Chapter 6

Jeanette nodded and put on her hat.

"I made plans to have lunch with Yvette."

Only then did Hank remember that his sister had recently returned from a trip. He grabbed some medicine, quickly treated the wounds on his hand, and followed Jeanette to the front door.

"I'll drive you there."

Jeanette was about to refuse, but he had already taken her hand and picked up his car keys. Before she could say another word, he led her outside.

Once they were in the car, Hank entered the restaurant into the navigation system and asked about their plans for the afternoon.

When he heard they were going shopping afterward, he was about to offer to join them when a new message popped up on his phone.

He opened it, pulled over to the side of the road, and turned to Jeanette with an apologetic expression.

"I was hoping to spend the day with you, but I just got assigned a flight at the last minute. Jeanette, would you mind taking a cab the rest of the way?"

Jeanette had caught a glimpse of the assignment on his phone, so she knew he was not making excuses. She nodded and opened the door.

After watching his car disappear into the distance, she raised her hand and hailed a taxi.

By the time she arrived at the restaurant, Yvette had already placed their order.

Beaming with excitement, Yvette pulled out a gift and held it out to Jeanette.

"Ta-da! A souvenir from my trip! Open it and see if you like it!"

Jeanette set the gift on her lap but did not unwrap it right away. Instead, she looked up at Yvette, her expression serious.

"Yvette, there's something I need to tell you. I... I'm planning to break up with your brother and go to Veyanna for further training. I'll probably be gone for three years."

Yvette's eyes widened until they were nearly round.

"What? Why so suddenly? Things seemed fine between you two. Why would you break up?"

Jeanette smiled and told her the truth.

"Because your brother doesn't love me. He only got together with me because I look like his ex-girlfriend. He's been treating me as her substitute all along."

Jeanette had already come to terms with the truth, so she spoke without the slightest tremor in her voice.

Yvette, however, exploded with anger. She slammed her palm against the table, her face filled with disbelief.

"His ex-girlfriend? Who? That Gibson girl? When they broke up, I remember my brother getting drunk every single day. All these years later, he still hasn't gotten over her? What does Cecilia have that you don't? You're way prettier than she is! My brother has a girl who's completely devoted to him, and he still can't stop thinking about Cecilia? And he even used you as her replacement?"

The more she spoke, the angrier she became. By the end, she had completely lost her appetite. After spending some time finding out where Hank was, she stormed out of the restaurant.

Jeanette knew how much Yvette had always been intimidated by her older brother. Seeing her stand up for her so fiercely touched her deeply. However, Jeanette had already decided to move on from Hank, and she did not want things to end in an ugly confrontation.

She hurried after Yvette, trying to stop her.

However, no matter how much Jeanette tried to talk her out of it, Yvette kept going until they reached Whiskey River Pub.

At the entrance to a private room, Yvette was just about to push the door open when she spotted Cecilia standing in the middle of the crowd, looking down at Hank with an arrogant smile.

"If you really want me to forgive you that badly, fine. Let me ride you like a horse, and I might consider it."

Before Hank could respond, several of his friends nearby erupted in outrage and rushed forward to stop her.

"Cecilia, that's going too far! You were the one in the wrong in the first place. You insisted on holding that ridiculous boyfriend audition, and that's what made Hank so angry he walked out!"

"Now you casually say you want to see him, and Hank drops everything to make you happy. He even turned down an urgent flight assignment at the last minute! He came here to apologize without even changing out of his captain's uniform. How can you be so unreasonable?"

"Exactly! Hank isn't just anyone. Nobody in Capital would dare talk down to him like that. How could he possibly let you humiliate him this way?"

Faced with their accusations, Cecilia remained completely unconcerned.

"I don't care about any of that. He was so harsh with me the other day that he scared me. I want him to apologize like this. Besides, what's wrong with letting the person who loves you carry you on his back? If he thinks he's too good for that, he shouldn't have come crawling back to me."

Amid the heated argument, Hank stood there with an icy expression. After a moment, he met Cecilia's spoiled, demanding gaze and asked in a low voice, "If I do this, will you stop holding these ridiculous boyfriend auditions?"

"Yes."

After receiving her answer, Hank undid the top few buttons of his captain's uniform and slowly bent forward.

"Get on."

Everyone stared at him with their mouths hanging open, unable to believe what they were seeing.

When Cecilia smugly climbed onto his back, Yvette was so furious that she looked ready to explode. Gritting her teeth, she started forward, but Jeanette grabbed her and dragged her toward the elevator.

Yvette cursed and struggled the entire way. She was just turning around to demand that Jeanette let go when she caught sight of her expression and froze.

Jeanette's face was completely blank, yet tears streamed down her cheeks like water pouring through a broken dam. Drop after drop landed on Yvette's hand, extinguishing the anger burning inside her.

Yvette immediately pulled Jeanette into her arms. Panicked and heartbroken, she wiped away her tears, her own voice thick with emotion.

"Jeanette, please don't cry. Please, stop crying.

"Okay, okay. You really shouldn't be with my brother anymore. I'll introduce you to other handsome guys, all right?"

Jeanette smiled, desperately trying to swallow the bitterness rising in her throat, but the sobs kept coming.

"Honestly... honestly, I'm not that heartbroken. I've already decided to let him go and start a new life."

However, if that were true, why was she crying?

Perhaps it was because seeing everything with her own eyes had brought back too many memories. Only now did she fully understand what Hank was capable of when he loved someone.

He could be affected by that person's every emotion.

He could throw caution to the wind and rush to their side.

He could set aside his pride and humble himself just to earn their forgiveness.

When Hank loved someone, he made no effort to hide it. His love was impossible to miss.

Jeanette had never been loved by him at all.