Be Your Lover Forever (Alicia)

"As far as I know, the Crouch family members are all upstarts and snobs who are very selfish and prey on the weak! Recently, they even tried to steal the Global Garden project from us! They really overestimated themselves! Graham Crouch and Lindsay Crouch are really birds of a feather; they're hypocrites. Last year, he even made a name for himself as a philanthropreneur! I heard that every time he makes a donation, he will find excuses to detain the workmen's salaries. To sum it all up, he won't spend a penny more than he has to!"

After hearing the stories, Frederick had a really bad impression of this family. With a flash of inspiration, he said, "Didn't he want to bid for the project? Let's give him a chance!"

"Huh? Are you talking about Crouch Construction?"

Nodding, Frederick replied in a calm voice, "Yes, I'm quite bored recently. Let's play a game with them!"

Chet got goosebumps and shuddered as he finally understood what Frederick meant. "Surely he didn't mean to give them a hard time just because of one slap? He was already up to his neck in work!" Chet lamented inwardly.

At the same time, Alicia was lucky she wasn't late for work. Rushing, she arrived at the last second but the meeting with Frederick that morning and the incident the previous night had both put her in a bad mood.

Alicia kept making mistakes in her work and she had to correct them a few times, which wasted many data materials on hand. She was stressed out and just as she corrected the data, she received a call from an unknown number.

"Hello, this is Alicia Blanchard from JT Translation Service."

"Miss Blanchard, I am a doctor from Clearview Hospital. I have something very important to discuss with you... Can you please come over?"

A pleasant male voice came from the phone. Upon hearing that it was a call from her father's nursing home, Alicia got up anxiously.

"Yes, I'll be right there!"

Alicia hung up before the doctor could even finish speaking. She asked her colleague for help with work and rushed to the hospital after applying for leave.

"Doctor, I'm Alicia Blanchard. Is my-"

Rushing into the office, Alicia looked up and was stunned. "It's you?"

"Miss Alicia Blanchard, I finally know your name!" Marshall got up and looked at her while grinning.

"What are you doing here? Are you a doctor? Did you impersonate a doctor to call me here?" Alicia asked with her brows knitted together.

"Imposter? I'm an attending physician here!"

With this, Marshall pointed at his name tag. He was obviously unhappy that she doubted his profession.

Alicia took a look. "Why did you call me over?"

Judging by his approach, Alicia was somehow reassured. Her father should be fine, otherwise, he wouldn't be speaking to her in such a relaxed manner.

"I called you over your medical card is short of ten thousand dollars. You have to make a payment so that it does not affect the follow-up treatments..."

Alicia immediately flew into a rage upon hearing that.

"Are you kidding me? I'm not behind on any payments. This was something that could be solved with a message or a call and yet you asked me to ask for leave to come over? F*ck!"

Alicia was so furious that she just cursed! When she thought about the two hundred dollars deducted from her salary because of the half-day leave she applied, she almost went hysterical!

Shocked by her reaction, Marshall spoke in a weak voice, "I was going to inform you to come when you're free-"

How could he have known that she would hurriedly hang up the phone and come over? In fact, he really did call her because he wanted to meet him. To be exact, he just wanted to confirm a time for them to meet.

Alicia was so mad that she was red in the face. She opened the door and walked out before slamming the door with a bang.

Behind her, Marshall shuddered but a smile slowly appeared on his face. He thought, "What a fiery woman!"

She was the one who was short-tempered, yet she dared to take it out on him? Wasn't this the hospital? Shouldn't he be the boss?

He was stunned momentarily before he headed out to chase after her.

Alicia went to the intensive care unit to visit her father. Knowing that her father was well, she didn't stay for long. Marshall's words hit her and brought her back to reality.

She couldn't afford to slack off!

She wasn't in a position to be depressed over tiny matters like love; she had a lot to do. Her father was still sick and she needed to work for money! She needed a lot of money!

Leaving the ward, Alicia ran into Marshall again and this time, Marshall shamelessly greeted her with a playful smile. However, Alicia just rolled her eyes at him, turned around, and strode away.

This time, Marshall didn't go after her and didn't care much about her reaction because he knew that there were many days to come.

Thinking of her future, Alicia felt stressed out. Making money seemed to be her only priority these few years. Currently, the gap that she had just managed to pull closer started to grow wider again.

Taking a deep breath, she stormed around in her room.

"The most exhausting time has already passed, if I just persevere on, maybe Dad will wake up..." Looking up at the ceiling, she couldn't help but comfort herself as tears welled up in her eyes.

Compared to her carefree life in the past, these few years have really been too exhausting.

However, she didn't have a choice!

Jeremy wasn't the only reason she waited those three years. Given her current circumstances, who was she to enjoy love? Who would want to marry her and accept her family? Even if she didn't want to admit it, she couldn't deny that her family was a burden.

Just her father's operation fees alone cost a fortune and she didn't want to ask for the money. Those three years, she kept lowering herself by yielding. At present, she'd rather strain herself than live as a beggar.

Therefore, she could only rely on herself!

Although it was tiring, at least she could get a steadfast sleep. After making an approximate calculation in her mind, she realized her translation job didn't earn enough.

A body check-up for her father would take almost the whole month's salary...

Moreover, due to her appendicitis operation, she couldn't dance anymore. Thus, she couldn't continue her part-time job at the nightclub. Text property © Nôvel(D)ra/ma.Org.

"Alas..."

The more she thought about it, the more she felt that troubles kept coming at her. If Frederick wanted to talk things through at this time, it would really be making things worse.

"Do I yield to him?" she wondered.

No, she couldn't! Even if she was willing to submit, what's the use of that? How long could she yield for? Maybe, everything would end up going back to square one and catch her off guard!

It was always unreliable to pin hopes on others! She could only rely on herself!

"Alicia Blanchard, come on! You can do it!" she cheered herself on.

That night, Alicia paced around the house for quite some time. In the end, she still felt troubled and couldn't sleep a wink...

Waking up the next morning, Alicia bucked up and went for a half-hour short jog. She jogged daily not just to maintain her figure but more importantly, for a healthy body too! She needed that!