"About what?" He finally raised his head, but his voice was so calm that there was no fluctuation.
Rachel lowered her eyes and smiled bitterly, "What do you think?"
As soon as she finished her words, Jack looked away and lowered his head again. He reached out his
chopsticks to move the vegetables on the plate, but did not make any response to her.
Rachel felt like her chest was stuffed with a big mass of cotton, unable to breathe. After a moment of
silence, she asked, "Where have you been these two days?"
It turned out that asking this question was not as difficult as she thought. Rachel just felt that the
question that had been weighing on her mind for several days was finally asked, and now she was
relieved.
Jack closed his eyes for a while. When he opened them again, his clear eyes gradually became a little
turbid, mixed with too many emotions. He reached out his hand, tightly held the hand of Rachel on the
table, and said in a deep voice, "Your aunt passed away."
'Passed away?'
Looking straight at Jack for a while, Rachel suddenly grinned and laughed louder, "Jack, are you
kidding me? I just had a video chat with Eric when the two of them laughed happily. How could she
pass away all of a sudden?"
She raised her head, withdrew her hand and pressed it on her forehead. She kept denying, "No, my
aunt is very healthy. How could she die suddenly?"
"Rachel, calm down." Jack looked at her worriedly and licked his lips. "That night, your aunt and Eric
drank too much at home. She fell down the stairs by accident and hit her head against the railing. She
died on the spot."
"No, it's impossible." With a loud bang in her mind, Rachel's limbs slowly stiffened at a speed visible to
the naked eye. She kept shaking her head and said, "She just hit the railing? How could she not be
rescued? Jack, you must be kidding me, right?"
She stretched out her hands and kept touching Jack's suit jacket. She muttered, "Jack, where is your
phone? Show me your phone. Today is April fool's day, and you are lying to me, aren't you?"
Seeing that Jack just looked straight at her without saying anything, Rachel finally couldn't control her
emotions. She grabbed Jack's arm tightly and roared, "Jack, say something. Why don't you say
anything? Tell me, you are lying to me!"
Her gloomy eyes were instantly wet, and tears welled up like the water that had been stored for a long
time.
Rachel sniffed and tried her best to hold back her tears. But her pretending to be fine made Jack feel
more distressed.
His thumb gently touched her cheek, and Jack only felt a little sore in his throat. He choked, "Rachel, if
you want to cry, just cry on my shoulder."
"I won't cry." Shaking her head, Rachel bit her lips and kept saying, but her tears kept spilling out. The
more she cried, the more tears she could not stop.
Although her aunt was like a cloud that could not be caught in the sky, she wandered around and spent
little time with Rachel.
Still, she was the only relative of Rachel in the world.
Her parents had left her since she was a child. Only this aunt could make Rachel feel that she was not
alone in the world. But now, even her aunt had left her.
And it happened all of a sudden...
She finally broke down and leaned on Jack's shoulder. She cried so sadly, so desperate, and tears
poured out of her eyes like a flood. Even Jack's mood fell into a low valley in an instant.
After crying for a long time, Rachel's eyes were red and swollen, and her tears seemed to have dried
up. She asked in a hoarse voice, "What about my brother? How is he now?"
She was so sad about her aunt's leaving, let alone Eric.
As soon as she thought of him, Rachel felt a lump in her throat, and tears immediately flashed in her
eyes. Jack quickly reached out to touch the corner of her eyes and said in a deep voice, "He is still in
the hospital. At that time, in order to hold your aunt, he fell down the stairs together."
"How is he now? Is it serious?"
"He's fine. He'll be discharged from the hospital after two days' rest. But he blamed his mom's death to
himself. Now he's lying on the bed, without saying a word. He just keeps looking at the ceiling with his
eyes open every day."
After hesitating for a while, Jack slowly told the truth about Eric.
Looking at what Eric was like, Jack didn't want to hide it from Rachel, because once something
happened to Eric, he was afraid that Rachel would be in Eric's current state.
Julie stood beside them and heard what they said clearly. Although she had never seen Rachel's aunt
and Eric, as soon as she heard the word "aunt", she understood the affection and intimacy between
them.
At this time, she saw that Rachel was crying like a tearful person on Jack's shoulder. She quickly went
upstairs to the bathroom, took the towel from her and twisted it in warm water. Then she handed it to
Jack and said, "You'd better use a towel to wipe the her face. I'm afraid that the tissue will make her
skin rub more severely."
"Okay." Jack kept wiping her tears, but didn't know what to say to comfort her for a moment.
He had never experienced the pain of losing a family member, but when he saw how miserable Rachel
was, he only felt that his heart was torn apart.
No one knew how long Rachel had cried. She leaned on Jack's shoulder and cried so hard that there
was no sound. Jack thought she was asleep and was about to lift her up, but she suddenly said in a
low voice, "Jack, when did you know?"
"The afternoon when I asked you out for dinner." Jack smiled bitterly. He knew how angry Rachel was
when he came back and saw her attitude towards him.
Rachel straightened up and took a deep breath, "Why didn't you tell me?"
Jack frowned and said seriously, "At that time, I got the news that your aunt was still being rescued in
the emergency room. I was afraid that you would be worried, so I wanted to go to see the specific
situation first and pick you up when my aunt's condition stabilized... But..."
He stopped and didn't go on.
Rachel opened her arms and held him tightly. She leaned against his chest and listened to his steady
heartbeat. "I'm sorry, Jack. I misunderstood you."
All her wild guesses and unreasonable indifference were her misunderstandings about him.
At this moment, Rachel felt that she was too narrow-minded. When she stayed at home and thought
nonsense, Jack was abroad, helping her deal with what should be done by her as the niece.
"It's okay. As I said, your business is my business. For me, as long as you are safe, everything will be
fine." Jack gently stroked her hair.
He had planned to stay abroad for a few more days, but he suddenly received a call from Austin,
saying that something had happened to Rachel, so he hurried back.
Sitting beside her bed and looking at the red mark on her neck, Jack felt a little regret when Rachel
woke up. If he had taken her abroad at that time, could this matter be avoided?
The remorse in his heart couldn't gradually disappear with the recovery of Rachel. He sighed deeply
and said, "Rachel, I'm still too useless. I can't protect you well."
After crying for a long time, Rachel felt her eyes swollen and uncomfortable. After lying in bed for a
whole day, she felt a little better.
Jack was preparing lunch for the two people in the kitchen. He threw the chopped green onion into the
soup, and heard the footsteps behind him. He looked back and saw Rachel slowly walking over in a
night robe. His face suddenly became nervous. He quickly put down the things in his hands, walked up
to hold her arm and let her sit down on the chair beside, "Why did you go downstairs? Call me if you
need anything. I'll be upstairs soon."
"We're just upstairs and downstairs. It's so troublesome to make a phone call." Compared with
yesterday, Rachel's mood was much more stable.
She held Jack's hand and asked, "Have you booked the ticket? When are we going there?"
"It's not decided yet. Do you want to wait another two days?" He looked at Rachel worriedly and said,
"Let's wait for your physical condition to stabilize."
Shaking her head, Rachel insisted, "I'm fine now. Let's go tomorrow, okay?"
Seeing that Jack didn't agree at once, Rachel continued, "If I don't go to see Eric, I can't rest assured
even if I stay here. Jack, let me go there."
"Okay." Jack also understood this point. There was one thing in her mind, how could she sit here
quietly and wait?
What's more, he was indeed a little worried about Eric. In the morning, the psychologist called him and
told him about his condition. He said that Eric had a tendency of melancholy and his condition was not
very optimistic.
Once things were settled, Rachel felt that the time was much faster. The moment she got on the plane,
she sat on her seat, tightly holding a seal in her hands, and whispered, "Eric, you must be strong. You
will be fine."
Jack gently covered her with a blanket. Seeing the thing in her hand, he asked, "What's
this?"
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