Chapter 901 Don't Force Yourself If You Don't Want to Smile
After Heath and the others left, the chaos surrounding the incident didn't settle down.
Even though it wasn't confirmed if Lyra was responsible, most people already saw her as the culprit.
Suddenly, she found herself completely isolated.
Only Jeffery treated her the same as before.
Whenever someone at the hospital started spreading rumors, he would step in and shut them down, saying, "This is a hospital for treating patients, not a place for gossip. If you want to chat, do it somewhere else."
Those harsh comments finally started to die down a bit.
Jeffery returned to his office.
Hearing the door, Lyra quickly wiped her eyes before looking up and giving him a smile that seemed no different from usual. "Mr. Gray, thanks for believing in me."
Jeffery looked at her for a moment. "If you don't feel like smiling, then don't."
She was taken aback.
"Your smile looks terrible."
"I'm sorry, I..."
Lyra instinctively started to apologize.
Over the past few days, she had developed a habit of apologizing first whenever something happened, often without even realizing it.
Jeffery noticed this.
He looked at Lyra, speaking seriously and sternly, "You have nothing to apologize to me for. The one you should be apologizing to is yourself. When people spread rumors about you, won't you fight back?"
Lyra was silent for a moment, her voice barely audible. "I tried to explain, but no one believed me."
Some people spread rumors with just a few words, without caring about the truth.
Just like what Lyra was facing now.
Everyone called her ungrateful, saying she bit the hand that fed her, that the Hill family had adopted her.
They said the Hill family must have been blind.
But no one cared about what she had done for the Hill family or how they had treated her.
It felt like the whole world's malice was directed at her alone.
Lyra lowered her head, biting her lip. She didn't want to break down in front of Jeffery, but the grievances and bitterness in her heart had no outlet.
Facing the only person willing to listen, everything burst out.
"All these years, I've never shortchanged them. No matter how much money they needed, I worked hard to gather it, all because of Aaron's leg injury and Flora's tragic death in the car accident."
Jeffery frowned. "You never mentioned any of this before."
Lyra gave a bitter smile. "I don't have many close friends. All my free time is spent on part-time jobs."
Because of her nonstop work, Lyra had no time for socializing or doing what she wanted.
Even the simplest rest and leisure were luxuries for her.
Jeffery's frown deepened, a hint of anger showing in his cold eyes.
He didn't even know where this inexplicable frustration came from, but as he listened to Lyra, he couldn't help but imagine the scenes.
The more he thought about it, the more he despised the Hill family's behavior.
Lyra didn't notice Jeffery's emotions. "Actually, most of my motivation comes from myself. When I was little, they ignored me, but there was one person who was always kind to me—Flora, my sister."
Her eyelashes trembled, and her voice softened instinctively.
Flora's death was something Lyra never wanted to face.
She was the only one in the Hill family who treated Lyra well.
When Lyra was young, Heath and Elowen ignored her, and Aaron mostly teased her. At that time, he hadn't yet developed the later malicious thoughts towards her.
But it was still unpleasant.
Some people were rotten from the start, not just when they grew up.
Back then, Aaron often teased her, sometimes locking her out, sometimes losing her homework, causing her to be punished at school and scolded by Heath at home for being an embarrassment.
"They treated you like that?" Jeffery was furious just hearing it.
Lyra nodded. "When I was little, I didn't understand. It wasn't until I grew up that I realized it was because I wasn't their biological child."
Jeffery scoffed coldly. "That's just an excuse. If they never intended to treat you well, why adopt you in the first place?"
Lyra had no answer; she was puzzled too. For over a decade, this question lingered in her mind. She didn't understand why the Hill family insisted on adopting her if they didn't like her.
Maybe only they knew the answer.
After a long conversation, Jeffery rubbed his temples, his face cold under the light, his fingers long and distinct.
As Lyra focused on his hands, Jeffery suddenly asked, "So, do you still plan to stay entangled with them? Have you ever thought about finding your biological parents?"
Lyra's eyelids twitched at his words.
Jeffery thought, 'She must have considered it.'
He sat down, tapping his fingers on the table casually. "Tell me what happened that day."
Lyra knew he was referring to the details before Aaron's incident, so she took her time.
She told him everything.
After listening, Jeffery's frown deepened.
"You said he suddenly fainted?"
Lyra nodded.
Thinking back to that day, she still couldn't make sense of it.
If she, the person involved, was confused, others would be even more so.
But Jeffery was certain. "It was caused by drugs. Does Aaron have any bad habits?"
"You mean..."
Lyra's eyes widened. "No way. Aaron may be a jerk, but he wouldn't do anything illegal, would he?"
"There's a sixty percent chance he was using drugs," Jeffery said.
Jeffery had been an experimental subject before, making him sensitive to drugs, which led him to become a doctor.
This was his area of expertise.
Before coming to see Lyra, he had already checked the surveillance footage.
"The symptoms are very similar to an overdose reaction. From what you said, he often spends money without explanation. Most likely, it's spent on drugs."
Jeffery's analysis was convincing, making it seem highly plausible.
Lyra thought back, murmuring, "Indeed, he often asked me for money. His parents' pensions and savings were supposed to be substantial, but they all disappeared."
Once the thought process was clear, everything became obvious.
Lyra stood up abruptly. "So he used my money to buy drugs?"
She trembled with anger, unable to contain her fury. All her hard-earned money had been used for drugs.
What was all her hard work for?
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