A Second Chance at Forever ( Eleanor Shultz )

Chapter 26 

After spending a night in the hospital, Eleanor’s high fever subsided completely. Although she still felt a bit weak, there was no need for her to stay in the hospital any longer. 

So, she asked Hailey to pay the hospital fee, and the two of them went straight home after completing the discharge procedures. 

Upon returning home, Hailey immediately got busy cooking in the kitchen. Eleanor wanted to help, but Hailey refused. 

“You just rest up, I’ll handle things here,” Hailey said, shooing Eleanor away with a wave of her hand. 

While her fever had gone, Eleanor’s heart failure had worsened. 

Her chest felt really painful, her head was barely stand. 

Unable to help Hailey, she did as she 

she 

both insufficient blood and oxygen supply, and she was so weak, she could 

told and returned 

her bedroom, struggling to support herself. 

Lying in bed, Eleanor wanted to get some sleep. Just then, she received a news notification about the entertainment industry on her phone, which sat on her bedside table. 

Since she met Bernard, she hadn’t been very informed about his schedule, but noticed that he occasionally made the news, so she followed some related accounts. 

She checked the news and saw that paparazzi had snapped pictures of Bernard carrying Sophie to the emergency room. The report claimed that their love had reignited. 

Most of the comments praised their appearance and family background, saying that they were the perfect, well–matched couple. 

As Eleanor read this, she also thought that they were indeed a suitable pair: Bernard, handsome and noble; Sophie, elegant and beautiful. 

With a bitter smile, she closed the news and was about to turn off her phone when she noticed an unread text. 

Opening the message, she found it was from an unknown number, asking, “why did you go to the hospital?”

Eleanor was startled. How did this person know she’d been to the hospital? 

Checking the time, she realized the message had been sent the night before, right when she woke up in the hospital… 

Eleanor stared at the message, a little incredulous. 

ནྭཱ འༀ ཚེ ཅ ཋོ ཅ ú ཇ ཇ ཝཿ ༞ ཡོ ཚ 

The only person she’d run into at the hospital last night was Bernard. Could it be from him? 

Trembling, she replied, “Who is this?” 

She didn’t expect an immediate response, but the next second, her phone buzzed again. 

“Answer me.” 

Eleanor’s heart pounded as she stared at the cold, detached message. It sounded like Bernard. 

But her intuition told her that he wouldn’t send her a message like this. 

Frowning, she texted back, “Who are you, really?” 

It took an hour for the reply to come. The mysterious person finally revealed his identity: “Josef.” 

Upon seeing his name, Eleanor’s heart, which had been racing, finally relaxed. 

She initially thought it was Bernard, but instead, it was Josef. 

But Josef’s number wasn’t this one. Had he changed it? 

Eleanor puzzled over this before deciding to call the mysterious number back directly. 

The mystery texter didn’t pick up, but merely sent a text message: “In a meeting.” 

Eleanor propped up her chin, deep in thought. Eventually, she mustered up the courage and dialed Josef’s work number. 

He answered quickly this time, speaking in a low, impatient voice. “I’m in a meeting. What is it?” 

Eleanor wasn’t expecting him to be in a meeting for real, so she hurriedly replied with “nothing” and hung up. 

It was so weird. He was in a meeting, yet texted her from an unknown number. Was he simply that bored? 

Recalling how Josef would often pester her from different numbers in the past, Eleanor didn’t give it any more thought. She put down her phone, intending to ignore him, but another text message came in. 

Back to the original question: “Tell me, why were you at the hospital?”

Eleanor felt that there was something off about him. He wouldn’t say anything on the phone call earlier but insisted on texting 

Not wanting to engage, but fearing that ignoring him would make him angry, Eleanor bit her teeth and typed: “I had a high fever, so I went to the hospital for an IV.” 

Eleanor thought he would continue asking questions, but he left her alone. 

Feeling that he might just have been acting impulsively, Eleanor put her phone aside and, exhausted, fell asleep.