Chapter 155: Strange
When Vivian Lowell saw the two bouquets of flowers, she was slightly taken aback, though she quickly recovered.
"Oh, our Julian is back. Let me see, these roses are for Vivian, aren’t they?" Grandma Faulkner spoke first.
Julian Faulkner gave a soft grunt of affirmation and walked over to the hospital bed. He placed the lilies—Grandma Faulkner’s favorite—in front of her, then walked over to Vivian and handed her the roses. They were massive blooms, rich and incredibly fragrant.
"Thank you." Vivian took the roses, feeling very grateful to Julian. She truly loved them.
"You’re welcome." Julian smiled gently at her, then turned his head to look at Grandma Faulkner. "Grandma, Vivian and I are going out to eat, and then we’ll head home.
"Ms. Shaw will keep you company here tonight, is that alright? Or, if you feel bored, Vance Wyatt is still downstairs."
Hearing this, Grandma Faulkner waved her hand dismissively. "Alright, alright, you young people have your own world. Don’t bother Wyatt; he works hard enough as it is. Go enjoy your meal together!"
"Okay." Julian agreed, and Vivian left the room with him.
Vance Wyatt was waiting downstairs, ready to drive Julian back so he could finally get off work. Vivian couldn’t help but steal a few extra glances at Vance. He had no idea that just moments ago, while he was absent, Julian had nearly made him stay at the hospital to eat with Grandma Faulkner!
However, as Vivian watched him, she noticed he was playing on his phone—likely sending someone a message on WhatsApp. He seemed to be in a great mood, a faint smile lingering on his lips as he typed.
"Vance." Julian called out as they approached. Vance immediately put away his phone—even leaving an unfinished message in the chat—and rushed to open the car doors for them.
She marveled inwardly, "His efficiency truly is out of the ordinary," and got into the car.
A short while later, the car pulled up to the Faulkner villa.
As Vivian got out, Vance was helping to grab things from the back seat. Only then did she realize that Julian had already bought groceries on his way from work to the hospital. And quite a lot of them, too. It looked like Julian was planning to cook dinner himself tonight.
"President Faulkner, Madam, I’ve taken all the groceries out. Shall I help carry them into the kitchen?" Vance asked.
"Yes." After Julian agreed, he turned to Vivian. "Cooking will take a while. Do you want to go rest on the second floor first? Or you can just go about your own business."
Vivian glanced at the ingredients and asked, "Do you need my help?" There seemed to be a lot of food to prepare.
Julian shook his head. "Didn’t you accidentally cut your finger earlier? It’s better if you don’t. I’ll handle it."
"Okay." Unable to insist further, Vivian headed upstairs.
Once upstairs, she first visited the adjacent home gym. It looked exactly the same as before, filled with various exercise equipment. As Vivian was looking around, Vance knocked on the door behind her. "Madam?"
Hearing Vance’s voice, Vivian turned around and saw him walking in with boxing protective gear—presumably the items Julian had asked him to prepare.
"All the protective gear is here," Vance said respectfully, placing the items on a nearby table.
"Sorry to trouble you." Vivian smiled in thanks and added, "It’s getting late. Do you want to stay for dinner? I saw that Julian bought quite a lot of groceries."
Vance was feeling a bit hungry. Hearing this, he genuinely wanted to accept. But then it occurred to him—if he brazenly stayed just because Madam invited him, President Faulkner would definitely be displeased. And then his workload tomorrow... At the thought of that, Vance wouldn’t dare stay. He shook his head so vigorously it resembled a rattle-drum. "Madam, I think I’ll pass.
"I’m about to head back too. A quick, simple meal will do for me. Thank you, Madam. I’ll be taking my leave now."
"Alright, have a safe trip."
Vivian felt that Vance was acting a bit strange, but she didn’t dwell on it. After inspecting the equipment, she returned to her room, went into the study, and took out her laptop. She went online and scrolled through X.
The buzz surrounding last night’s press conference was still incredibly high. People had been discussing it all day and were still talking about Vivian’s situation. She skimmed through the posts and, finding that the sentiment was overwhelmingly positive, didn’t bother reading further.
Right at that moment, her phone suddenly rang. It was a video call from Eleanor Rhodes.
"Hmm?" Vivian murmured in confusion. She wondered why Eleanor was suddenly calling her right at dinnertime. Was she asking her out to eat?
With that thought in mind, Vivian answered the call and was about to ask, but through the screen, she saw Eleanor making a "shush" gesture. Her eyes widened in surprise. She grew even more confused. She was just about to ask what was going on when she froze, noticing the background of Eleanor’s location.
Wait, the background behind Eleanor looked awfully familiar. There was a corridor and hanging IV drip bags—was she in a hospital?
She wondered if Eleanor was sick. However, looking at Eleanor’s rosy complexion and full makeup, Vivian didn’t think so.
Although Eleanor was a total tomboy when catching stray cats, Vivian knew that whenever Eleanor got sick, she would completely wither. She was the type who needed to be hugged and supported just to get through a doctor’s appointment. Therefore, looking at her current state, Eleanor definitely wasn’t sick. So why was she at the hospital?
Vivian was dying to ask. Unfortunately, recalling Eleanor’s gesture for silence, Vivian had no choice but to temporarily hold her tongue.
After suppressing her questions, Vivian saw Eleanor shift the camera on the screen. The angle flipped from the front-facing camera to the rear one, capturing her surroundings. Eleanor pointed the camera at the queue windows. Even at night, Concordia Hospital was still packed, with long lines of people crowding the service windows.
She wondered what Eleanor wanted to show her. That Concordia Hospital was busy at night? She had always known that! Concordia Hospital ranked among the very best in the entire country, so the massive crowds were a given. Many people from out of town with rare and difficult diseases came to Concordia for treatment.
Just as she was pondering this, Vivian heard Eleanor’s voice coming through the phone. She was speaking in a hushed, pinched whisper. "Vivian, look at that person over there wearing the black baseball cap. Who do you think it is?"
She wondered who the person in the black baseball cap could be. Curious, Vivian scanned the screen for a long time. Finally, on the outskirts of the queuing crowd, she spotted the person that Eleanor had mentioned.
It was a woman. And she looked very familiar.