Her Heart Her Terms (Lily and Xavier)

"You claim that it's over, but I haven't gotten over it." Lily had been waiting for

Xavier to bring up this issue. She continued, "Are you trying to sweep everything under the rug just like that?"

Xavier tugged at his necktie. His shirt was crumpled, and his stubble was showing, accentuating his manliness.

"Lily, do you even have a heart? I have been watching over you at the hospital day and night. How am I sweeping everything under the rug?"

During the day, he had to make sure she was well-fed. On top of that, the hospital personnel came by on their rounds frequently, reducing his work efficiency by more than half.

When night came, he would stay up to handle all the work that needed to be done. All in all, he'd barely slept eight hours in total over the last few days.

Wasn't this him trying to make it up to her after the incident with Sarah?

"You're only staying back on Edith's orders," Lily exposed him straightforwardly. "Plus, you looking after me doesn't mean that we can just turn the page. You're simply disregarding my feelings!"

All he'd done was give a brief explanation. Then, he'd said that she would return to Fulton Manor after getting discharged from the hospital.

Had he even asked for her opinion?

Xavier touched the tip of his tongue to his inner cheek. In a dull voice, he asked, "Fine. Tell me, then. What do you want?"

Lily was speechless.

At that instant, his words made her feel like she was the one being unreasonable. As they talked, she realized that she had ended up on the reactive side once again.

"I-I want a divorce."

As she pretended to be calm, she said, "Neither do you love me nor do you respect me. Even if the incident with Sarah hadn't happened, I'd still refuse to go through with this marriage!"

With a gloomy look in his eyes, Xavier stared at the rise and fall of Lily's chest as she heaved.

"Are you done?"

Lily nodded. "I'm done."

"I'm not convinced by your reasoning." Keeping a straight face, Xavier insisted, "So, that means you will still have to do as I say."

Was there even a point to this conversation? Lily felt that she had just been wasting her energy communicating with Xavier these few days.

She couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel. This marriage, and even this hospitalization, felt endless.

Fortunately, there were some tasks at work that required Xavier to attend to them in person. He left early the next morning but not before tasking Naomi with looking after Lily. en

Maryanne came by right after he left.

"He's quite persistent indeed," she remarked in surprise.

"I can't believe that he looked after

you for almost a week. Tell me-how

did you both spend the last five to t

six days? Did Naomi have to do everything while he simply sat on the couch and provided mental support?"

Lily thought back to the recent days and noted that the situation wasn't as Maryanne described.

The Fultons would send meals every day, and Xavier would watch over her while

she ate, whereas Naomi would head out for lunch on her own.

During nighttime, Naomi didn't have to stay up. Whenever Lily woke up to drink some water or go to the bathroom, Xavier would be the first to turn on the lights in the hospital ward.

Moreover, whenever she woke up in the middle of the night, Xavier was always still working.

Noticing that Lily was silent, a thought came to Maryanne's mind. "He actually attended to you personally?"noveldrama

"He did. He was the one looking after me whenever Naomi wasn't around," Lily admitted.

Maryanne exclaimed, "I heard from Terence that Sarah has been sentenced. Is Xavier the Hound turning over a new leaf? Lily, are you touched? Tell me what are your plans?"

Lily rubbed her nose. "Would you believe him if he said that everything between him and Sarah was a misunderstanding?"

"That depends on how he explained it to you." Intrigued, Maryanne crossed her legs. "Tell me more."

Lily relayed everything Xavier said word for word.

The more Maryanne listened to her, the deeper the frown on her face. "Is he trying

to negate all the suffering you went through these few months with just those words?

"Even if it's true that nothing was going on between him and Sarah, those misunderstandings only came about because of him."