He Wouldn't Claim Me — Another Man Did-Chapter 122 - 109: Averting the Prophecy

Silas Lockwood was hospitalized at Meritopia University Hospital.

After Isabelle hung up the phone, she rushed to the hospital.

She spent the entire way trying to mentally prepare herself, rehearsing and revising words of comfort in her mind countless times, but she still hesitated at the door to his room.

However, when she pushed open the door, the scene before her wasn’t the tragic, melodramatic one of life-and-death sorrow she had been imagining.

Ivan Fulton was chatting with Silas Lockwood.

The two of them were leaning against the window. One was in a white lab coat, the other in a blue-and-white striped hospital gown. Ivan must have said something funny, because Silas was grinning from ear to ear.

Isabelle’s tense nerves relaxed a little.

’Silas can still smile. It must not be an irreversible situation yet.’

"Well, look who it is, Isabelle."

Ivan was the first to see Isabelle. After he called out, Silas turned to look as well.

Silas looked a bit thinner, but his spirits seemed good overall.

"Isabelle, what are you doing here?" he asked, his smiling eyes softening with a hint of tenderness as he looked at her.

"Your mom said you were sick, so I came to see you."

"My mom called you?"

"Yeah. Are you okay?"

"I’m fine."

"But I heard..." Isabelle didn’t dare say the word.

"You heard it was cancer, right? It is stomach cancer," Ivan chimed in. "But we caught it early. Early-stage stomach cancer is curable with surgery, so you don’t need to worry too much."

"That’s good to hear."

Isabelle was relieved that the bellyful of comforting words she had prepared on the way wouldn’t be necessary after all.

The three of them stood in the hospital room, and a sudden silence fell over them, making the atmosphere a bit awkward.

Silas looked at Ivan. "Ivan, you go on ahead. I want to talk to Isabelle for a bit."

"Alright, I’ll get going then. Call me if you need anything."

"Okay."

Ivan left the room.

Silas pulled over a chair and placed it in front of Isabelle. "Sit."

"Okay."

Isabelle sat down by the nightstand. On it was a bouquet of lisianthus, a fresh, vibrant green. Elegant and pure, they brought a burst of life to the sterile white room.

"I’m sorry, I came in such a rush I didn’t bring anything," Isabelle said.

"It’s fine, don’t worry about it." Silas pointed to the lisianthus. "Shane had these sent over. He’s out of the country and can’t come back to see me right away, so he sent flowers as a gesture."

Isabelle just said, "Oh." She didn’t really want to talk about Shane Sterling with Silas, so she changed the subject. "When did you first notice something was wrong?"

"It was the day before Shane’s engagement party. We ran into each other at the bar, remember?"

’Shane Sterling again.’

’Can Silas not have a conversation without bringing him up?’

’Besides, didn’t those two get into a physical fight before? When did they make up?’

"I remember," Isabelle said.

"My stomach was bothering me after drinking that night, so I had my assistant schedule a check-up. And after the check-up, I wound up in the hospital."

Though Silas was downplaying it now, he had actually been terrified the day he got the test results.

Ever since he took over the Lockwood Group, he had pulled countless all-nighters and drunk far too much. He thought the consequences of his recklessness had come for him so soon.

Fortunately, the doctors gave him an optimistic prognosis after a follow-up consultation.

But no matter how optimistic, it was still cancer. Anything associated with that word was enough to strike fear into one’s heart, which was why Yvette Shaw was frantic.

Yvette felt that Silas was so pitiable—first he lost his dream of being a pilot, and now his health was gone too. Out of deep love for her son, she even began to regret forcing them apart back then, regretting that she had broken up Silas and Isabelle.

She knew her son still had feelings for Isabelle, so she swallowed her pride and called her, asking her to visit Silas at the hospital in an attempt to create another chance for them.

"I’m sorry, my mom’s been a little on edge lately. I hope she didn’t bother you," Silas said. "It’s nothing serious. If she calls you again asking you to come see me, you can just ignore her."

"It’s okay. I wanted to come see you anyway. I still haven’t thanked you for taking me home from the bar last time." As Isabelle spoke, she remembered something else. "Also, I just found out that after I came to the Lockwood Family’s home all those years ago, my father came looking for me, and you were the one who helped drive him away."

"What?" Silas pointed at himself, completely bewildered. "Me?"

"It wasn’t you?"

Silas shook his head. "I have no idea what you’re talking about."

"But he said it was Young Master Lockwood..."

Isabelle tried to recall Damian Prescott’s words. He had said Young Master Lockwood had people beat him and chase him away.

’Beat him and chased him away...’

That really didn’t sound like Silas’s style.

"Could it have been Shane?" Silas guessed. "Shane’s family lived next door to us. He used to come over to my house all the time back then. Maybe he happened to be there."

Isabelle thought that was the most likely possibility.

"You could ask Shane to confirm."

Isabelle said nothing.

Silas sensed something from her silence. "Are you two... okay?"

"We already broke up," Isabelle said honestly.

"Why? Didn’t Shane already call off his engagement to the Quincy Family?"

Isabelle felt it wasn’t quite appropriate to be discussing Shane with Silas, but the look in Silas’s eyes was pure—free of any gossip, judgment, or morbid curiosity. He seemed like a genuine older brother concerned for his younger sister.

She couldn’t help but pour her heart out. "It’s really just a matter of us not being a good fit. It’s like you and me. Even though we once lived under the same roof, we both knew we weren’t from the same world."

"Is that the only reason?"

"It’s the main reason."

Silas looked at Isabelle. She appeared so calm and clear-headed right now, but having witnessed her drunken breakdown, Silas knew she cared deeply for Shane.

"Isabelle, I completely understand your choice. In fact, I feel I should apologize to you. I wasn’t brave or resolute enough in our relationship back then, and I set a bad example for you. I hurt you, and you carried those unhealed wounds into your new relationship. As a result, when you faced the same problems, your subconscious reaction was to run away. But I want to say that Shane is Shane, and I am me. He’s completely different from me. He’s braver and more determined when it comes to love, and he’s truly making plans for you and for your future together."

Recently, there had been frequent rumors about a split within the Sterling Group. Silas had heard some whispers, too—that Shane Sterling was preparing to strike out on his own and draw a clear line between himself and his father, Victor Sterling.

Shane was clearly doing this because he wanted to take control of his own life and the right to choose his future partner.

"I know you’re afraid of getting hurt, that you might unconsciously create conflict when a relationship becomes intimate to ’prove’ your own fears right. But love requires defying those self-fulfilling prophecies, too! Isabelle, forget my past cowardice. Don’t predetermine the ending for your relationship. You need to be braver."

Isabelle’s eyes grew moist.

Silas’s words had struck a chord deep in her heart.

Because of the differences in their identity, status, and family background, Isabelle had always lacked a sense of security in this relationship. Coupled with her past experience of being betrayed by Silas, she had harbored a secret script in her heart from the very beginning of her relationship with Shane. She had quietly presupposed an ending where she would inevitably be abandoned, and then, unknowingly, she had become a prisoner of that story. 𝓯𝙧𝙚𝒆𝙬𝙚𝒃𝙣𝙤𝒗𝓮𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

She was afraid of being hurt, so she ran away before the hurt could come.

And all these unbearable emotions were, in essence, her own deep-seated self-preservation mechanisms at work.

She had been too cowardly.

"I’m sorry, Isabelle. There’s one more thing I never told you. The truth is, Shane has liked you for many years. He’s also the one who gave you the name ’Isabelle.’"

Isabelle looked up, a glimmer in her eyes. "What did you say?"

"You heard me right. ’Isabelle’ was the name Shane came up with after thinking about it for a whole night. It was my vanity back then that made me take credit for his work. He’s liked you for many years—he admitted it to me himself. As for exactly how many years, you’ll have to ask him that yourself."

"Why are you telling me all this?"

"Watching you that night, dead drunk and heartbroken, I suddenly realized something. More than having you for myself, I want you to be happy."