Chapter 59: I Can Help You
In the car, Vivian Lowell was getting drowsy.
She’d been incredibly busy these past two days, and her time at the pet hospital just now had been a chaotic chase with the cats.
Even though some of the cats were sick and weak, their instincts remained. Perhaps the man in the raincoat, or their previous owners, hadn’t treated them well.
These cats were a real handful.
Whether it was applying deworming medication or putting them back in their cages, all they ever thought about was escaping.
Vivian would get one settled, only for another to dart out. The moment she finally caught it, it would start struggling to break free. She spent nearly the entire evening wrestling with them.
"Julian, I’m so tired."
Vivian Lowell murmured.
She didn’t know if Julian Faulkner had heard her. Regardless, after saying her piece, she leaned back in the passenger seat and sank into a deep sleep.
In a hazy daze, Vivian Lowell felt someone cover her with a blanket or something, and her body instantly grew much warmer.
A long time passed.
When Vivian Lowell opened her eyes, she found the car had already stopped.
’Huh?’
’Are we here?’
Vivian Lowell glanced out the window and saw the Faulkner Villa right before her eyes, shrouded in dim light.
’We’re already here!’
Once she was sure, she glanced over at the driver’s seat. She was about to ask Julian Faulkner why he hadn’t woken her, but then she realized he had also fallen asleep.
"..."
’Why is he sleeping in the car too?’
Vivian Lowell sighed. Just as she was about to wake Julian Faulkner, she shifted, and the phone in her pocket tumbled out.
Vivian went to pick up the phone. The screen lit up, recognizing her face, and her eyes widened in shock when she saw the time.
’Three o’clock!’
’What the hell!’
’She only meant to take a short nap, but it’s already three in the morning?’
Vivian Lowell glanced at the jacket covering her. It was a black down coat, one she’d seen in Julian Faulkner’s closet before.
She just had never seen Julian Faulkner wear it.
At the time, she’d wondered about it. For a man like Julian Faulkner, who was always dressed to the nines in a suit, she couldn’t even imagine what he would look like in a down coat.
’Although, he wasn’t wearing this coat when he arrived, either.’
’So why did he specifically bring it with him?’
’Don’t tell me he secretly puts it on when no one’s looking, then takes it off to maintain his cool, aloof image whenever someone watches him?’
Somehow, Vivian Lowell felt that Julian Faulkner wasn’t that childish.
As she mulled it over, Vivian Lowell looked at Julian Faulkner again, her gaze softening considerably.
’He must have seen how soundly I was sleeping and decided not to wake me, right?’
’But why is his window open!’
Vivian seized the opportunity to reach over and touch Julian Faulkner’s forehead.
’Thank goodness. Even though he’s only wearing a turtleneck sweater, his constitution is good. The fever hasn’t come back.’
’Should I wake him up?’
Vivian Lowell hesitated. Sleeping in a car wasn’t comfortable, and he might wake up with a stiff neck. Plus, Julian must have opened the window for ventilation.
Even though it was March, the nights in Aethelburg were still very cold. It would be terrible if he caught another chill.
"You’re awake?"
Just as she was wondering, Julian Faulkner woke up. Vivian Lowell let out a sigh of relief and said in a softer tone, "We just got home. You should have woken me up."
"It’s very late. Let’s go back and sleep, okay?"
Julian Faulkner nodded. He was exhausted too. He rolled up the window, and he and Vivian Lowell went upstairs together.
By the time they finished washing up, it was already half past three.
Vivian Lowell had just dried her face and was starting her skincare routine when Julian Faulkner knocked softly on her door. "Are you asleep yet?" he asked.
"Not yet," Vivian Lowell answered. "What’s up?"
Julian Faulkner hesitated for a moment before asking, "Everything with the pet hospital tonight... is it all taken care of?"
The pet hospital.
Hearing Julian Faulkner bring it up, Vivian Lowell couldn’t help but sigh. "Someone messed with us. They dumped a bunch of sick cats. Eleanor and I will figure out how to handle it."
The man at the door was silent for another moment.
Vivian finished her skincare and was starting to think Julian Faulkner had already left when he spoke again. "I can help, if you need it."
"Mm-hm!"
Vivian Lowell agreed readily, though she had no intention of actually asking Julian Faulkner for help.
Theirs was just a partnership, really. Vivian would be more than happy if they could become friends, but to talk about being husband and wife...
The moment that thought entered her mind, Vivian Lowell’s heart suddenly started to POUND, her pulse quickening.
’No!’
She quickly suppressed the thought.
Their marriage was in name only; it was impossible for them to become a real couple. She shouldn’t let her imagination run wild and create trouble for herself.
After a moment of quiet, Vivian Lowell calmed down, burrowed into her blankets, and slowly drifted off to sleep.
Things progressed surprisingly smoothly.
Early the next morning, just as Vivian Lowell woke up, she opened her phone to find a message from Eleanor Rhodes. It said a nearby resident had recognized the man in the raincoat.
It was just as Eleanor Rhodes and Vivian Lowell had suspected!
He was the owner of a cat café that had gone out of business from poor management. He had neglected the cats for a long time, so they had become strays for a while and eventually gotten sick.
He knew that Eleanor Rhodes’s pet hospital often rescued cats, so he planned to bring his cats there for free treatment.
Then, he would pretend to be an adopter, "adopt" two of his own cats back, and sell them to recoup his losses.
The information Eleanor Rhodes sent to Vivian Lowell was from the man’s own confession after the police arrested him.
"That’s despicable!"
Eleanor Rhodes finished her message, fuming, "This person is absolute scum! He only opened the cat café to make money and treated the animals as nothing more than his tools!"
"He doesn’t care about those poor cats one bit!"
"The police only filed a case because I got my dad to help. What he did isn’t technically illegal, after all. At most, it’s a civil matter, infringing on another’s property."
For something like this, he’ll be detained for a few days and get a fine, but there can’t be any more severe punishment.
Eleanor Rhodes sighed.
"If he’s this cruel to kittens, who knows how he treats people!"
Vivian Lowell looked at Eleanor Rhodes’s message, sighed, and replied, "It’s okay. After this incident, the media has also exposed his actions."
"Even if he gets out after a few days in custody, his life won’t be easy. The people who know him will definitely give him the cold shoulder."
"If he pays for the cats’ medical bills later, we can help clarify the situation for him. But if he ignores it completely, then we don’t need to care what kind of life he leads from now on."
Vivian Lowell felt this was very fair.
Everyone’s an adult. Before doing something, especially something that hurts others for no benefit to oneself, you should think long and hard about whether it’s the right thing to do.
And, if you’re exposed, whether or not you can truly bear the consequences.
"Right!"
Eleanor Rhodes thought Vivian Lowell made a lot of sense and replied, "Vivian, thanks for helping me come up with a plan. And you know what? Because of this whole incident with the raincoat guy, my pet hospital has gotten a ton of promotion out of it."
"There were already people waiting outside this morning before the clinic even opened! Some were bringing their cats in for deworming or to get fixed, and others were here to adopt kittens!"
"This is great! I can finally find opportunities to find homes for the kittens that have been stuck at the pet hospital!"
"Gotta go, someone else just arrived. I have to get back to work! Come help me if you have time!"
"Okay!"
After replying, Vivian Lowell thought for a moment.
Things had been busy at her company recently, but she had already finished the preliminary blueprints. All that was left was to hand them over to the client and make revisions according to their feedback.
She could go to the office in the morning and then go help Eleanor in the afternoon.
Vivian Lowell was very happy at the thought.
When she came out of her room, Vivian Lowell was perhaps a bit too giddy. Julian Faulkner noticed her happy mood at once and looked over, his eyes filled with surprise.
"What are you so happy about? Is the matter resolved?"
Vivian Lowell nodded enthusiastically. "Not only that, but thanks to my friend in the media, Eleanor’s and my pet hospital got a wave of good publicity!"
"Now more people know our ’Adopt, Don’t Shop’ slogan! I’m sure lots of people will come to adopt kittens."
"Mm."
Julian Faulkner nodded, then suddenly grabbed Vivian Lowell’s sleeve and started walking out.
???
"Julian, where are we going?"
Vivian Lowell demanded, seeing that Julian Faulkner was walking as if in a great hurry.
"To adopt a cat."
???
’Adopt... a cat?’
’No way!!’