I'm Afraid I Won't Be Able to Leave

"Because of Grandma Sinclair’s surgery fees?" That was the only thing Chester Hale could think of.

"No, I didn’t even know him back then. The money for Grandma Sinclair’s surgery came from a contract I... signed with Azure Bay."

Leah Sinclair had run into Chester Hale at Azure Bay once before. He was there for a business dinner, and when he saw her, he had a pretty good idea of why she was working there.

But he hadn’t expected that Leah Sinclair had been contracted to Azure Bay. Hearing her mention it now, he was at a loss for words. He knew that sort of arrangement existed at Azure Bay, and he slowly began to understand what had happened.

"Azure Bay gave me the eight hundred thousand. The one who bought me out of Azure Bay was Third Master Keating. So who he is, what his status is, none of that matters to me. To put it bluntly, he only has one role in my life: my sugar daddy."

Chester Hale was silent for a moment after she finished. "Leah Sinclair, Grandma Sinclair told me you were always a good, sensible kid, but very stubborn. She said that after you found out you were taken in, you never seemed to cry again. Someone with your personality... shouldn’t be the type to let herself be kept."

"My grandma even told you that? Looks like you and my grandma talked a lot, Dr. Hale." Leah Sinclair chuckled, standing up to grab a can of beer. She opened it and began to drink it slowly.

"Don’t get the wrong idea. At the time, your grandma knew how hard you were working. She came to me in secret and said she wanted to give up on treatment. I asked her why, when you were so actively raising money, and that’s when she told me. She didn’t want to be a burden to you. She even wanted me to help convince you to give up."

Chester Hale explained hurriedly. He wasn’t the type to pry into people’s private lives; it was just that Grandma Sinclair probably needed someone to talk to back then.

Leah Sinclair had to raise money for the surgery, so she couldn’t stay at the hospital to take care of her all the time. Meanwhile, her own son and daughter-in-law never showed up at all.

So when Chester Hale had free time, he would occasionally go and talk with her.

"It doesn’t matter. It’s not exactly a secret where I’m from. No one is born to be anything, Dr. Hale."

"It’s not that I never cried when I was little. But for people like us, tears are the most useless things in the world. If crying could change your fate, there wouldn’t be so many miserable people in this world."

"I know the property prices and purchasing conditions here. The fact that you can live here means you’re not an ordinary person. To people like you, eight hundred thousand is just a drop in the bucket. But for me back then, it was a number I couldn’t even dare to imagine. I was desperate and grasping at straws, and I took the wrong path. I accept that."

Leah Sinclair leaned back on the sofa, speaking of these things with a detached air. There was no fluctuation in her emotions, as if she were talking about someone else’s life.

"But... you shouldn’t let yourself spiral downward like this. If you need money, I can lend it to you. You can pay him back and leave him. I’m not in a hurry to be repaid. You’ve just graduated and have a bright future ahead. I believe you’ll do very well for yourself," Chester Hale said after a moment of silence.

He wasn’t sure why he wanted to help Leah Sinclair. He had been thinking about it for the past few days. As a doctor, he had certainly seen many suffering people, and he understood that life was hard for everyone.

No matter how wealthy his family was, he couldn’t help everyone. He could only do his best to reduce the unnecessary financial burdens on poor families as much as possible.

But listening to what Leah Sinclair had just said, even though she was so calm, Chester Hale felt a sudden, inexplicable ache in his heart.

"Is this considered spiraling? Maybe. You might not believe this, but before I moved in here, I’d only met him three times. The first time was a complete accident, and he was out three hundred thousand. The second time, I ran into a pervert, and he was out another two hundred fifty thousand. The third time, I ran into someone else, and this time he was out a straight eight hundred thousand. See? Just three times, and he’d already spent one million three hundred fifty thousand on me. And he didn’t have to spend any of that money."

At this, Leah Sinclair laughed out loud. "Maybe I’m just bad luck for Third Master Keating. He really could have just ignored me, whether I was being harassed by a pervert or being dragged away by someone else. But he got involved."

"So, you don’t need to pity me, Dr. Hale. Compared to pity, at least my arrangement with Third Master Keating is a clear-cut transaction. It’s fair to both of us, really. I saw plenty of people at Azure Bay. He wasn’t the first person who offered to have me stay with him, but he’s the only one I wanted to be with."

Chester Hale was silent for a long time. Finally, he stood up quietly and said, "I’m sorry to have intruded."

Leah Sinclair didn’t see him out. It wasn’t until she heard the door close that she hugged her knees, buried her head, and curled up on the sofa. The truth was, she did cry.

When she was little, she cried a lot. But every time she did, her two older cousins would beat her, calling her an unwanted wild child and forbidding her to cry. If she cried, the beatings were worse. After a while, Leah Sinclair didn’t dare to cry anymore.

After she grew up, she cried even less. Thinking back, in all these years, she’d only cried once: when she woke up with Asher Keating for the first time.

Those were tears for losing her virginity. Another time was when she nearly ran into Ben Coleman, crying out of lingering fear.

This time, she supposed, was the third. Her tears slowly soaked into her clothes. Even though she was all alone, she only dared to cry in silence.

Asher Keating smoked his cigarette, quietly watching the screen where Leah Sinclair was curled into a ball. He hadn’t known she was abandoned.

When he had looked into her before, he only wanted to know how she had ended up at Azure Bay. After he learned it was a misunderstanding, he hadn’t bothered with it again. ’No wonder she’s so stubborn,’ he thought. ’She probably had no one to protect her growing up.’

She sat like that for who knows how long before her phone pinged. After a long while, she fumbled for it. It was a voice message from Sheila Hughes. She tapped it and listened.

"To my most, most, most beautiful, most, most, most adorable, most, most, most wonderful Leah, happy birthday! I’m so sorry, I’ve been so busy lately, my days have been a total blur. I just looked at the time and remembered it’s your birthday today! Did you have cake? I always used to buy you one. I’m not with you this year, so you have to remember to buy one for yourself, okay? Oh, and remember to make a wish! Birthday wishes are the most powerful! You have to wish for us both to get rich overnight!! Then we could quit our jobs and travel the world. Don’t forget me when you’re rich!"

The next voice message played automatically. "Happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you, happy birthday to you! Leah! Remember, no matter what happens, I’ll always be there for you."

Sheila Hughes had returned to her hometown after graduation. Leah Sinclair hadn’t seen her in a long time. Listening to her voice, Leah Sinclair’s eyes grew even redder. With trembling hands, she replied to Sheila Hughes: "Sheila, I knew you were the best."

She glanced up at the cake on the table. Chester Hale hadn’t taken it with him when he left. Leah Sinclair slowly sat up, unwrapped the cake, and stuck a single candle in it.

She found a lighter, lit the candle, and turned off the lights. Kneeling on the floor between the sofa and the coffee table, she slowly sang the birthday song to herself, and then began to make her wishes.

"I hope Grandma Sinclair stays healthy forever. I hope Sheila and I get rich overnight. I hope... Third Master Keating will be safe and sound."