Silly Bride

Chapter 379

GPS software on his phone, he knitted his brows tightly.He was hesitating if he should pause the meeting to call Winnie when he received a text message from Josiah.Learning that Josiah was taking Winnie for a body check, Xavier finally breathed a sigh of relief.Winnie and Josiah met Lisanne.It had been more than a month since they had met. Winnie could not see anything, but that was clearly not the same case for Josiah. He noticed everything, including every little change.Lisanne’s complexion was visibly worse than before.After exchanging pleasantries, Lisanne took Winnie away from Josiah.“Thank you for sending Winnie over. I’ll bring her in for an examination first.”Josiah nodded. “Yes, please. Thank you.”Lisanne flashed a faint smile. “It’s what I should do. There’s no need to thank me.”Almost two hours later, Lisanne sent Winnie out.When they came out, Josiah was staring blankly into his phone screen. That resulted in him not noticing that Winnie was already standing beside him.While Winnie was clueless about what he was looking at, Lisanne, on the other hand, saw what was on his phone screen the moment she looked down.It was a group photo of Winnie, Xavier, and Josiah.Josiah had zoomed in on Winnie and himself, and fixed on the display was the image of the two smiling brightly.Lisanne was a little surprised. All along, she had thought Josiah, Winnie, and Xavier were good friends. Little did she imagine that Josiah would have different feelings for Winnie.After staring at the photo for a few seconds, Lisanne quickly retracted her gaze.She let out a dry cough, prompting Josiah about their return.At the same time, Winnie asked, “Have you fallen asleep, Dr. Houghton?”Startled by Winnie’s sudden appearance before him, Josiah immediately turned off his phone.He frantically tried to shove his phone back into his pocket. But in the next second, he suddenly slowed down as a thought crossed his mind—Winnie could not see anything right now.After putting his phone away, he stood up and responded, “Yeah, I almost fell asleep. How’s the examination?”Winnie arched her brows. “Lisanne and I aren’t too good, but she’s slightly better than me. For now, we can only rely on medicine that’s specially developed. We have to take that first and see if it works. If it doesn’t, they’ll have to make the necessary changes.”Seeing how calm and nonchalant Winnie was, Josiah felt so horrible he could not articulate a word.He suppressed his emotions for some time before he broke his silence. “So, what’s next?”“Collect the medicine, then head home for some rest.”“All right. Take a seat here first, then. Ms. Marsh and I will go and collect the medicine.”“Mm, okay. Anyone of you brought your earphones? I want to listen to some songs.”“I didn’t,” Lisanne answered. “Ask Dr. Houghton if he has it.”“Just nice I have it.” Josiah smiled and pulled out his wireless Bluetooth earphones from his pocket.He passed the earphones to Winnie and asked for her phone. “Give me your phone. I’ll help you connect the earphones.”“No need. I can do it myself using the voice control function on my phone.” Winnie reached out to feel her way and grabbed an earphone from Josiah’s palm. “I only need one. I have to leave one ear to keep tabs on the movements around me.”“All right. Go on and listen to your music. We’ll go over now and be back soon.”“It isn’t too far, actually,” Lisanne said. “It’s technically only a wall apart, but we’ll have to walk down a long corridor.”As she said that, she took the initiative to walk ahead to lead the way.“Goodbye for now. I’ll see you guys later.” Winnie waved her hand at Lisanne and Josiah before she unhurriedly navigated her phone with her spoken commands. Something as simple as connecting Bluetooth earphones only took her one second to complete in the past, but now, she had to use several minutes to do it. Then again, that did not matter to her, as she was patient enough.What Lisanne told them was indeed true. The corridor they had to go through was so long that they took several minutes to walk from one end to the other.As they reached the other end of the long corridor, Josiah halted in his tracks.Seeing that, Lisanne did the same before asking, “What’s wrong, Dr. Houghton?”Josiah turned to look at her. “About the photo on my phone… Can you not tell Winnie about it?”A frown marred Lisanne’s forehead. Sadly, the truth was, she could empathize with him as she had experienced one-sided love too.That was exactly how her relationship with Christopher was.She lowered her eyes, seemingly slightly dispirited. “I won’t say anything. But Winnie and Xavier are married and genuinely love each other. Even though we can’t control our feelings, I think perhaps it’s better if you can hold back a little and be more discreet. That’ll be best for the three of you.”Josiah adjusted his glasses and nodded at her with a weak smile. “I understand what you mean. It was an accident earlier. Let’s go and collect the medicine.”While waiting to collect medicine, Josiah recalled what Lisanne had said earlier—the dispensary was only a wall apart from where Winnie sat. With that thought in mind, he stuck the other Bluetooth earphone in his ear.The strong signal of the earphone proved that Lisanne was right. The moment he put on the earphone, he heard music traveling out from it.That was what Winnie was listening to at that moment.It was a piano solo. Its tune was peaceful and soothing, almost resembling the floating clouds in the vast blue sky, and analogous to moments of serenity that slowly trickled by.As Josiah listened to the melody, he felt an outburst of energy spread throughout his body.He found himself relating to the emotions Winnie was feeling at that point. The calmness and tranquility made him realize that she was a tough lady. Yet, it was that exact reason he felt so bad for her.Along their way back after they collected the medicine, the signal of his Bluetooth earphone became increasingly lower as they walked farther. Gradually, Josiah found himself unable to hear the music Winnie was playing from her phone anymore.Halfway through, Josiah suddenly turned to Lisanne and uttered, “Head back and meet Winnie first. I need to go to the restroom. Get her to wait a while more. I’ll return quickly and bring her back.”“Sure.” Upon agreeing to the request readily, Lisanne quickened her pace and continued walking forward.Making a turn, Josiah headed in the other direction. Then, he waited till the sounds of Lisanne’s footsteps faded before he made a U-turn and followed after her.That continued until he reached a corner. There, he watched Lisanne leave before he slowed his pace down and moved forward a little more.He only stopped in his tracks when he could clearly hear the music playing in his earphone.Soon, a voice rang out in