Chapter 205: Chapter 203: Something Happened
"What? How could this be?"
Elliana Lyle received a call from Joy Lyle while on the way back in the car, and was so shocked by the news that she was speechless.
She even initially thought she was hallucinating.
After calming her emotions, she finally asked, "How... is it..."
Evidently, she found it difficult to ask.
On the other end, there were faint sounds of sobbing, and even the voice speaking was choked with emotion.
Joy said, "My mom said it was lung cancer, and she already had a heart problem. In the end, she died at home due to breathing difficulties."
Hearing this reason, she was caught off guard. How could it be lung cancer? But upon reflection, she recalled her uncle often coughing sporadically; it seemed like there were early signs.
She hurriedly asked, "Joy, where are you now? I’ll go back with you."
On the phone, Joy replied, "I’m still on the set; I’ll apply for leave in a while."
Hearing the ethereal voice on the other end, she knew Joy must be hiding in the bathroom crying, and she didn’t know how to comfort her for a moment.
After hesitating for a bit, she said, "Let’s meet at the airport, sister."
"Okay." After a light response, the phone was hung up.
The sound of the beep made her heart drop.
Elliana began to recall her uncle’s demeanor.
It seemed that her uncle was a decent person; at least he never scolded her, and would occasionally support her when Grandma Lyle reprimanded her.
This decent man was suddenly gone, and her heart grew heavy, her face filled with sadness.
Subsequently, she started booking a flight on her phone.
"Elliana, what’s wrong? Did something happen?" Tiana Harris, sitting beside her, looked at her with a face full of concern.
Only then did she regain her senses, heaving a sigh, and said, "My uncle passed away, just today."
Tiana fell silent upon hearing this, merely looking at her with a comforting expression. After a long pause, she softly said, "My condolences."
"Mmh."
Then Tiana added, "Elliana, are you heading back to South City? I have to take a trip too."
"Hmm?" Elliana looked at Tiana slightly confused, not understanding why Tiana suddenly wanted to go to South City. She remembered Tiana was a native of North City.
Seeing this, Tiana explained somewhat melancholically, "My grandmother is in South City. I want to visit her. I’m afraid that with her age, someday I might not get the chance to see her again."
This statement filled the whole car with a sense of farewell, making it difficult to bear the sadness for a moment.
"My grandmother and I have always had a good relationship, but I haven’t visited her in four years."
Elliana said, "Yeah, you should go visit. If you feel like it, I’ll book your ticket too, and we can head back to South City together."
"Okay."
Tiana readily agreed to it, she had originally planned to head back to South City to visit her grandmother the day after tomorrow.
"Um, let me make a call." Elliana said, then dialed Norman Bennett’s number to inform him before leaving.
After one ring, the call was answered.
"Hello, Norman, I have something to tell you. I need to go back to South City; my uncle passed away, and I have to go back."
She said everything she wanted in one breath because Norman was indeed very busy, and she didn’t want to take up too much of his time.
"Okay, let Hannah accompany you back."
"Huh?" His words surprised her a bit.
He sternly continued, "I don’t feel comfortable with you going alone."
Although he was even less comfortable with Hannah, he knew she could protect the girl well.
"Uh..." Thinking of Shawn Lyle’s actions last time, Elliana also felt the need for caution. But taking Hannah along felt quite inappropriate; besides, Hannah might not be willing.
So she declined, "No need, there’s Joy, and Sister Phoebe. I’m just attending the funeral, nothing will go wrong."
Unexpectedly, he directly said, "I’ll go back with you."
She was momentarily stunned, but quickly declined: "That’s not possible, you need to manage the company well. Melody can’t do without you."
She knew very well that all sectors were attempting to harm the Melody Group, even if they were mere trifling actions, too many ants biting could still hurt.
After all, Melody is a young company; growing large inevitably entails exclusion by older companies. Also, due to her, they were at odds with Roland.
She believed that Roland now regarded Melody as a deadly rival. Although she wasn’t familiar with the new vice-president, Nathan Dawn, she did have some understanding of Cameron Southwell.
Additionally, Luna had secretly discovered that Nathan was Cameron’s illegitimate son and was outstanding in all aspects, so Nathan was someone more worthy of being on guard against than Shane Southwell.
"Then I’ll check with Hannah if she’s willing." She relented, but it still felt somewhat inappropriate.
But he directly said he had already notified Hannah during their call.
"..."
After ending the call, she leaned against the car window, gazing at the trees whipping by and the endless white lines by the road, lost in thought.
Tiana quietly looked at her phone, though her fingers merely slid across the screen, not really focused on anything.
Her heart was enveloped in a thin layer of mist, as if covered with a cloth, not suffocating, yet breathing still felt difficult.
Clearly, it is an uncomfortable feeling.
Today, after passing an audition, the first thing she wanted was to share the news with Elliana. But at that time, Elliana was chatting and laughing with those high-level individuals. She could have boldly walked up, but felt inappropriate being a small actress.
So she sat in the car all afternoon, and only when they were about to leave did Elliana start looking for her, which made her somewhat uncomfortable.
It was as if she had been abandoned. Some days ago, she thought she was special to Elliana, that she could build a friendship.
But now she felt different, perhaps she thought too much. It was already hard for Elliana to help her; their relationship was not just of friends, but also of employer and employee.
Chronological priority should be work first, friendship later, and Elliana’s circle of friends was evidently larger than she imagined, yet as of now, she felt she only had Elliana as a friend.
She didn’t even chat much with others; their conversations mostly revolved around where extras were needed.
After realizing this, it didn’t feel as painful anymore, so she gathered her courage and asked, "Elliana, can we be considered friends?"
"Huh?" This unexpected question made Elliana abruptly turn her head, somewhat puzzled, "What?"
She didn’t catch what Tiana said, likely only heard her name being called.
However, this puzzled and surprised expression deeply hurt Tiana.
Tiana assumed Elliana had heard her and simply chose not to answer. After all, it was just the two of them in the back seat, with a driver in the front.
To ease the awkwardness, she shook her head and bit her lip before asking, "I noticed you didn’t speak for a long time..."
"Oh, I just had a bit of a headache and wanted to rest a bit." Elliana said, rubbing her temples, likely a result of being kept up by Norman Bennett until the early hours of the morning, leaving her brain feeling like mush.
The faint throb in her forehead made her spirit quite low.
"Didn’t sleep well, did you?" Tiana asked, then pointed out her eyes, "You have dark circles; you probably didn’t sleep well last night."
"Yeah." She admitted it, then rubbed her eyes, saying, "Tiana, once we reach the hotel, I’ll have the driver take you to the studio dormitory so you can pack your things, then you can just meet me at the airport."
"Okay." Tiana responded, then added, "I’ll be quick, I won’t delay you."
"No need to rush, the flight’s at 9 PM, and it’s just 6:23 now."