Chapter 57 Is this your pity?
"Juniper, what could you possibly want with me?"
Could it be Ophelia sent her as an intercessor? But he'd never liked Juniper; Ophelia couldn’t be foolish enough to think Juniper could sway him.
"Mr. Robert, are you free right now?"
"Nope," Robert curtly replied.
There was a silence from Juniper, and then she said in earnest, "Mr. Robert, I know you don’t think much of me, but I need to speak with you. There's something important to discuss. Could you possibly find a time for us to meet in person and talk it out?"
Something important...
Robert glanced at the man beside him, a spark of curiosity lighting up, "Ever been to Night Harbor Bar? I'm here having a drink. You’re welcome to join me."
After hanging up the phone, Robert casually draped his arm over Magnus's shoulder.
"Juniper will be here any minute. Aren't you a little curious about what important thing she's gotta discuss with me?" Robert prodded.
Magnus shook off his hand, his face as impassive as ever. "If you've got important business with her, then I'll leave you to it."
Robert grabbed him, insistent, "Cut the act! I know you're dying to find out. You can't go. I'm drunk, and if she comes onto me, there's no way I'm getting out of that scandal clean."
Magnus let out a laugh, barely containing his amusement. "You think Juniper is blind or something?"
"Didn't you know? Best friends often share the same taste in men. What if she's got her eye on me too?"
"Seems like Ophelia doesn't fancy you much, though," Magnus pointed out, dry.
Fifteen minutes later, Juniper made her entrance into the Night Harbor Bar.
With a snap of his fingers, Robert gestured to her. "Over here!"
Hearing her name, Juniper's gaze inadvertently swept over to Magnus and she hesitated for a second.
With a sense of inevitability, she approached.
First, she addressed Magnus with an awkward greeting, "Sorry, I didn't realize you'd be here."
She had promised to stay out of his sight as much as possible.
But here she was, breaking that promise within days.
His response was indifferent, "It's not the first time you've broken a promise. I'm used to it."
It was as if he was saying, 'Juniper, you're a repeat offender.' His tone spoke volumes.
A dull pain encroached on Juniper's heart, but she couldn't resist explaining, "If I'd known Mr. Blackwood was here, I wouldn't have come."
Magnus's fingers, gripping his glass tightly, suddenly released it with a "thwack" onto the table, possibly betraying his irritation. He got up, "I need the restroom."
He walked past Juniper, treating her as if she were invisible.
Meanwhile, Robert leaned back, his leg propped under the stool's crossbar, and puffed on a cigarette. "So? What's this all about?"
Juniper had intended to explain that Jennifer wasn't actually the daughter of Ophelia and Thomas Hawthorne, but her own secret was...
Just inconveniently, Magnus was also there.
She wasn't quite sure how to break the news to Magnus, and today clearly wasn't the right time.
"Mr. Robert, that child isn't Ophelia's, you've got it wrong."
Robert offhandedly queried, "Oh? If not hers, are you suggesting it's yours?"
Juniper's face turned pale, as the question caught her off guard.
Preoccupied with the vexations of his divorce and under the influence of a fair amount of alcohol, Robert failed to notice Juniper's agitation.
He said with a frown and a hint of impatience, "Go tell Ophelia if she wants to make peace, she should come herself. Sending someone else to plead her case won't cut it. As for the kid, there's no way I’ll accept him."
Taking a deep breath to steady herself, Juniper clarified, "The child is not hers and Thomas Hawthorne’s. She adopted him from an orphanage; Ophelia has been sponsoring him for years. You’re truly mistaken, Mr. Robert."
"So you say it’s not theirs? Why would she lie if that’s the case?"
Robert exhaled a cloud of smoke.
Juniper, unable to tolerate the scent of smoke, coughed violently upon inhaling it, the sharp pain in her chest from an old wound seeming to tear anew with each cough.
Clutching at her chest, she tried to ease the pain.
Suddenly, the cigarette was snatched from Robert’s hand.
Magnus decisively crushed the butt in the ashtray, "Drinking that much and smoking on top of it, doesn’t it make you feel awful?"
Robert replied, vaguely mocking, "Feel awful? Is that supposed to be concern?"
His words hung ambiguously in the air, leaving it unclear if his concern was for himself or for Juniper.
Magnus was back.
Juniper knew it was time to leave. "Mr. Robert, I’ve said what I had to. Whether you listen is up to you, but you've really got the wrong idea about Ophelia."
"Enough, just go. I don’t need an outsider meddling in my affairs with Ophelia. If she has something to say, tell her to come to me directly."
Without further ado, Juniper turned and exited the bar.
...
Summer in the Imperial Capital was always changeable.
In the middle of the night, a thunderstorm erupted.
Standing under the shelter of the bar's awning, Juniper was on her phone, trying to hail a cab.
People continued to stream out of the bar behind her.
Stumbling in their drunkenness, several patrons bumped into Juniper, one after the other, seemingly aggravating her wound.
Her face was a mask of pain, drained of color as she clutched at her left chest and slowly sank to a crouch.
A sleek black Maybach cruised past the entrance of the bar.
Inside, the man glanced at her through the rearview mirror and did nothing more.
The car drove on.
Fat raindrops assaulted the windshield, quickly swept away by the wipers.
This part of town, bustling and lined with bars, would be a nightmare to get a cab in such a downpour.
He glanced in the rearview mirror again, subconsciously—
There she was. Juniper, propping an umbrella with one hand and clutching her left chest with the other, walking through the storm.
She was so thin, so fragile; it seemed the wind might snap her in two.
Magnus's brow was creased deeply.
With a sharp turn of the wheel, the black Maybach swung back around.
...
Juniper, head down, aimed for the subway entrance up ahead to escape the rainy night.
Suddenly, a jarring honk cut through the misty veil of precipitation.
She looked up to see the black Maybach beside her.
The window rolled down to reveal a man’s strikingly handsome and stern face.
“Get in.”
Two words, a command.
Juniper’s grip tightened on the umbrella handle. "No need. I can catch the subway just ahead."
Another car pulled up behind them, the driver leaning out to yell, "Move it! You gonna go or what? Don't block the damn road!"
The man was unmoved.
His deep-set eyes fixed intently on Juniper.
Magnus—a man whose will she found impossible to resist.
Umbrella folded, Juniper was about to slide into the backseat.
His voice suddenly turned cold: “I'm not your chauffeur. Get in the front.”
Juniper opened the passenger door and got in.
The black Maybach glided through the hazy rain of the night.
“Your address.”
“What?”
“I'm taking you home.”
Juniper didn’t want to be trouble. "Just drop me off at the subway station up ahead."
“I don't like owing favors.”
Juniper was taken aback. "But you don’t owe me—"
His gaze settled on the injured spot over her left chest, implying something more.
She wore a white T-shirt, now with a faint stain of blood seeping through.
“To the hospital first.”
He turned the steering wheel and headed toward the hospital.
At the hospital, the doctor changed the dressing for Juniper and spoke to Magnus, who stood at the door, "You're her boyfriend, right? Come over and help press down on this cotton ball. We're out of adhesive strips here; I need to grab some from the supply room."
"Doctor, I can do it mys—"
Juniper didn't get to finish her sentence before Magnus walked in with long strides.
"The bleeding's pretty heavy; keep the pressure on for a while," the female doctor instructed.
Juniper had already taken off her white tee, leaving her in just her bra. She instinctively covered her chest.
"I've seen it all before. How are we supposed to stop the bleeding with you covering up like that?" Magnus's gaze was intense and direct.
Lowering her arms, Juniper turned her face slightly away, her ears burning with heat.
Magnus took the tweezers, pressed the cotton ball onto her bleeding wound, and applied a gentle pressure.
Juniper let out a muffled groan of pain.
With a faintly mocking tone, Magnus said, "Feeling the pain now? Didn't think this through before acting, did you?"
"Because it was you, I didn't think about the consequences," Juniper looked at him and spoke softly.
The motion of Magnus pressing down on the wound with the tweezers paused momentarily.
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