Chapter 366
“Time’s up,” the prison guard announced.
Vivian hung up the phone. The guard escorted her away.
Just before leaving, she turned back and gave Lilian a long, meaningful smile.
Yesterday, after Charlotte had pulled through and was out of danger, Lilian finally told Sean about James’s poisoning.
The doctors had said the poison had spread too far. James didn’t have much time left. There was no point keeping him in the ICU, so they moved him to a regular room so he could spend his final days with family.
Mrs. Jasper Sr. had suffered a heart attack from the shock and collapsed. She had been admitted to the hospital as well.
Since last night, Sean had been staying at the hospital. Aside from checking on his grandmother, he had remained by his father’s bedside the entire time.
Lilian arrived at the hospital in the afternoon, after visiting the prison and grabbing a quick lunch.
Inside James’s hospital room, she glanced at Sean.
“Have you eaten?”
Sean shook his head. “I don’t have an appetite.”
“You need to eat, even if you don’t feel like it. You’re injured too. You can’t go without food.”
She pulled out her phone and called Sean’s assistant, Sam. “Bring him lunch.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Sam had followed Sean to the hospital yesterday when Charlotte was rushed in. Later, when James was hospitalized for poisoning, Sam heard about that too. So Lilian didn’t even have to tell him where to deliver the food. He already knew.
“Your grandfather will be back in Jersey City tomorrow afternoon,” Lilian said to Sean.
Sean gave a quiet nod.
James was awake. He looked gaunt and hollow, his eyes sunken, and his lips faintly tinged with gray.
Lilian looked at him and sighed silently.
The man who had been arguing with her just last night was now lying here on the brink of death. Life was so unpredictable.
As the thought crossed her mind, a wave of sorrow swept through her.
Even if there had never been love between them, they had still spent nearly thirty years together as husband and wife. That
alone was a kind of bond.
James didn’t know that after hearing the doctor’s prognosis, Lilian had stayed up the entire night. She had lain awake in bed, wiping away silent tears in the dark.
Emotions had always been complicated. There might not have been any love left, but when someone you had lived with for thirty years was about to die, pretending it didn’t hurt would have been a lie.
Lilian looked at James. “Have you eaten?”
James already knew how bad things were. The doctors told him he had less than a month to live.
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He replied weakly, “What’s the point? I’m already like this. Whether I eat or not won’t change anything. Either way, I’m dying.
Lilian fell silent.
Sean added, “I had someone bring lunch, but he hasn’t touched a bite.”
“You should try to eat something,” Lilian said. It was all she could think to say.
James looked at her for a moment. Then he gave a bitter, tired smile. “I’m dying. Are you happy now?”
The words broke something inside her.
“James!” she suddenly shouted, her voice cracking with emotion. “I’m not as heartless as you think!”
James stared at her for a moment and said nothing.
Watching his parents like this, Sean felt a dull ache in his chest.
He let out a long sigh, then turned and quietly left the room, giving them some space to be alone.
Meanwhile, the police began investigating both the Jasper family villa and Vivian’s private residence.
They discovered several suspicious items.
