His expression remained stormy and uncertain, but he still left her with these words: "Tomorrow at noon, I'll bring you lunch. In the afternoon, I'll handle the discharge procedures for you." Then he strode out of the ward.
Goosebumps rose all over Sophie's body. Trembling, she hugged herself tightly as silent tears slid down onto the snow-white bedsheet. She could no longer hold back the ache in her heart. Pulling the blanket over her head, she let herself cry freely and unrestrained...
The next morning, as soon as Ned walked into the office, he spotted the envelope on his desk. He picked it up, opened it, and read the letter with cold eyes.
It was a resignation letter—Sophie's resignation letter. Ten seconds later, he crumpled it into a ball and tossed it into the trash bin in the corner of the office!
Beep—beep— The phone rang. "Hello?" Ned answered the desk phone, his tone dark.
"What's with the attitude? Swallow a bomb or something?" Archibald's voice was clearly impatient.
"What do you want?" Ned replied coldly.
"Can't I call you if there's nothing wrong?"
"If there's nothing, I'm hanging up. I'm busy." He said bluntly.
Hearing that, Archibald's temper flared. "Busy—so busy you don't even turn on your phone?! I looked for you all day yesterday. I even went to your place."
"What was so urgent that you had to find me?"
"Yesterday, Sophie fainted on the side of the road. I took her to the hospital."
Ned's face darkened. "What do you mean? Get to the point."
"What do you mean 'what do I mean'?" Archibald shouted into the phone. "Are you still her boyfriend or not? Something's wrong with her health, and you don't even know?"
"I told you I'm busy. Get to the point." Ned's voice was grim.
"The doctor said she has brain cancer—she doesn't have long to live, she's dying soon!" Archibald, thoroughly fed up, deliberately exaggerated Sophie's condition.
On the other end of the line, there was only the sound of breathing—no response.
"Hello? Did you even hear what I said?"
"Which hospital is she in?" Ned's voice was calm, betraying no emotion.
"Haven't you two already broken up? Which hospital she's in has nothing to do with you." Archibald said deliberately.
"Fine. Then we'll talk after she's discharged." And with that, he hung up the phone.
"Hello! You—" On the other end of the line, Archibald was so furious he jumped up and down, smashing his phone onto the ground. The poor device ended up with a completely shattered screen.
Before Archibald could even pick up the phone from the floor, it rang again.
Sitting on the ground, he put it on speakerphone. "Where is she?" Ned's voice came through, still icy and cold.
"You—? Ugh, I must owe you from a past life! She's at the clinic on CROSS Street! I'm telling you, this time you've really gone too far..."
Ned hung up once more, then left the office and took the elevator straight downstairs.
"Oh, shit! Again—he hung up on me again! I swear, I swear... I'm so pissed off!" Archibald pounded the floor with his fist in rage.
Then he picked up the cracked-screen phone from the ground, remembering that he'd promised Sophie yesterday to pick her up from the hospital for discharge. He walked to the entrance hall, grabbed his car keys, and headed straight out the door.
Perhaps she really was too exhausted—Sophie had slept through the night in the noisy hospital environment, waking up only when daylight came. Glancing at the IV drip still running, she simply pulled the needle out of her hand and walked out of the ward.
"Why are you out here?" A nurse emerging from another room looked surprised to see her. "Where's your IV bag?" Seeing that Sophie hadn't taken any precautions and a large bead of blood was forming at the needle site, she grew even more anxious. "How could you just pull it out? I only just set it up for you." She then pulled Sophie over to the nurses' station to treat it.
"I want to be discharged."
"You can't! The doctor said you still need IV fluids today, and after that, several tests before we can determine if you're ready to leave. Besides, you still look exhausted. Why won't you listen to the doctor? Go back and lie down properly."
"I have an exam tomorrow. I need to go home and study today—I can't stay in the hospital."
"But—"
"I have to be discharged." That stubborn streak in Sophie surfaced again.
"Fine," the nurse said reluctantly, "but I still need to check with the doctor." After calling the doctor, he even came out in person to persuade Sophie to at least finish today's treatment, but it was no use. The obstinate girl had only one response: "I have to be discharged." In the end, they had no choice but to process the paperwork and let her go.
Sophie had just finished the discharge procedures and reached the entrance when she ran into Ned, who was about to walk into the clinic.
She stared at him, thinking at first it was a hallucination. But after a moment's thought, she knew exactly who had told Ned she was here.
"I've come to find you." His expression was as calm as ever. "Are you cleared for discharge?"
"I'm fine now." She said lightly, downplaying it. "What do you want with me?"
"Even if we've broken up, I'm still your boss. When a subordinate falls ill, it's only right that I come visit." Ned's answer was perfectly natural, as if it were obvious.
Hearing the words "we've broken up," Sophie's heart clenched in pain, and her face paled.
"I saw your resignation letter." Ned looked at Sophie with indifferent eyes. "Why are you resigning?"
"We're no longer suitable to work together." Sophie tried to mimic his demeanor, answering coolly.
"Reason? Just because we broke up—is that the reason?"
"Is another reason needed? Isn't the reason for the breakup enough?" Sophie didn't understand why he could draw such a clear line—before the breakup and after—while she was still in pain, still confused, still lost in the haze.
"You don't strike me as someone who can't separate personal and professional matters." Ned remained as calm and detached as ever.
"I hope I'm not, but I'm afraid I am." She gazed at him. "So, to prevent myself from becoming the kind of person I despise, I choose to resign. That way, things will be simpler."
Ned stared back at her. "Your concern is valid." His reply was light and detached.
Sophie looked into his wounding eyes, her heart flooded with endless bitterness. She simply couldn't understand how, overnight, they had become strangers.
"However, it was my father—the chairman—who originally asked you to be my assistant. If you want to resign, you should report it to him."
"Please pass the message on for me, General Manager." Staring at a small patch of moss sprouting by the roadside, she tried to keep her voice steady.
"So you're certain you want to leave?" Ned continued expressionlessly. "There's really no need for this."
"There's every need." Sophie said stubbornly. "Because I don't want to see you anymore. I don't want to look at you and feel the urge to keep asking why you broke up with me."
Sophie lifted her head and looked straight into his frosty, emotionless eyes. "You said you loved me. You said your choice was love! You also said that whether I was happy or sad, I should think of you and never forget you." She continued, "All those things you once told me—do they mean nothing now?"
Ned showed no reaction.
"I kept telling myself not to ask, not to ask why. But how can I keep pretending nothing happened, pretending I don't care?" Sophie took a deep breath. "So now I'm asking you: Why did you break up with me? Why make me hurt like this? Why watch me suffer?"
After pouring it all out in one breath, the tears she had been suppressing with all her strength finally rolled down her cheeks...
In that moment, time seemed to freeze. Between the two of them, there was only the distant noise of traffic from the street and utter silence.
"You're too naive—that's why you don't understand men. People often say things without thinking, and men do it even more." After a long standoff, Ned spoke first.
Sophie looked at his nonchalant expression... "What do you mean?"
"I told you, you're too naive. You took a man's sweet nothings as truth." His tone was calm—calmly delivering cruel words. "Those were just my sweet nothings. When I said them, I meant them at the time. But a man's sincerity expires quickly. Once it's expired, all those beautiful 'promises' from the past become 'lies' in the present."
Sophie stared at him as if he were speaking a language she couldn't comprehend. "Sincerity... expires?" For some reason, she found the excuse almost laughable.
"Of course. That's the kind of man I am—one who can easily hurt women. If you can't bear it, then breaking up is the only option." Ned looked at her levelly, saying it as though it were the most natural thing in the world.