CEO Ex-Husband, Don't Bother Me-Chapter 103 - 101: You’ve Always Been Like This (3)
"You really don’t have to trouble yourself. I’ll just ask Willow to go with me. I’ve already taken up her whole morning!"
She said this hurriedly and went to Dylan’s room. A moment later, Willow Summers came out with her. He glared at Willow Summers, but Willow completely ignored his gaze, brazenly pulling Naomi Shaw along to say goodbye to him.
"Well, we’ll be going then. We both have to work this afternoon. Anna, I can give you a ride back to the hospital since it’s on my way!"
Willow Summers was secretly pleased. ’Really, it’d be strange if I let you get your way so easily. If you want to get close to her, you’ll just have to find another way yourself.’
’You always want what you can’t have. People often don’t cherish what they get too easily. I hope the difficulty of winning her back this time will make him truly understand the meaning of love.’
With that thought, Willow Summers pulled Naomi Shaw along and strode away.
At lunch, Dylan Donovan was elegantly sipping the porridge his mother had made for him. He watched the person who was sweating profusely and in agony from a large pot of spicy fish with pickled mustard greens, and asked calmly,
"Dad, I heard that Joy has autism. What’s autism?"
The amount of chili peppers was actually up to the cook; you could add a little or a lot. Naomi Shaw was used to making spicy dishes for Sean Donovan, so she had grabbed a handful and tossed them in. By the time she remembered he couldn’t handle spicy food, it was too late, so she just went with it. ’Who asked him to insist on this dish when he clearly can’t eat spicy food? Was it just because he heard Sean Donovan wanted to eat it, so he had to have it too?’
Julian Donovan gulped down a large mouthful of water to soothe his burning throat.
"Autism is a type of neurodevelopmental disorder. Seventy percent of people with it have intellectual disabilities, twenty percent have normal intelligence, and ten percent have intelligence that surpasses the ordinary. Which one do you hope she is?"
Dylan sipped his porridge, his little face scrunched in thought for a moment before he said,
"I hope she’s one of the ten percent, because I don’t want her to be as dumb as Mom. So dumb she can’t even tell you really want to be with her right now!"
A certain someone glared at him, embarrassed and angry.
"Who said I want to be with her?"
Although he did, in fact, want to be with her, being called out so bluntly by his son made him lose face.
"Aren’t you? Aren’t you using the excuse of treating Joy’s illness to get close to her? You know full well Joy isn’t your child, but you’re still treating her!"
Before Julian Donovan could get angry, Dylan Donovan quickly put on a sweet, charming smile.
"Joy is so well-behaved. I like her a lot."
"She’s not your real sister. Don’t say her name so sweetly!"
Joy Donovan was a sore spot for Julian Donovan. Dylan looked a little hurt.
"Okay, okay, I get it. She’s the child Mom had with another man!"
Julian Donovan glared at him again. Dylan’s little face was full of yearning.
"But, Julian Donovan, having a sister feels really nice. How about... you have a baby sister for me with another auntie?"
"Shut your mouth!"
Julian Donovan roared at his son, his anger blazing.
Dylan Donovan finally quieted down, lowering his head and starting to drink his porridge in silence. ’Hmph. If you hadn’t driven Mom away back then, why would she have ended up with someone else? The way you are now, you have no one to blame but yourself. I’m never going to be like you. If I like a girl, I’ll definitely hold on to her and love her properly, and never let her suffer even the slightest grievance.’
Julian Donovan was also mulling over his own plans as he ate. The choking spiciness made him feel even more clear-headed. ’Sean Donovan, is it? Perfect. I’ll settle the score for all these years of grievances with the Donovan Family, along with her entanglement with Sean Donovan. In the past three years of open and secret struggles between Mercy Hospital and the Donovan Group, the Donovan Group has gradually been losing ground. I think it’s time to pay Charles Donovan a visit.’
Back when Charles Donovan first forced him to sign an agreement renouncing his inheritance, he had told him that one day he would take it all back.
This time, besides taking back the Donovan Group, he was also going to take back his woman.
That evening, when Naomi Shaw got off work, Sean Donovan’s car was already parked at the hospital entrance in a relatively secluded spot. Their relationship had not been made public. At the hospital, only a few people close to her or Sean knew about it. She also didn’t want others to know about her relationship with the hospital director.
She just said that she felt her own happiness was something for her to know, and there was no need to show it off to others.
In truth, she had been in Wincastle for three years, and Sean Donovan had pursued her for three years. She had rejected him at first. She couldn’t understand how someone of his status and family background could be interested in a woman like her, who had a previous marriage, one child from it, and was now raising another. But Sean Donovan was unmoved. He even said that when he first saw her at Donovan Hospital six years ago, it was love at first sight. He just never expected fate to bring her to him again. He said it was destiny, and this time, he was determined to hold on to her.
She was stunned, not expecting him to have harbored such feelings for her. He pursued her persistently, but she remained unmoved. The two of them had continued their mild acquaintance until Joy was diagnosed with autism a while ago.
That period was the darkest time of her life. She hadn’t even been this desperate when she divorced Julian Donovan. She spent every day blaming herself and drowning in regret. Every time she saw Joy’s lovely, doll-like face, her heart was viciously torn apart. She hated herself for all the misfortune she had brought upon Joy. ’If I had known, it would have been better not to bring her into this world at all.’
It was Sean Donovan who had stayed by her side through it all, never leaving, comforting her, and running around to deal with Joy’s condition. She was moved, and it was after this ordeal with Joy that she felt her weary heart truly needed someone to lean on, so she accepted his pursuit.
Their time together was placid and warm. Sean Donovan was a very good-tempered person. He never spoke a harsh word to her, let alone gave her the cold shoulder or made cutting remarks like Julian Donovan used to. This made her feel an unprecedented warmth. She knew her feelings for Sean didn’t contain the intense thrill and fanatical infatuation she once had for Julian, but she was willing to try being with him.
After the six-year-long heartbreak Julian Donovan had given her, she suddenly no longer knew what love was. She once believed that happiness was living with the person you loved, but now she felt that finding someone who treated her well wasn’t so bad either.
Sean Donovan’s driver drove the two of them first to the kindergarten to pick up Joy, then to the farmers’ market near her apartment complex. Because Sean had trouble with his foot, he stayed in the car with Joy while she went to the market to buy groceries for dinner. Then the three of them returned to her apartment.
She went into the kitchen to cook as usual, while Sean Donovan played the piano with Joy. It was another simple and warm dinner.
After dinner, once everything was cleaned up, Sean Donovan glanced at her, sitting across from him looking a little uneasy, and said with a smile,
"Didn’t you have something you wanted to say?"
She bit her lip, looking at him with some difficulty.
"Sean, I’ve told you before that I was married once and have a son..."
"And?"
Sean Donovan’s expression didn’t change much. She said softly,
"My son has found me..."
Dylan had told her he figured out it might be her based on Willow Summers’s reaction to seeing the Buddha Beads, but she never imagined Dylan was so brilliant that he could follow the clues and track her down like that.
"Oh?"
Sean Donovan raised an eyebrow. She quickly said,
"Sean, I don’t mean anything else by it. I just hope... you can accept my son..."
"What about your ex-husband? Does he know you’re still alive too?"
That was what Sean Donovan was concerned about. The two words "ex-husband" stung her heart fiercely. She nodded.
"Yes, we’ve met..."
"What did he say?"
Sean Donovan was very tense. She hesitated, lowered her eyes, and said faintly,
"He said he wants to get back together, but... I’ve already rejected him!"
Sean Donovan seemed to let out a sigh of relief. He then leaned over, gently took her hand, and spoke with a hint of unease,
"Anna, I’ve accepted Joy, so why wouldn’t I accept your son? It’s just... I’m so afraid. Afraid that you and your ex-husband—"
"That won’t happen!"
She cut him off before he could finish. She had briefly told Sean Donovan about her past before, but hadn’t gone into detail, so Sean didn’t know that her ex-husband was Julian Donovan.
She looked at Sean Donovan’s gentle face and thought of Julian Donovan’s arrogant, domineering attitude from that day. She felt herself being submerged by despair, and so the words that came out carried a finality she didn’t usually have.
