Next One Is a Babe

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“You can have some food before taking your medicine. You’ll feel worse if you take this without eating something. I’m almost done with cooking—I just need to prepare some vegetables,” Hazel uttered after placing the medicine down.

“Okay,” Cindy replied while picking two types of medicine and placing them aside. Hazel hurried into the kitchen to continue cooking while Cindy turned the TV on after contemplating for a moment. Despite having the TV on, she couldn’t seem to process whatever she was watching at all. All she could think of was the fight with Ian that night.

She went through all of the accusations that Ian had made about her. Aurora claimed that he only said those words because he was jealous, and Cindy held the same suspicions at one point. However, after going through the whole situation once more, Cindy felt like it wasn’t likely for Ian to have done so out of jealousy. It’s not that I’m not confident about myself; it’s just that there are way too many better women in Ian’s life. All of the women around him could easily capture half of the population’s hearts without even trying. As much as I would like to be confident about myself, I can’t compete with women like them!

People in the village often went to bed early. On top of that, Cindy and Hazel didn’t have a lot to talk about, so after having a meal and watching some TV, both of them retired to their respective rooms. Although Cindy only slept for an hour in the afternoon, she felt extremely awake that night.

She lay in bed and hesitated for a long while before she unlocked her phone. This time, she went online to scroll through the news related to Ian’s matters. It had been a while since she kept herself updated on the news, so there were some developments that she hadn’t seen previously.

There were some people talking about Bryce’s hospitalization, and it sounded like Bryce was really ill. His heart was reported to be extremely weak as he had stayed in the hospital for a long time without being discharged. It was unclear if he would spend the rest of his days there. Some media sites linked Bryce’s hospitalization to Ian, claiming that Bryce was hospitalized after Ian made him angry. These claims sounded legitimate—they discussed how Bryce used to be against the idea of Ian being a celebrity and how Ian insisted on his own decisions because of money and fame.

The websites claimed that Bryce was already infuriated by his son’s decision and that he got even angrier each time he saw the gossip and scandals related to his son on the Internet. Bryce’s health was said to have deteriorated after all of this. Apparently, Bryce had to be hospitalized because he got too mad after a recent fight with Ian.

They’re really trying to put all of the blame on Ian, huh. Cindy threw her phone aside angrily. This was the first time she felt so disappointed in the company’s immediate responses to the public. The Internet was filled with similar articles making the same claims, and Cindy no longer wanted to use her phone after scrolling for a short while. She felt like she would lose her temper if she saw any more of the same reports.

Cindy wasn’t sleepy to begin with, and she felt even more awake after seeing all the news articles. All the lights at home were turned off, and it sounded like Hazel was fast asleep. Cindy sat up in bed and crossed her legs before staring at the night scenery outside her window. Mom probably went out to play poker earlier this afternoon. I don’t think there’s much else she can do here. I used to hate it when she gambled because I thought that she was wasting her time doing unimportant things. But now, I feel like I’m starting to understand why she does it. There isn’t much else she can do here, after all. Poker is just her way of passing her time.

After some time, Cindy took her phone, sneaked out of her room and made her way to the living room. She glanced in the direction of Hazel’s room. The door was closed, but it wasn’t clear if her mother was asleep. Then, she tiptoed out to the front porch. The wind outside was cooling, and Cindy wrapped her jacket tightly around herself. After some hesitation, she decided to send a few texts to Aurora.