Chapter 3

The next day, I dropped by Camerson Clinic before dawn broke on the horizon.

The door creaked when I pushed it open.

Harry Wells was sitting at the front desk. When he heard someone come in, he looked up and rubbed his eyes.

"Ms. Camerson… You're finally back," he said, his voice trembling slightly.

I retrieved the Camerson family's seal and placed it on the desk, saying, "You no longer have to address William as my husband from now on."

Harry was stunned. A long time passed before he sighed deeply and prepared some parchment and ink for me. He then pulled out a copy of a travel letter.

I stared at the empty space on the letter before I stamped it with my seal.

"There's nothing left for me there," I said.

…

When I returned to Yore Manor, the lights in the main hall were already switched on. No one had swept the piling snow outside the doors.

I heard Nancy's laughter when I pushed the door open.

William was sitting behind his desk, which was covered in official documents. Nancy stood next to him as she prepared the ink for him.

Draped over her shoulders was the fox fur coat that I had hand-sewn. William was scared of the cold, so I stayed up for three nights to sew the coat for him, poking myself countless times with the needle. I had thought to myself that he wouldn't be cold anymore, even during a snowstorm in the winter.

However, the coat was currently draped across Nancy's shoulders.

Nancy lowered her head, reading aloud an official document. "The supplies in the northern camp have already…"

William frowned when she misread one of the words. In the past, he would coldly ask me to repeat the sentence if I timed one of the pauses wrongly.

I stood at the door.

Nancy was the first to spot me. She hastily removed the coat and said, "Will let me wear the coat because he didn't want me to get cold, Julia. I didn't know that you were the one who made it."

"Nancy has a weak constitution," William said, putting down a document. "She's only borrowing the coat for a little while."

I looked at him and asked, "Is she also only reading the documents for a little while?"

William frowned. "You said that you weren't going to read them for me anymore. Is it a problem for me to ask someone else to read them?"

I didn't bother arguing with him. I placed the travel letter on the desk and said, "Please take a look at this."

William swept his gaze across the letter and pressed his knuckles to the corners of the page.

"You're leaving?"

Nancy pressed a hand to her mouth and exclaimed, "You're leaving Yore Manor, Julia?"

"I'll be returning to Camerson Clinic since you don't need me to take care of you anymore," I said. "You'll get your peace and quiet."

"Where else can you go if you leave the manor?" William asked, looking up at me.

I chuckled. "What a strange question. My last name was originally Camerson."

William gripped the letter tightly.

Nancy accidentally knocked "Balms for Blindness" off the desk when she braced herself against it, causing the book to fall open on the floor. Her eyes lingered on a certain page when she bent over to pick it up.

"Julia, I took this medicine today, but why is the description of its effects here different from the one on my prescription?" she asked, looking up at me with teary eyes. "I've never studied medicine. It's just that my vision is always blurry after I take the medicine."

She took a step back when I grabbed the book from her.

"You don't need to panic, Julia. I'm not trying to accuse you of anything."

William rose to his feet and said, "Give me the book."

"My mother left this for me," I said, holding the book protectively.

"You don't have to be scared if you don't have anything to hide," he said while looking at me.

I looked at his outstretched hand.

Mom gave me the book before she passed away. She told me that the Camersons didn't aim for fame or fortune with their prescriptions. Instead, our family simply wanted to save other people.

For the past three years, I used the book to identify medicinal herbs and modify prescriptions for William's sake, hoping to restore his eyesight. Now, he wanted to use the book to investigate me.

"You don't deserve to use Mom's prescriptions, William," I said.

William's gaze darkened. He looked down at the travel pass on the desk. In the next second, he snatched it up and ripped it in two.

The torn parts fluttered to the floor.

"I know that you took care of me for the last three years, Julia," he said. "But that doesn't give you the right to act on your own and treat it as a favor to me."

I looked down as the torn letter landed near my feet. The word "travel" had been split in half.

Nancy dabbed the corners of her eyes. "Julia's just trying to spite you because she's mad right now, William. Don't argue with her because of me."

She brushed her fingers over the documents on the desk as she spoke, exposing the inner part of her sleeve and revealing one half of a note.

I got a clear look at the words on the note. It was the prescription that William used after he regained his eyesight.

My heart plummeted into my chest.

Nancy immediately hid her hand in her sleeve when I looked up at her and hid behind William.

"Don't look at me like that, Julia," she said. "You're scaring me."