completely understandable. But what did the doctors over there say?"

She recalled the phone call she’d gotten just as she was getting out of the car, and her mood brightened as she smiled.

"They said to come back tomorrow. The hospital director wants to examine Joy personally!"

Sean Donovan raised an eyebrow.

"The director is examining her personally? That’s fantastic. I’ve heard the director of Mercy Hospital is incredibly skilled. Do you want me to go with you tomorrow?"

"No, that’s okay. You just got back from a business trip and must have a lot to do. Besides, I’m off tomorrow, so I can just take her myself."

Sean Donovan nodded.

After dinner, Sean Donovan volunteered to clean up while she went to give Joy a bath and put her to bed. Joy was always very good. Ever since Sean had discovered her love for music, Anna had taken to playing piano or violin pieces for her at bedtime. Joy would always listen with rapt attention before quietly drifting off to sleep.

When she came out of the bedroom, Sean had already cleaned everything immaculately. He stood up to leave as she emerged, so she grabbed a jacket to see him out. Because Sean had a bad foot, the apartments he bought were always on the ground floor, this one included. Once they were out of the building, she saw his driver was already waiting. He stood there, hands tucked in his overcoat pockets, lingering for a moment as he looked at her with a smile in his eyes.

"Anna, now that you’ve accepted my proposal, don’t you think I deserve a farewell kiss or something?"

Her face instantly flushed red. After all, the two of them had never done anything more intimate than occasionally holding hands. Seeing her reaction, Sean chuckled softly, then reached up and gently ruffled her hair.

"Did that startle you? All right, my mistake. You should get back inside. I’m heading out!"

With that, Sean turned and got into the car. She gave him a slightly awkward wave, watching his car disappear into the darkness before she finally turned and went inside.

’Sean Donovan? Julian Donovan?’

’It seemed she was fated to be entangled with the Donovan name in this life.’

In the middle of the night, she was jolted awake by a nightmare. She had dreamed she was back at the shipwreck, three years ago.

On the day of the press conference, Tyson had gotten her out. Because she didn’t want Julian Donovan to track her down, Tyson had put her on a smuggling ship. She had felt safe, since this was something Tyson and his people did regularly, and he had found a supposedly reliable vessel.

At first, the boat sailed smoothly. But shortly after leaving port, the weather turned violent. The sky over the sea changed in an instant as a storm swept in. The captain was an experienced seaman and tried to reassure the passengers while directing the helmsman through the squall. But just as they had navigated past a whirlpool, a massive wave, meters high, crashed down on them head-on, capsizing the boat in an instant.

Amidst the terrified screams, she was plunged with everyone else into the icy seawater. Panic washed over her, as crushing as the ocean itself. She thought of Dylan’s sweet face and swam frantically toward a piece of wreckage. Soon, the only sounds were the screams and sobs of the others from the boat, surrounded by a vast, cold darkness. Her strength gradually gave out.

"Dylan... Dylan..."

She called Dylan’s name over and over as darkness claimed her vision and she sank beneath the waves.

In her last moments of consciousness, she had one thought: If there was a next life, if she could live all over again, she would never, ever fall in love with the man named Julian Donovan. Never, ever would she commit the foolish act of loving one person so stupidly again.

The moment she sank to the bottom of the sea in her dream, she jolted awake, shooting up in bed and crying out in terror,

"Dylan...!"

The darkness around her and the chill of the autumn night left her disoriented, making her think for a moment that she was still in that freezing ocean from three years ago. She wrapped her arms around herself and shivered. Beside her, Joy stirred restlessly, likely disturbed by her shout. Only then did Anna realize where she was. She raised a hand to her forehead and found it slick with cold sweat. Gasping for breath, she got out of bed, poured a glass of water, and drank it down in large gulps, feeling the terror in her heart finally begin to subside.

When she opened her eyes again after sinking into that sunless abyss, she found herself looking at the face of an unfamiliar man inside a clean ship’s cabin. Seeing her awake, a flicker of joy passed through the man’s handsome, dark eyes.

"You’re awake?"

She lay there, her eyes darting about in a daze as she took in her surroundings.

"Where am I?"

She had thought she was dead. ’But this place is so clean, and this man... he seems so kind. Could I be in heaven?’