Seeing the sadness in her eyes, Shane decided not to ask anymore.
“He's dead.” Jared nodded.
Natalie shut her eyes. Subconsciously, tears began to flow. “When did this happen?”
“Ten minutes ago, he made a call to the police station. Next thing I know, he was gone,” Jared replied between
sobs.
Natalie hummed in acknowledgement. “I'll be right there.”
“Okay,” Jared answered.
She then put down her phone. Her head was lowered, and she seemed to be caving into her seat. Silently, tears
continued to stream down her face.
When Shane saw that, he undid his seat belt buckle and hers as well. Then, he pulled her into his arms and
comforted her. “Just cry it all out.”
“No, I won't. I hate him so much. Why should I cry over him?” Natalie said stubbornly as she wrapped her arms
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtaround Shane.
Hearing that, Shane chuckled softly. “All right, all right. Then, don't cry.”
Natalie kept silent, but her body was shaking terribly.
Shane knew that Natalie was overplaying her dismissive attitude toward Harrison's death.
Otherwise, she would not be crying.
In reality, she was hurt and upset by his death. After silently weeping for several minutes, Natalie felt slightly better.
She did not come out of Shane's arms. Instead, she shut her eyes and leaned against his chest. After a while, she
said, “I knew that he would die soon, but I didn't expect to still be shocked when it happened.”
“I know.” Shane patted her lightly on the back.
Natalie cleared her throat and continued, “I mentally prepared myself so long ago. Even if Harrison died, I told
myself I wouldn't be upset or sad. I definitely would not cry over him, but I failed... miserably. Now that he's dead, I
still feel heartbroken, and I still cried.”
“No matter what, he's still your father. It's normal for you to care about him. You may harbor hatred for him in your
heart, but there's love in there too,” Shane said as he lowered his head to her.
Natalie laughed mockingly. “Indeed. This love is usually buried so deeply inside me that I've never even seen nor
felt it. Now that he's dead, all his sins have died with him. My hatred for him is no more. All the suppressed love I
have for him finally has the space to resurface.”
After all, how could she not love Harrison?
At the end of the day, he was still her biological father. Even though the way he treated her and Jared could never
compare to Jasmine, he still showed love to them in the past twenty years.
This was a fact that she could not deny.
“Do you want to take a short nap?” Shane asked.
Natalie took a deep breath and nodded. “Okay. Wake me up when we get to the hospital.”
Harrison was dead. She was not as devastated as when her mother died, but it still affected her nonetheless.
Hence, Natalie needed to calm herself down.
Upon that, Shane grunted in response, “Mm.”
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmThen, Natalie curled up on the passenger seat, shut her eyes, and went to sleep.
As opposed to sleep, it was more like closing her eyes. Her trembling lashes showed that she was completely
conscious. She could not fall asleep at all.
How could she? Harrison was dead. She was not that cold-hearted to the point where she could fall asleep
peacefully upon hearing news of his death.
She was simply not that indifferent.
Shane knew this, but he did not disturb her. He just focused on his driving.
He drove slowly, making the hour-long journey two hours instead.
Finally, Shane woke Natalie up.
Slowly, she opened her eyes. “Are we here?”
“Yeah.” He nodded.
Natalie did not say more. She opened the car door, got down, and headed toward the hospital.
Outside Harrison's ward, Jared was sitting in the hallway. His hands were fidgeting with something.
When he heard the footsteps, he raised his head. Though he had stopped crying, his eyes were still red-rimmed.
“Hey, Nat. Hey, Shane.”
Natalie nodded in response. Then, she turned to look inside the ward.
The room had already been cleaned out, and the bed was now empty.