"Avery Jane, I don’t know how to comfort you. All I want to say is that as a woman, waiting for love is arduous and despairing, and you’re waiting for a love that can no longer be restored. I too have spent long nights waiting painfully for a lover’s return, so I can sort of understand your suffering. A woman’s most dreadful weakness is the eagerness to take on responsibility. Your protectiveness towards your deceased husband and his mother might even move the gods, but it’s giving your opponents a strong advantage. Don’t be that kind of woman, and don’t let men’s desires manipulate you; don’t succumb to their orders. Avery Jane, let the past be the past; you need to learn to forget." 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Nora Thompson cradled her teacup, warming her palms, her gentle voice carrying an unexplainable tension that struck Avery Jane’s mind.

"Forget?" Avery Jane looked at Nora with her clear, distinct eyes in confusion.

"Yes, forget. Forget all the hurt and pain. Forget the responsibilities you believe you have. In this world, no one owes anyone anything; it’s simply a matter of willingness or unwillingness."

Nora’s gaze was clear yet exuded a forceful determination.

"But, senior, longing has become a habit. For what he did for me, I should do more for him. You don’t know, when the car was coming, he rushed over and held me. Later, he spat blood and told me to live well and love seriously. I thought I could do it. But now, my life is truly a mess. I don’t know what I like. If I want, I can have many things, but the glamorous things I can have in this world don’t move me, and what truly moves me only causes me sadness and longing."

Yes, thinking of Lucas Yates only brings sadness and longing.

Avery Jane cried more fiercely, her whole body seemed like a vessel filled with grievances and tears.

Sunshine spilled in from the window, spreading like gentle rays inside the room.

Nora thought bitterly, advising Avery Jane to forget, yet her own buried yearning, imagined passion for Alexander King, and eventual suspicion were the inner experiences of a woman falling in love.

Only Avery Jane expressed it more openly, whereas she concealed it deeply.

"Avery Jane, in a man’s world, they dance merrily, they raise glasses in celebration, they enjoy life. But what about us? Avery Jane lives for her beliefs; what do you want?"

Nora remembered Alexander King. Perhaps he was enjoying the dances of Jade Willow in that small villa, while she was akin to the most ignorant person, waiting from night till dawn.

But she must live for her beliefs, even if trying to forget brings her immense pain; she is willing to try.

"I want to leave him. I want my own space. I want to have my own life."

Avery Jane murmured, only daring to speak like this here. She had been frightened by Joshua Hughes.

"I will help you, Avery Jane. When we can’t defeat the opponent in one move, we can only endure. But believe me, I will soon come up with a solution."

The Thompson Family isn’t as wealthy and influential as the Hughes Clan, but finding a suitable building for experiments is not a problem, and some equipment she can afford.

Moreover, she acknowledged Lucas Yates’s career in her heart, as it was noble and respectable. So helping Avery Jane was also a way to find more things to do for herself, enough busyness to make her forget the pain in her heart.

In Avery Jane, Nora saw a woman lonely guarding the bitterness of love.

She was no different; so many years, her love flooded within her heart, like unending seawater. When you love, the emotion seems like a secret liquid secreted within the body, flowing like blood to every corner of yourself.

Love itself may only belong to imagination, to hidden desires. Once you attain the love you’ve wished for, it seems to change its appearance. Perhaps it remains as you desire, still beautiful, yet ultimately just a lifeless mask. It’s all a matter of luck, and evidently, both their luck was poor.

Avery Jane gazed out the window in a daze. Sometimes, even spacing out is a luxury, as her phone always rings when she least wants it to.