After more than half a month in the hospital, Shane Sterling was discharged to recuperate at ho.
On the day of his discharge, Isla Prescott went to pick him up.
Shane Sterling was still living in the apartnt near Skysea Plaza—the kind with two units per floor served by a single elevator. The two of them took the elevator to the sixth floor. As Isla Prescott pushed Shane Sterling’s wheelchair out of the car, she saw the door she used to pass through so often, and a familiar feeling washed over her.
"Which apartnt are we going to?" Isla Prescott asked.
"Mine."
"But Justin Wyatt said you’ve been sleeping in my apartnt ever since I moved out."
"He told you that, too?"
Isla Prescott sensed a murderous aura and quickly looked down at Shane Sterling. "You’re not going to dock his bonus, are you?"
"First, tell how you felt after hearing what Justin Wyatt said."
"Well... I was pretty pleased," Isla Prescott admitted honestly.
’Who wouldn’t want their ex-boyfriend to be completely hung up on them after a breakup, moping around like his life was over?’
Shane Sterling laughed. "Okay, Justin Wyatt’s bonus is safe."
As long as it pleased Isla Prescott, Justin Wyatt’s loose lips weren’t for naught.
The two entered Shane Sterling’s apartnt. Mrs. Zane knew he was being discharged today, so she had already co to clean. The living room was spotless.
"What do you want for lunch?" Isla Prescott asked.
"Anything’s fine."
"I recently learned how to make pig’s trotter soup. I’ll make it for you for lunch."
"Did you learn it just for ?"
"Mhm. You know what they say, ’eat trotters to heal your feet.’ I hope you’ll be off your wheelchair and crutches soon."
"Healing my feet with pig’s feet? Well, thank you so very much."
"You’re welco."
Isla Prescott ordered so fresh pig’s trotters and side dishes on her phone, then went into the kitchen to get busy. anwhile, Shane Sterling worked in the living room.
By the ti Isla Prescott finished cooking and ca out, Shane Sterling was already slumped on the sofa, fast asleep.
Though he’d been physically in the hospital, his mind had been spinning like a top, never giving him a mont’s peace.
Isla Prescott went to the bedroom for a blanket, tiptoed over to cover him, and even gently removed his glasses. Shane Sterling didn’t stir through any of it, a testant to how exhausted he truly was.
Shane Sterling slept for over an hour.
With nothing else to do, Isla Prescott sat by the sofa and read a book. In truth, she had been very busy herself lately and had been straining her eyes. After just a short while, she could feel them getting dry.
She decided to get up and gaze out from the balcony for a bit. As she stood, she glimpsed the sour plum lollipop on the living room counter. It was housed in a crystal case, simultaneously standing out and blending in among a host of other valuable ornants.
’Why does he still have this lollipop?’
Isla Prescott had found it strange the last ti she saw it, too. Putting a two-dollar lollipop in a crystal case was definitely not sothing a person with a normal train of thought would do.
’Has this lollipop mutated or sothing?’
Isla Prescott walked over to the counter, opened the crystal case, and took out the lollipop. Just as she was studying it in her palm, Shane Sterling suddenly woke up.
"What are you looking at?" He wasn’t wearing his glasses, and having just woken up, his vision was still blurry.
"I’m trying to see what’s so special about this lollipop that makes you treasure it so much."
"Why do you think it’s special?" Shane Sterling asked.
Isla Prescott shook her head. "I really can’t figure it out."
"Because of you."
"?"
"Yes, because you gave it to . Of course, there’s another reason, too."
Isla Prescott’s curiosity was thoroughly piqued. Holding the lollipop, she sat back down beside Shane Sterling. "What’s the other reason?"
"Do you rember giving a lollipop when you first went to live with the Lockwood family?"
Isla Prescott was a little stunned. That was over a decade ago; who would rember sothing as trivial as a single lollipop?
Seeing her dazed expression, it seed she’d forgotten, and Shane Sterling instantly grew a little angry.
"You forgot? You actually forgot!"
"No, no, let think..." Isla Prescott tried hard to rember. "Right, right, right! I think that did happen."
Her younger sister, Sienna Prescott, had stuffed that sour plum lollipop into her hand on the day she was picked up by the Lockwood family’s driver.
After arriving at the Lockwood family’s ho, Isla Prescott couldn’t bring herself to eat it.
On her first night away from her mother and sister, Isla Prescott couldn’t sleep. She sat in the yard with the lollipop, thinking of them. As she was feeling lancholic, she suddenly saw a figure hanging upside down from a large tree outside the iron fence.
She jumped in fright. She was about to get up and run when she got a clear look at the boy’s face.
It was a face even more handso than her brother, Silas Lockwood’s.
For the young Isla Prescott at the ti, "more handso than her brother, Silas Lockwood" was the highest praise imaginable.
Captivated by his face, she walked closer to the iron fence and saw that the boy’s eyes were red-rimd.
"What are you looking at?"
The boy seed to have a bad temper. The mont Isla Prescott approached, he bristled like a hedgehog, putting up all his spines to attack her.
But Isla Prescott only focused on his red-rimd eyes.
"Are you being so aggressive because you’re afraid I can tell you’ve been crying?" she asked him.
The boy froze, snapped, "Mind your own business," then used his powerful core strength to swing himself upright. He grabbed onto the branches and deftly climbed higher into the tree, completely hiding his face in the darkness.
Isla Prescott guessed he probably didn’t want anyone to see his vulnerability, so she apologized. "Sorry, I didn’t an to bother you. Here, have so candy. Eating sothing sweet when you’re sad helps you feel better."
Isla Prescott tossed the sour plum lollipop—so full of aning to her—under the tree, then hurried back to her room to sleep...
"This lollipop in the crystal case... it’s not the one from all those years ago, is it?" Isla Prescott asked, shocked.
"Of course not. What kind of lollipop lasts for over a decade?"
He had eaten the lollipop Isla Prescott left for him that very night. Just as she’d said, eating sothing sweet when you’re sad really does make you feel better.
He’d felt much better right then and there.
"Why were you crying alone that night, hanging upside down from a tree?" Isla Prescott asked.
"Because that was the night I found out I was Victor Sterling’s illegitimate son."
"So it was that day..."
So on the very day she joined the Lockwood family, the turning point of her life, his life had reached a turning point as well.
"But that day wasn’t a total loss. At least I t you." Shane Sterling took Isla Prescott’s hand. "And I got to eat the lollipop you gave ."
But he later ca to regret eating the lollipop she had given him so casually.
So, when Isla Prescott gave him a sour plum lollipop for the second ti, he imdiately put it away to be treasured.
Isla Prescott looked at the lollipop in her hand, with its golden twist tie, and a thought suddenly struck her. "You didn’t start liking way back then, did you?"
Shane Sterling’s face flushed. "You’re overthinking it. You were as skinny as a bean sprout back then."
"Better than having a mouth full of poison at such a young age."
In Isla Prescott’s mory, Shane Sterling had an incredibly sharp tongue even back then. Whenever she ran into him, she would inevitably be "tornted" by a few of his remarks, so she always made a point to avoid him.
"Don’t be angry, I’m not finished. While I didn’t exactly fall in love at first sight with your ten-year-old self, because of that night, you did beco soone special to ."
From that night on, Shane Sterling began to pay special attention to this "sister" of Silas Lockwood’s who had appeared out of nowhere.
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