87 May The Best Man Win (1/2)

”Anthon.. ” As Jim mentioned his name,he was instantly reverted to his senses.

”Yes,doc! ” He stared back at him,trying to establish himself as a dignified man worthy to fight equally with him. Sadly, the fight was for a woman...

Jim replied him with a gentle laugh.

”Please call me,Jim. No need of formalities. After all,we are all knitted together by one person.” Jim said as he looked down on Jia whom he pulled closely by his shoulder.

Jia sat up straight,sensing a danger coming on. Something she was just clueless of.

”Jim.. ”Anthon repeated his name,devoid of any expression in his face.

”Back then,” Jim began,his face shifted into a serious aura, ”Jia, unexpectedly came into my life.”

Jia stiffened. Her heart suddenly beat erratically.

”She was pregnant and was running away from the man who was about to be married to someone else.”

Giselle's eyes suddenly turned sharp. Anthon just listened,his eyes were far away.

”I could not understand why she had to run away when, as she said, you asked her to marry you. But then,it was all because of the life inside Giselle's womb. She could have fought for her own child who also needed a father, but because she could not bear it in her conscience to know that another child would suffer,she chose to take the burden herself.”

”I watched her go through sleepless nights and I watched her struggling out of loneliness and pain. She pretended to be strong in front of me. But as a physician myself,I knew her emotional needs of someone to comfort her in that uneasy stages of pregnancy. And that should be from someone she loved.”

As the onion-skinned Giselle heard this,her tears started to fall like a torrent.

”Knowing the kind of heart she had just by the way she chose to set you free,it opened my heart to her and it made me instantly love her then.” Jim smiled but there was pain in his eyes.

Jia sat like a statue pinned on her seat. This was just insane!How could he brought this up?What was his point?

”She thought that all I did was pure kindness,and she returned it to me in even better ways. Little did she know that in the process,I had been breaking. I was not blind. I was neither dumb. I knew very well that no matter how much I cared for her, in her heart,there was only you. ”

”I patiently waited. I believed time has its own ways of healing and forgetting. Until Jian was born and I gave him my name.”

At the mention of Jian's name,tears glistened in Anthon's eyes.

”To honor you as the father and the man that Jia loved,I named him Jian, ” he paused and laughed,” that's the combination of the first syllables of your names. But I gave him my family name. ”