He had imagined it-Dorothy storming off and ending up with another man. At the time, Everett felt a pang of difort, butpared to that, Dorothy''s life was far more important. But today, when Jeffrey brought it up, he seriously pictured the scene...


    Dorothy standing next to another man, letting him wrap an arm around her waist, with Abigail and Langston on each side, even calling that man ''Dad''. It seemed... No matter who that man was, Everett would lose his mind.


    "So, should we think of another n?"


    "Do you have one?"


    "..." No.


    They werepletely on the back foot here. Especially since Quincy had Everett by the throat from the start! Dorothy''s life was his Achilles'' heel. If it were anyone else, even Everett himself, it wouldn''t be thisplicated.


    "So, I just have to speed things up, make sure Dorothy doesn''t have the chance or time to fall for someone else."


    Jeffrey sighed, "All I can do is try to buy you time, keep Karen from getting too close to Dorothy! But... I can''t even bring myself to tell you-Keh broke up with his girlfriend, all because of Dorothy." Honestly, he admired the lengths to which Keh would go. At least Everett had had Dorothy, even had kids with her, some fond memories to hold onto. But Keh? He had been pining away for years, without getting anything in return. Jeffrey, an outsider, could see Dorothy didn''t feel that way about Keh, seeing him only as a friend, and he couldn''t believe Keh didn''t see it. Still, he waited! Hard to say if it was devotion or folly.N?velDrama.Org (C) content.


    "Dorothy won''t end up with him."


    "Under normal circumstances, no. But women, they''re unpredictable! Sometimes they''re not so rational, might do something in a moment, something they can''t even exin, on a whim."


    Jeffrey had never really studied


    women before; he didn''t understand.


    Since he started spending every day with Karen, his understanding of women, this mysterious being, had been constantly updated.


    Everett rubbed his temples, feeling a headacheing on. "Jeffrey, I''m out of options."


    It''s not like he could save Dorothy by sacrificing thousands of lives for her to test treatments on. Even if he could, Dorothy wouldn''t have that much time. When Everett was out of


    ideas, Jeffrey was even more clueless.


    "Isn''t there anything that could threaten Quincy?"


    "Her parents favored her brother since they were kids; Quincy has always had a rocky rtionship with her family." If there was a way to use that, Everett would have thought of it already.


    "Ah!"


    "The only way is to make Quincy believe I don''t care about Dorothy anymore, forcing her to seek other options."


    "Other options?" Jeffrey realized, "You-you''re not thinking of sacrificing yourself for Dorothy, are you?"


    Everett lowered hisshes, "The only way to make Quincy confidently let go of Dorothy, her lifeline, is to rece her with me."


    "... You want to force Quincy to poison you?"


    "Yes."


    Quincy had her concerns. She feared


    that once Dorothy''s poison was


    cured, if Everett no longer took the


    poison as leverage, she''d be


    doomed. But if before that, she


    could confirm Everett was poison and Dorothy''s utility was diminished, then she''d surely discard that pawn. After all, an antidote wasn''t easy toe by. She couldn''t provide for two people, and Quincy didn''t really want to take lives.