Chapter 931 – Her Sudden Departure: A Tale of Love and Redemption (Lucian & Roxanne)

However, the moment Lucian thought of James, he suddenly felt infuriated.

After Estella’s illness had taken a turn for the better, James disappeared for six months. He had been idle and spent his time globe-trotting. He contacted Lucian intermittently and occasionally sent photos of beautiful scenery from his travels.

He also hopped between Alendor and Archulea, saying he was researching the objective laws of human psychological evolution. He did go about it very professionally and even published many research papers.

Nonetheless, only Lucian knew he just wanted to take it easy and wanted no part in shouldering his family’s burdens.

The Lann family ran a fairly large business in Xendale that dealt in tea leaves, coffee, lumber, dry cargo, and many others. Over the past few years, it had begun collaborating with Farwell Group on foreign trade, which led to the business expanding by leaps and bounds.

However, James was content being a laid-back psychologist, enjoying traveling to every corner of the world. Once Roxanne heard James’ name, she nodded eagerly in agreement and barely even paused to think about it. I’m sure there won’t be any error in judgment as long as the candidate is someone Lucian recommends.

“What good timing. He’ll surely return to attend our wedding, so you can take that opportunity to force him to stay and get him to help you manage Flora Verba Group.”

As Lucian’s thoughts lingered on Jonathan and James, he could not help but think that the two seemed to have swapped lives.

The trio used to be schoolmates. Back then, James was like a careful and meticulous robot who could answer every question. He never stepped out of line and was the top in every subject.

Meanwhile, Jonathan was the polar opposite. He was always boisterous and liked to play many different sports. As for studying, he did not have much interest in it. Later on, both of them made very different choices upon encountering family responsibilities. As a result, their personalities and lives changed drastically.

After listening to Lucian’s detailed introduction of James’ background, Roxanne could not help feeling doubtful. “But if he doesn’t even want anything to do with his family’s business, what makes you so sure he’ll be willing to take over Flora Verba Group?”

“I believe he’ll agree to it because he covets your medical expertise. You just need to agree to teach him some of your medical skills.”

She had no issues with that. After all, any medical practitioner would be pleased to see medical knowledge and skills being passed on and continuing to flourish.

After deciding on a suitable candidate, the couple left the house and headed to the wedding venue to finalize a few plans.

Over at the hospital, Madilyn was busy working in her office when she heard a knock on the door. She called for the person to enter and smiled upon seeing that it was Jonathan.

“Mr. Queen, don’t tell me your stomach pains are acting up again?” she asked, her tone lighthearted. During the last follow-up check, his gastritis was better, and the gastric erosions in his stomach had healed. Hence, she did not think there would be any major issues.

Shaking his head, he pointed at his heart and replied frankly, “Madilyn, I feel as though there’s something wrong with me here.”

That shocked her, and she sprang to her feet at once. “A heart condition? No way. The last time I checked on you, your heart rate, blood pressure, and arteries were all fine.”

Madilyn’s mother had a close brush with death due to a heart condition not long ago, so it was still a very stressful topic for her. Jonathan shook his head again. After a while, he walked over to her desk and sat in front of it. “You should sit down, Madilyn. I want to have a proper chat with you.”

Observing his calm demeanor, she nodded and sat down. She quickly guessed that he was referring to his depression, and her heart grew heavy. This means he hasn’t completely dealt with his depression. What’s more, the relapse is more severe than before.

Jonathan and Madilyn had a long conversation that lasted for two whole hours. It never crossed her mind that he had lived a life like that.

When Jonathan was little, probably when he was still in kindergarten, he fell behind in his speech and language abilities. That led him to be considered intellectually disabled at one point. From then on, he had to deal with gossip and people questioning his abilities.

If not for his parents’ persistence, he would have been sent to a psychiatric hospital for treatment. To some extent, the birth of Frieda took some of the adults’ attention off him. His sister was a ball of energy, which made her well-loved by many.

Hence, as a child, he gradually grew averse to communicating his thoughts with others. Jonathan slowly grew older, and during that time, he met Lucian and they became best friends.

That was probably the time when he was happiest. He had less attention from the adults in his life, but that allowed him more opportunities to do whatever he wanted.

It was also then that his trust in Lucian was solidified. Even now, he still believed that whatever Lucian decided had to be the right decision. There was no need to doubt it, and he only had to do as he was told. Never once did he pause to consider his own wishes.

Eventually, he realized that even if he did not express his thoughts or feelings, that did not seem to affect anything. In middle school, his grades started slipping. Lucian and Elektra would always quietly help him, and later on, he even got to know the whiz- kid, James.

Jonathan envied James as the latter was a veritable genius who could learn anything very quickly. During those days, Jonathan felt dejected and refused to go home because everyone at home, with the exception of his parents, was disappointed with his academic performance.

They accused him of disrupting their plans, and his uncle even questioned his abilities to his face, saying he was unqualified to inherit the Queen family’s businesses in the future.

That period was when he was the most vulnerable yet also the strongest. After taking the high school entrance exams, he encountered the most painful experience in his life.

Due to his bad grades, he had to separate from Lucian and Elektra because they could not continue attending the same school. Instead, they enrolled in two different high schools catering to different academic abilities.

Jonathan’s parents wanted to spend a little money to make a few connections and get him into a better private high school, but he refused.

He became a loner once he was in high school and rarely spoke with others. Although Lucian would call and invite him out during the weekends, he slowly discovered that he seemed to be withdrawing further into his shell.

Finally, on one random night, he suddenly snapped. He decided that if he could not remember a word after one try, he would memorize it a hundred times. If he could not understand a formula, he would force himself to commit it to memory. And when all else failed, he pricked his arm with a needle.

Every time Jonathan did that, he found he could remember whatever he needed to memorize. In the end, he came to realize that the feeling of pain could help spark his potential.

Fortunately, Lucian discovered his harsh study method. Lucian forced him to give up on it and do push-ups instead. Hence, Jonathan started exercising while memorizing.

Thanks to Lucian’s guidance, Jonathan found he was physically quite fit and good at sports. He dreamed of perhaps becoming an athlete, participating in national competitions or even at an international level.

Alas, that dream ultimately fell through. That was because after Jonathan’s academic performance improved rapidly, he secured at spot at the top business university.

Ecstatic, his parents kept encouraging him to study hard so he could one day inherit all of the Queen family’s businesses.

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