Bill got out of the car, went to the trunk, took out his umbrella, and walked up the stairs. "I happened to
pass by. I didn't expect to see you on the way."
"I thought you went back to France."
Ever since Rachel had met Bill at the hospital in France, he had often asked her out for dinner or to
watch a movie. At first, she had kept turning him down.
Later, Bill had clarified that he didn't mean anything by asking her out, and that he was just inviting her
out because she was alone in France and they were friends.
Upon hearing this, Rachel had felt a little embarrassed and finally agreed.
As time went by, the two of them had become more and more familiar with each other, and their
personalities and temperaments had become more and more compatible.
Wiping the rain off his sleeves, Bill asked, "Did you just come back?"
More and more people crowded the entrance of the supermarket, trapped in the rain and unable to
leave.
All of a sudden, someone bumped into Rachel, causing her to stagger forward. Fortunately, Bill
grabbed her arm, so she didn't fall down the stairs.
With a sheepish smile, she said, "Yes. If it's convenient for you, can you drive me home?"
Bill readily agreed, not wanting to miss this opportunity. As he drove her home, he made small talk,
feeling a little nervous. Since Rachel had just come back from abroad, he wanted to use this chance to
ask her out for dinner.
When they arrived at her apartment building, he turned off the engine and turned to her. "When will you
get off work tomorrow?"
"I have to be on duty tomorrow night." Much to Rachel's surprise, her first day of work was a night shift.
"All right, then I'll call you once you have a good rest," Bill said smoothly.
Rachel nodded and got out of the car. After watching Bill leave, she went upstairs. Just as she reached
the landing, she took out her apartment key to open the door, but it fell to the floor.
Looking at the figure leaning against her door, she was stunned. 'Why is he here?'
But in an instant, her panic dissipated and she regained her composure. "Why are you standing there?
Please move aside," she said indifferently, picking up the key.
Jack grabbed her arm and stared into her eyes, but said nothing.
In the morning, when he had arrived at Joy City, he had immediately called Austin and asked him to
come there as soon as possible to replace him on the business trip. Then, he had taken the next flight
back and found out where Rachel lived.
"Let me go."
With a blank expression on her face, Rachel slowly opened the door with her other hand.
Jack tightened his grip on her arm but continued to remain silent.
Realizing that her words wouldn't work, Rachel tried to shake off his hand.
She had known that she would see him when she came back. After all, Ninwell City was just a small
place. However, she hadn't expected that she would meet him on her very first day back, let alone in
front of her new apartment.
No matter how much she tried to get rid of his arm, she couldn't. Jack's grip was just too strong.
Giving up, she finally looked up at him. "Jack, what are you doing here today? What do you want from
me?"
She didn't want to beat around the bush.
Jack pursed his lips tightly, and a sharp glint flashed through his black eyes. "Why did you come back?"
In the past three years, he had numbed himself more than once. He didn't stop having unrealistic
dreams of getting back together with Rachel until he accepted that she had left and would never come
back.
Of course, he had flown to France to see her, but when he had seen her and Lucas rush out of a
building under a shared umbrella, he had turned into a coward, hiding in the shadows and not daring to
face her.
After all, what could he have said?
Was he supposed to wish her happiness or drag her away with him?
So, in the end, he had just watched the two people get into a taxi, talking and laughing. And then, he
had turned around and left.
Rachel looked down at her toes and sneered. "I can't come back to my own homeland?"
"If you wanted to come back here eventually, why did you leave three years ago? Why did you leave
without saying a word?" Jack suddenly put his hands on her shoulders and shook her crazily.
Feeling dizzy, Rachel growled, "Enough, Jack!"
She had been harassed in the morning by Celine, and now she was being harassed by Jack. Hadn't
the two of them hurt her enough already?
"I had my own reasons for leaving, and I had my own reasons for coming back too. Now that we are
divorced, I don't owe you an explanation. And you have no right to ask me any more questions,"
Rachel said coldly.
Jack sneered. "Who has the right then? Your Lucas?"
Three years ago, this was the question that he had wanted to ask her: "What's so good about Lucas?"
Looking at the emotions hidden in his eyes, Rachel realized that he had misunderstood her from the
beginning. "It has nothing to do with Lucas. Besides, I don't want to talk about the past," she replied
lightly.
Finally, she broke free of Jack's grip and took a step forward. She didn't want to continue the topic.
However, Jack grabbed her again, not wanting to give up.
Rachel lost her temper and yell, "Jack, I don't want to have anything to do with you anymore. Don't
ever appear in front of me again! Just leave!"
As soon as she finished speaking, the door of the opposite apartment opened with a click.
A slightly fat woman with her messy hair in a bun walked out. She frowned at the two of them and
pursed her lips in displeasure. "If you want to have a fight, close the door and quarrel at home. Why are
you shouting so loudly in the corridor? How can I have a rest?
My son just fell asleep. Now you've woken him up again."
Through the crack of the door, Rachel heard the baby's cries.
She lowered her head in embarrassment and said, "I'm sorry." Then, before Jack could come to his
senses, she turned around, entered her apartment, and locked the door.
The corridor became quiet again.
Looking at the closed door,
Jack raised his hand to ring the doorbell, but then he hesitated and finally withdrew it.
In the house, after sitting quietly for a long time, Rachel gradually came to herself. Then, she stood up
and opened the door, but Jack was no longer outside.
She had thought that when she met him three years later, she would remain calm and composed.
But now, she realized that she had never moved on from the past.
That night, she suffered from insomnia. Fortunately, she could still rest in the morning as she didn't
have to report to the hospital until two o'clock in the afternoon.
As soon as she reached the hospital, she went to see the director, who didn't seem to have aged at all
in the past three years.
He greeted her enthusiastically. "Rachel, I have to rely on you more in the future. I hope you can
surpass me!"
"Thank you."
Rachel was not used to the director's enthusiasm, so she left after exchanging a few polite words with
him.
Over the past three years, there had been many changes in the cardiology department, especially with
the nurses. Most of the nurses she had known had been promoted and assigned to other departments
as the head nurses.
As for the new faces, they were mostly newly-graduated nurses, full of vigor and vitality.
Walking up to them, Rachel took out the gifts she had prepared in advance and said, "I bought
something from France for all of you. I hope you like them."
The nurses thanked her fervently. Once she left, they immediately screamed in joy and opened the gift
bags to see what she had gotten them.
Among them, a nurse who had already taken out the hand cream from her bag started to apply it onto
her hands and said, "I think Rachel is a good person, not as cold as the rumors say she is."
"Who knows, we've just met her,"
another nurse replied.
With another gift bag in her hand, Rachel knocked on the door of Lucas' office and walked in. She put
the bag on his table and asked, "Lucas, are you busy?"
Smiling, Lucas put down the pen in his hand and opened the bag. "Is this for me? Rachel, you are
getting more and more well-mannered."
"Are you saying that I was not well-mannered before?" Rachel raised her eyebrows and smiled.
Lucas took out two identical gifts from the bag. "Why are there two?"
"The purple one is for Iris, and the blue one is for you."
"It seems that she really has to treat you to a good meal," Lucas said. As he spoke, he opened the gift
wrapped in blue meant for him. It was a simple and elegant men's wallet, with a soft leather finish.
Rachel was great at buying gifts.
In fact, Lucas like the wallet so much that he immediately shifted his belongings from his old wallet to
this new one. "It's nice, I like it. By the way, what did you buy for Iris?"
"It's also a wallet, a matching one for women.
I thought the wallets would be nice gifts for the two of you," Rachel replied with a faint smile.
She had thought that Lucas would be happy to hear this, but to her surprise, he suddenly looked a little
downcast. "That's great."
"You don't like them?" Rachel asked uncertainly.
"No, no, I do." Lucas shook his head and forced a smile at her.
In the past, he had thought that a relationship could work as long as two people loved each other.
After a year of wooing Iris, she had finally accepted his love, but he hadn't expected that he would have
a bigger problem to face.
It seemed that his parents didn't accept their relationship at all.
Strangely enough, they had never verbally objected to it. Whenever they heard something about Iris,
they would just smile and stay silent.
However, every time Lucas proposed to bring her home to meet them, they refused. "It's still early.
Don't be in such hurry," they would say.
This had gone on for a year already.
The last time he had had dinner with Iris, she had brought it up again.
"If your parents don't want to accept me, I think we should give up this relationship," she had said.
But there was no way Lucas would give up!
He stared blankly ahead, lost in thought about all this.
Rachel waved her hand in front of him and said, "Lucas, I have to go and work." Then, she left his
office.
She generally found it easy to be on duty at night, but this particular night was better than most. None
of the patients complained about any discomfort. After making her rounds, she had a rest in the duty
room for a while. It was not until she heard some noise and footsteps outside that she straightened up
and walked out of the duty room.
A nurse came over and said, "Rachel, you are still in the duty room! A handsome man is looking for
you. I thought you were on your rounds, so I asked him to go to your office."
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