From Broken to Beloved-Chapter 195- rejected

For the first few nights, when Catherine locked herself away in the study, Bert was able to understand. But after several days passed and she still hadn’t finished the design, he began to sense that something wasn’t right.

So that evening, using a cup of warmed milk as an excuse, he entered the study. He stood beside her for quite a while, watching her work in silence. Then his gaze shifted to the scattered sketches covering the floor.

"All of these... rejected?" he asked.

"Yes," she said with a sigh. "I’m never satisfied with any of them. What should I do? I think I might not be able to design it at all."

Frustrated, Catherine lifted a hand and raked it through her hair. Bert noticed the faint tension between her brows. Without saying anything, he bent down and picked up the drafts she had tossed onto the floor one by one, then sat down on the sofa and examined them carefully.

As Bert looked through the discarded sketches, Catherine’s heart inexplicably calmed. The anxiety she’d been feeling slowly faded away. She rested her chin on one hand and simply watched his handsome profile.

There was always something about him that soothed her from the inside out. No matter how difficult a problem seemed, in his presence it always felt smaller—manageable, solvable.

Bert sorted through the drafts as he read, setting aside the ones he thought were good. By the time he finished, he still had several in his hand. To him, any one of them would have been good enough to show Leonardo. Yet for some reason, she hadn’t been able to make a decision—she’d even thrown these away.

When he looked up, he caught her staring at him. Her expression was... rather adoring.

Bert found that look very satisfying—and thoroughly enjoyed it. It wasn’t often that she gazed at him with such unguarded infatuation.

He walked over with the selected sketches in hand.

"I think these are all quite good," he said. "Do you feel there’s something wrong with them?"

Catherine took the drafts he’d chosen and examined them one by one. And for every single one, she could point out a flaw. One by one, she rejected them all, until in the end, she was left holding nothing.

Bert frowned slightly and looked at her.

"Is there something weighing on your mind?"

She hadn’t expected him to see through her so sharply. Troubled, Catherine confessed what Leonardo had told her—that he planned to reveal the ring publicly—and poured out all her worries and concerns. She talked about her fear of criticism, of being attacked by Leonardo’s fans, and everything else that had been haunting her.

She sat on the chair by the desk, while Bert stood beside it, dressed in a black silk robe. When she finished speaking, her face scrunched with distress. Bert lifted a hand and gently raised her delicate chin, making her look straight into his eyes.

His tone was relaxed as he comforted her.

"You’re not currency," he said lightly. "There’s no way everyone in the world is going to like you."

"As long as you are satisfied, as long as Leonardo likes it, and as long as the girl he’s confessing to likes it—that’s already enough."

His gaze was calm and steady, as though it held some kind of quiet, mysterious strength. All of Catherine’s unease and anxiety dissolved under it.

Yes.

As long as the three of them were satisfied, that really was enough.

Yet Catherine couldn’t understand why, before this, she’d trapped herself in the idea that she needed to satisfy all of Leonardo’s fans. If it hadn’t been for Bert’s reassurance, she wasn’t sure she would have been able to pull herself out of that mental spiral at all.

Later, with Bert’s input, Catherine reselected several designs she felt genuinely satisfied with and sent them to Leonardo, asking him to choose one.

Leonardo replied quickly, selecting the ring set with a pale blue gemstone.

Catherine immediately thought of a girl named Zoey she had once seen at Marylin’s wedding banquet—her temperament had been like a secluded orchid, quiet and refined. That kind of gentle elegance suited the pale blue gemstone perfectly. Perhaps that was exactly why Leonardo had chosen this ring. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

With Bert’s involvement, the major problem that had plagued Catherine for days was finally resolved. At last, she was able to enjoy some peace and quiet before the wedding.

That night, just as she was about to go to sleep, someone used the excuse of having helped her solve such a difficult problem... and demanded all kinds of "services" in return.

Originally, Catherine thought that once she finished designing Leonardo’s ring, she could finally set those worries aside and focus on preparing for her own wedding. To her surprise, she soon received another call—this time from Ford—asking her to design wedding rings and ceremonial jewelry for him and Riley.

Catherine was genuinely startled.

"You two made up?"

Before Catherine had gone to the U.S., Riley and Ford were still locked in a stalemate. How had they reconciled so quickly?

There was a hint of laughter in Ford’s voice on the other end of the line.

"You can ask her about the details."

Curious, Catherine immediately called Riley.

"Ford just asked me to design your wedding rings. So... you’ve made up and you’re getting married already? What exactly happened?"

Riley’s voice sounded weak and listless.

"Can I not say?"

"No, you can’t,"

Catherine replied, deliberately raising her voice in mock severity.

Riley sighed helplessly before finally admitting,

"I’m pregnant..."

Catherine: "..."

She was stunned into silence. It took her a long while to even process the word pregnant. Riley then began explaining everything to her.

It wasn’t just a simple case of pregnancy—she had been thoroughly outmaneuvered by Ford, that old fox.

After Riley had suggested breaking up last time, the two of them had remained in a deadlock. She didn’t contact Ford, and Ford didn’t contact her either. It was as if they had truly broken up.

Then one day, Ford’s assistant suddenly called Riley, saying that Ford had been in a car accident on a certain stretch of road. His injuries were severe—there was even a possibility he might be paralyzed.

Riley was instantly shocked senseless. Tears began to fall without warning.

At the time, she had been sitting on the sofa at home watching a soap opera. Suddenly, tears started dripping down, one after another, so unexpectedly that her mother hurried over and reached out to check her forehead, thinking she might have a fever or was ill.

On the phone, Ford’s assistant continued in a sorrowful tone, saying that Ford’s mental state was extremely poor and that he had even shown suicidal tendencies. They had no other choice but to call her. Ford had always cared deeply for Riley, and they hoped she could come and persuade him—to help him see things more clearly.

Riley agreed without hesitation. After asking which hospital Ford was in, she hung up the phone and got up to leave. The moment she stood, however, her vision swam and she nearly lost her balance. Her mother rushed over to support her.

"Riley, what’s wrong?"

Riley felt as though her heart were breaking. Tears streamed down uncontrollably.

"He’s going to be paralyzed... I have to go see him—"

"Who? Who’s going to be paralyzed?"

her mother asked in shock.

Riley couldn’t spare any attention for explanations. Crying as she pulled on her clothes, she hurried out the door.

She drove to the hospital Ford’s assistant had mentioned, barely aware of how she got there. Her mind was a haze; she was driving purely on instinct.

Ford’s assistant came out to meet her and led her to the ward. His face was filled with grief, which only made Riley’s heart sink even further.

Ford had always been proud. Modeling was the career he truly loved—otherwise, he wouldn’t have ignored his family’s vast business empire to start from scratch in the modeling world, keeping a low profile.

If he really were to be paralyzed, never able to stand again, the blow would be devastating. No wonder he had thoughts of ending his life. Even for an ordinary person, paralysis would be a crushing fate.

The more Riley thought about it, the tighter her chest felt. She had no idea how she could possibly comfort Ford or help him regain his will to live.

When she entered the hospital room, the first thing she saw was Ford, half-reclining against the bed.

Dressed in a hospital gown, surrounded by stark white sheets, the atmosphere felt unbearably cold.

Riley’s eyes burned. She rushed forward in a few quick steps, wrapped her arms around him, and held him tightly.

"Even if you’re paralyzed, I won’t leave you. I love you, Ford!"

She broke down crying again, speaking through sobs.

"If you really can’t walk anymore, then I’ll be your legs. Don’t be sad, and don’t think about doing anything foolish. Life is still beautiful, isn’t it?"

Riley held Ford like that, crying as she comforted him, saying all the words of love she’d once thought she would never be able to say—hoping that in doing so, she could pull him back from despair.

Didn’t he like her?

Then she would let him like her. As long as he didn’t harbor thoughts of ending his life, she would agree to anything he wanted—including marrying him.

Meanwhile, Ford’s assistant quietly closed the door and slipped away. Before leaving, he exchanged a glance with Ford—who was still being held tightly by Riley—and then departed with a barely concealed look of triumph on his face.