Flash Marriage to a Stunning CEO (Alistair and Richard)

Chapter 170 Mabel Was Discharged

Alistair lay on his side, one arm folded beneath Caroline's head, serving as her pillow. Her long hair spilled over his arm, cool to the touch, smooth as silk.noveldrama

He absentmindedly played with a strand, winding it around his fingers like it had wrapped around his heart. And he didn't mind. He could've stayed there forever. "How's Mabel doing?" he asked.

“She says she's fine. Kept insisting on being discharged today,” Caroline murmured, her fingers tugging idly at the collar of his pajama top. "But I didn't like how pale she looked, so I made her stay another day."

Alistair kissed her forehead and pulled her closer. "Sleep."

Caroline obediently shut her eyes and then opened them a few seconds later. "Babe, aren't you forgetting something?"

He chuckled, "Good night, sweetie."

Now she could sleep peacefully. Without those words, the day would've felt incomplete.

*****

The next morning, after dropping Eloise off at school, Alistair

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Chapter 170 Mabel Was Discharged

went with Caroline to the hospital.

Just like she said, Mabel didn't look great. Still, she waved off their concern like it was a pesky mosquito. "I'm fine," she said, already annoyed by the hospital smell. "I smell like rubbing alcohol. I need to get out of here."

The test results confirmed nothing serious, and with both the hospital and the Ashbourne family's private medical team clearing her for discharge, Caroline finally gave in to what she called Mabel's "nonsense."

"Go to work, Caroline," Mabel said, brushing them off. "Let Alistair take me home. The way you two are hovering, people will think I've got days left to live."

Caroline's face darkened. "Grandma! Don't talk like that again."

Mabel looked amused by her outrage. She burst out laughing, wrinkles bunching up around her eyes like a mischievous schoolkid. "Come on, you two looked so grim. I was just trying to lighten the mood."

"Well, it's not funny," Caroline snapped. "Don't say things like that again."

Mabel clicked her tongue and turned to Alistair. "See this girl? She's young but full of rules."

Alistair kept it light. "Mabel, no more jokes like that, please. We

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Chapter 170 Mabel Was Discharged

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want you around for a long, long time."

He helped her into the car while Caroline gave strict instructions about resting once she was back.

Mabel waved her off like a teenager being lectured. "You're not even thirty and already nagging like a sixty-year-old. I'm worried for Alistair and Eloise's future."

Back at Ashbourne Manor, Mabel refused to lie down another second. She'd had enough of hospital beds.

She had someone bring out two chairs and placed them under a wide-canopied tree whose name no one seemed to know. A breeze rustled the leaves overhead while she and Alistair sat beneath its shade.

Nugget flopped down at Alistair's feet. He absentmindedly petted the dog, half- listening, half-enchanted, as Mabel spoke.

"Caroline wasn't like other babies. Most newborns are wrinkly and red-faced, but she came out soft-skinned and pretty as a doll. Some people say beautiful kids don't grow up to stay beautiful, but I never once worried about that with her."

She leaned back, one hand resting on the arm of her chair, her expression glowing with pride.

Alistair listened intently. He could never get enough stories about Caroline.

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"She was gorgeous from day one. And smart, too. Fast learner. She could've

been called a prodigy, and I wouldn't have argued."

"I think she's a genius too," Alistair said sincerely.

He truly regretted never getting to see her outsmarting her classmates with her smarts at school.

Mabel beamed. “Exactly! I used to wonder what kind of man would ever be worthy of someone like her."

Alistair flushed.

Half-joking, half-serious, he asked, "Mabel, be honest. When you first met me, were you disappointed? I must not have been anywhere near the kind of Caroline's husband you imagined."

Mabel's face fell immediately. "What kind of thing is that to say? If anyone dared speak poorly of you, I'd be the first one to shut it down. You and Caroline? You're a perfect match-smart, good-looking, meant for each other."

She gave a sheepish smile as she recalled how stunned she'd been when

Caroline first brought him home. Everything had happened so quickly.

She suddenly sat up straighter in her chair and locked eyes with Alistair, the way

people do when they're about to say something that matters.

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She reached over and took his hand. "Alistair, you have to take good care of her."

"I will," he said, nodding.

"You're a good boy. I know it. You won't let me down."

She sighed deeply, the sound dragging something heavy with it, "From the outside, Caroline looks like the golden girl, heir to the Ashbourne family, surrounded by every luxury. But the truth is... it hasn't been easy for her." Alistair immediately thought of Caroline's parents who were at odds with each other.

"I heard you were the one who raised her. With someone like you in her corner, who's to say she wasn't lucky after all?"

Mabel gave a tight, bitter smile. Her brow furrowed like old wounds had come to the surface.

She reached into her bag and pulled out a photograph.

It was Caroline, smiling brightly, a girl with sunshine in her

eyes.

Same face, same features, but a completely different aura. It was jarring. She looked carefree, happy. Nothing like the quiet, guarded woman he knew now.

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"She wasn't always like this," Mabel said softly. "When she was little, she laughed

all the time and always wanted cuddles."

Alistair waited in silence.

"About ten or eleven years ago, I got sick. Had to stay in a recovery facility for over a year. When I came back, she was different. Quieter... and sadder. Something had shifted."

Her voice dropped.

"While I was gone, Paige was the one looking after her. They didn't get along. Something happened. I never found out what exactly, but whatever it was, it drove

a wedge so deep they never came back from it. Caroline cut off Paige completely. Even her relationship with Leo changed after that."

Mabel let out another long sigh.

She wasn't just mourning what the family had become. She was grieving the loss of the cheerful little girl who used to run around the house with ribbons in her hair.

"This is all my fault," she whispered. "If I had just stayed healthy... maybe we wouldn't be like this. Maybe she would've turned out different."