Major newspapers and magazines began to comment on the news of Brian's acquisition of his in-law's company.

Some say that Joanne had already renounced her daughter-father relationship with Steven. It was simply a business war which was not related to the in-law relationship.

Others also said that Patricia's interview with the TV station and her smearing remarks toward Joanne regarding Mia's murder case had agitated Brian, who was now teaching Patricia a lesson.

Steven was also discharged from the hospital on the day of Mia's funeral. In a blink of time, the man who once dominated the business industry seemed to have aged years. He was not active in combating Lambert Group's acquisition.

So people continued on to guess. Since Mia was no longer alive, Steven was out of successor. He was trying to pass on his inheritance to his only daughter in disguise.

At the same time, there were rumors of Patricia seeking a divorce with Steven and saying that it was necessary to take advantage of the Scott Group while it had not yet fallen into the hands of others. She wanted a divorce while Steven still had a property to be divided. Otherwise, she would not be able to get anything after a while.

Brian had always paid attention to financial news such that at home, several newspapers would be updated every day. Therefore, Joanne had read more or less news from different sections of the newspaper. She just felt bitterly disappointed for Steven.

She said to Brian, "if it were my mother, she would not seek divorce at this time even if they were out of love."

Because her mother had loved Steven deeply. Even if there was no more love, she would still stay with Steven during the difficult times for they had once loved.

She looked at Brian half-jokingly and half-heartedly. "If one day, you have nothing left, I will learn from Patricia and abandon you to save myself!"

Joanne ran away after she finished speaking. Brian did not even take her words to heart.

Two days later, Mrs. Norris's condition had completely stabilized and she was transferred from the intensive care unit to a general ward.

Exhilarated, Freya especially left work one hour earlier. She ordered a lot of Mr. Norris and her mom's favorite dishes from the hotel and brought them to the hospital. The smell of the food completely suppressed the smell of disinfectant in the ward.

She took a bite of each dish then nodded and said, "The chefs nowadays are getting less and less mindful. The taste is getting less authentic every day. Mr. Norris, if you don't wake up soon, you might never taste the authentic food again."

As for her mother, Freya changed her tactics. "Ms. Zhou, aren't you most afraid of getting old? You can't do a beauty spa or use skin care products just by lying here. Your skin is aging day after day. Why don't you wake up and stop such horrible things from happening?"

She had been speaking the whole time while she was eating, until the food piled up to her throat. Yet Mr. Norris and Ms. Zhou made no reaction at all from their beds.

Freya's eyes reddened uncontrollably, but she still tried to lift her lips. "You guys must want to rest for another day, right? Well then, I'll stop annoying you guys."

She lowered her head and started to gulp.

"Freya." Travis sat on the opposite side, looking distressed. "Don't do this."

Freya shrugged her shoulders, her eyes were red but she smiled heartlessly. "I'm not doing anything."

On the next day, Freya tried to contact the British company. The other party decided not to consider cooperation with Norris Group given the current unstable situation.

Despite Freya's efforts and preparations, the other party denied Norris Group due to the company's new leader, and it almost made Freya collapse.

News like this could not be concealed. Some people secretly worried for Freya, while others waited to see Freya's arrogance extinguished.

This day, Freya fell in a terrible mood and began to complain as soon as she arrived at the hospital after work.

"President Bushes and the old guys were waiting to see my jokes and hoping that I would fail, I knew it."

"Mr. Norris, although you often scolded me, now, I realized you are the kindest!"

"If only I had listened to you and married Travis. Then you would not... Mr. Norris! Dad!"

Just a second ago, Mr. Norris's fingers moved when she mentioned marrying Travis.

As if her heart had been hit by something heavy, she gazed emptily for a second before she got up and rushed out of the ward to find a doctor. She said ecstatically, "my father's hand just moved a moment ago! Is he going to wake up?"

Several experts poured into the ward to check while Freya waited anxiously with her hands tightly twisted together.

At this time, her heart felt bitten by a million ants and she couldn't wait until the next second to hear that familiar voice of Mr. Norris calling her name.

"Miss Freya, it's just a nerve reflex."

The doctor's words extinguished the hope in Freya's heart.

After the doctors left, the ward fell silent for a long time. Freya finally forced a smile. "It's alright. Mr. Norris, I know you must be able to hear me, as long as you can hear me..."

Another day had past, Freya got tired of repeating the same thing to Mr. Norris over and over again. Instead, she began reading the newspaper to him.

She still remembered that Mr. Norris always read the newspaper during breakfast every day. He didn't care for civil gossip; he was only concerned about finance. So she only read the news from the finance section.

The newspaper just covered a report on the Qin Group and mentioned Travis's name. Freya noticed that whenever she read the name "Travis", Mr. Norris's hand would twitch once.

She set aside the newspaper and moved closer to the bed. "Dad, can you hear me? Can you move fingers again for me?"

"..." There was no response.

Freya became anxious. "Mr. Norris, I'll let Travis come to visit you!"

"..."

There was still no response; the hope in her heart was extinguished again.

Freya fell in decadence. She closed her eyes and the darkness before her eyes gushed up like a tide, drawing her into the wave.

The rims of her eyes felt warm, but she could only hold back the tears.

Two minutes later, Freya suddenly opened her eyes, and her gaze no longer reflected decadency. Instead, it looked firmly determined.

She could not give up or feel despair at this time. Otherwise, she would really lose.

The next day early morning, she saw Chris downstairs of the hospital.

Why was he at the hospital? Was he sick again?

Her heart felt firmly gripped by a hand, but when she took a closer look, she noticed Chris was dressed in suits. He didn't look sick; rather, he seemed to be waiting here.

The hand which gripped on Freya's heart let go as she looked away from Chris and walked another way.

Chris marched up to her in a few steps and grabbed her hand.

"Let go." Freya said coldly, "it'll be bad if my fiance saw it."

A layer of frost quickly loomed over Chris's eyes. "Fiance?"

He had only gone to the UK briefly. After the plane landed back home, he came directly to the hospital from the airport. Since when did Freya get a fiance?

Freya dared not to confront Chris.

It turned out that after all the unexpected things she had faced and accepted during this time, she still did not learn much.

"Look at me!" Chris suddenly pulled her into his arms violently. "Who is your fiance?"

Freya's eyes emitted a touch of fear. "What do you want?"

"What are you afraid of?" Chris smiled. "Everyone knows murder is illegal. I won't kill him."

This was the truly horrifying sentence. At this time, Chris looked truly scary that chills were running up the back of Freya...

"Let go of her!"

Travis appeared with a sullen look, but Chris was deaf to his words. The smile on his lips turned cold. "Is he your fiance?"

"Why can't he be?" Freya smiled with great satisfaction. "I think he is much better than you, in every aspect." She emphasized on the latter part.

Sure enough, Chris's face instantly fell gloomy. She took the opportunity to break free from his restraint and dragged Travis away.

Once they got in the car, Travis commented half jokingly and halfheartedly "I know you wanted to graciously walk away from Chris. But in my opinion, you were merely running away."

Freya opened the window irritably and turned away her head. "I guess you can't appreciate my posture!"

Travis smiled. "What fiance was he talking about?"

Freya's eyelashes flipped down, "... I will tell you at night. After work, come to the hospital with me. Just think of it as... visiting my dad."

Travis could not guess what Freya was up to and shrugged his shoulders. "I'm all yours."

When they returned to the hospital in the evening, Freya said to Travis, "I discovered that whenever I mention you, my father will respond to me."

Puzzled, Travis asked, "so?"

Freya grabbed Travis's hand and walked into the ward with him to sit down beside Mr. Norris's bed. She solemnly said to Mr. Norris, "Dad, I thought it through, you were right. I am willing to marry Travis."

A white light flashed across in Travis's head and before he could respond, Freya let go of his hand and said ecstatically, "look, my dad's hand is moving!"

Indeed, as Freya finished speaking, Mr. Norris's fingers twitched twice and stopped.

"My dad must be able to hear me!" Freya's excitement grew. "Travis, he must be able to hear me!"

A ball of tangled mess in Travis's head made his mind more complicated than ever. "Freya, are you... serious?"

Freya just remembered to talk to Travis about it in detail and headed to the balcony.

"Travis, I had said a lot of things to hurt you before, I apologize." She looked at Travis and asked, "are... are you willing to marry me?"

Travis smiled and shook his head.

"..."

After a while, Travis said, "Freya, this is not a question whether I am still willing or not. It is a question of whether you are willing or not."

"I am willing!" Without a second of hesitation, Freya answered decisively.

"Let me ask you, when I shook my head earlier, were you sad?"

"..." Freya did not know how to respond.

"You were definitely not sad at all." Travis smiled bitterly. "You only felt surprised. Your head went blank for a moment, and then it didn't matter to you, right? Because you don't love me. Freya, you have to admit it, no matter how much you hate Chris right now, you still love him after all. Don't be silly, you will not be happy if you marry me."

"... I admit, I still love Chris." Freya lowered her head. "But he and I will never be together, and I will definitely not marry him."

After a pause, Freya's gaze became apologetic. "Travis, I'm sorry, I'm too selfish. I just decided to marry you at this time. I cannot become a qualified wife at all. You should just... take it as a joke."

Freya turned around to return to the ward, but Travis grabbed her hand from behind.

"Freya, have you thought it through, and are you willing to marry me?"

"... Yes."

Before the car accident, what Mr. Norris wanted the most was for her and Travis to get married. Yet, she did not listen to him.

If she got married to Travis now, perhaps Mr. Norris would be happy and decided to wake up?

No matter what... she and Chris could never be together.

Then it wouldn't matter to her whose name appeared in the spouse column.

"OK." Travis said, "I will pick you up tomorrow morning, and we will go get the marriage certificate."