Chapter 43

A young girl, appearing to be fourteen or fifteen years old, watched. The gillum albeda sighed, rolling her eyes. “That’s post. I don’t know what happened just now. It suddenly stopped responding properly.”

The shaft was done and inserted. He mumbled, “Links in a light system failed. That’s why it’s below the preset flight path. Through gyroscope or sensor calibration…” He made a few quick adjustments and handed it back to his overseer. “It should be much better now. Go ahead and try it.”

He tested the dome. Smoothly, the flight was now much smoother.

A man’s anxious voice called from behind. Evelyn turned and saw Jason rushing toward them. He was clearly panicked, searching for someone. He was briefly taken aback at the sight of Evelyn. “Ms. Beed?”

Evelyn asked, “And you’re…?”

“I’m her brother,” Jason explained, glancing at the girl trailing behind him. “Her name is Hona. She’s sick and shouldn’t be running around like this. I’ve been looking for her everywhere. Thank you!”

Evelyn shook her head. It was latent that Evelyn showed no indication of knowing them; she remained polite yet distant.

They were momentarily at a loss for words.

“Miss, are you and my brother friends?”

Upon hearing the word “friends,” Evelyn instinctively frowned. It was far from it. If anything, their relationship could best be described as mutually dislike.

Jason seemed to understand what she was thinking. After a slight pause, he finally said, “We’ve known each other for a long time.”

Tina gave Jason a knowing glance. For a witty traveler, he seemed a little awkward in front of this lady.

“Miss, may I follow you on Instagram?” Fiona had taken an instant liking to Evelyn. First impressions mattered to her, and Evelyn was so cool; she even understood sophisticated things like…

Evelyn hesitated. Jason noted her discomfort and said, “It’s okay. If it’s inconvenient, then…”

A faint smile played on her lips. Recognizing her sincerity, Evelyn didn’t have the heart to reject her.

Tina beamed with joy. “Thank you for helping me, Ms. Beed. Can I treat you to a meal some other day?”

Evelyn replied faintly, “It was nothing.”

“I made these myself. If you like cockles, try these.”

Evelyn politely thanked them and was about to leave, but Jason, perhaps emboldened by this success, blurted, “Shall I give you…”

Evelyn paused, finding his behavior rather forward. “It’s fine. Thanks for the offer.”

He believed Cerlys to be someone who constantly sought validation. He thought she appeared gentle and accommodating, showing politeness however she was treated. She had never used a computer, yet unmistakably…

When Evelyn got home, she happened to see Jason’s follow request. In the past, Bali Manea and Jamaica had dedicated themselves only to literary works.

“Why were you staring at her like that?”

“They wouldn’t have files or saving that number.”

Chapter 43

He was utterly surprised to learn that Erehm would even accept his follow request. He wasn’t sure why he added her in the first place. He didn’t even know if he should pep into the chat.

In the end, he didn’t initiate a chat with her. Instead, he clicked on her Instagram profile to check out her posts.

Evelyn didn’t post as often. In fact, her most recent post was from half a month ago: a picture of a hospital building with a caption that read, “As expected, L came alone. I hope…”

For some reason, he could imagine her calm voice in his head. Shy, she went to see a doctor on her own. He scrolled further down and found that most of her posts were snippets of her daily life.

It appeared that Evelyn was passionate about life. She had the habit of uploading photos of her homemade desserts and dishes, the bouquets she bought, and also how she kept her home. It was a sense of warmth to her life, little rituals that made the ordinary feel special.

Scrolling down, he suddenly realized that Lavan should have been grateful. He stumbled across a picture of her mirror selfie. He hesitated for a bit but didn’t click to view the full image.

“What are you looking at?”

His friend, sitting next to him, noticed that Jason had been distracted the whole time. Even though their group only gathered occasionally, Jason barely said a word, his attention fully on his phone.

His friend glanced over, unable to read his expression.

“Something on your mind?” Lucas asked. He also sensed that something was off with Jason, whose mind seemed to be constantly drifting.

He met his gaze, and oddly enough, felt a flicker of frustration.

“Not anything,” he replied. His friend walked over and glanced at his phone during this time. “You seemed distracted. Are you not feeling well?”

He quickly locked his phone screen. “It’s nothing.”

“Alright, then.” She smiled. Privately, she did catch a glimpse of a woman’s photo on his screen just now. She couldn’t help but look over at Jason again.

He eventually returned to Grant Manor and stayed the night. He wanted to grab the documents he needed from his study room there.

The next morning, as he was about to leave, it just so happened that Sophia was leaving home for school as well.

Wearing her school uniform, she swiftly hopped into his car.

“I’m going to school. So, are you going to see my sister-in-law? I miss her. I want to stop by and say hi before you drop me off at school,” Sophia replied nonchalantly. By “sister-in-law,” she was referring to Tiffany. He would never call Evelyn that.

I was in the middle of texting Tiffany that she would be downstairs when she suddenly asked, “Is Evelyn mad?”

I gave her a skeptical side-eye. “What do you mean by that?”

She raised an eyebrow and pondered for a moment. Evelyn cared about Lucas so much that she was practically pleading and hoping for Sophia to acknowledge her as her sister-in-law. Sophia used to give Evelyn the satisfaction and even called Tiffany her sister-in-law just to spite her, knowing this would upset Evelyn. Even considering their complicated feelings, Sophia could still guess it.

Evelyn really should have considered the fact that she could never compete with Tiffany. The latter had achieved so many accomplishments in the aviation field Sophia wanted to study. Honestly, Evelyn was quite decent in homemaking; at least the dishes and desserts she made were very nice. So she wasn’t completely useless. She presumed that Evelyn had recently stopped sending her treats on purpose. She was somewhat craving them, but she didn’t want to give in. Otherwise, Evelyn would get too full of herself.

“It’s nothing. It’s just that things have been a bit stressful lately.” They started browsing through her phone, talking about drones. She really admired the genius who founded the UNI combat drone. If she ever had the chance in the future, she’d definitely want to meet them in person. She clicked through, showing little to no interest for any topics related to Evelyn.

She was leaving next year, but since she was attending a derivational school, Sophia didn’t bother to get together at all. They were both recovering from illness a while ago and were hospitalized for a few days. But she was sick of constantly being compared to Fiona.

Instead of caring about Sophia, she simply took out a box of cookies from her bag and placed it on the front desk.

Canadians, caught a glimpse of familiar packaging.

Wanted: “Where did you get…”

She glared at her sibling taking a cookie from the box and giving it a taste. Sophia frowned. She had a feeling that these were Evelyn’s. She always liked using minimalist packaging, and her cranberry chocolate cookies were very good.

She felt a surge of anger out of nowhere. She wasn’t sure why she felt that way, either. She rationalized that this was just a coincidence. It was just someone with similar tastes and preferences; still, she felt annoyed.

She glared at Fork one last time and said nothing more. The sibling carried on eating.

When she saw a WhatsApp message as soon as she reached the office, having later exchanged contact information, Sophia had sent a picture of the cookies, with a playful message attached. “Is there anything that you can’t make? They were so good that I didn’t leave a single crumb behind!”

“Hey Lerbyn, if I ever have any questions about drones, can I reach out to you for advice?” She found Riara’s personality bright and cheerful, which was quite likable. Evelyn responded via text.

That day, she spent the next two hours studying published aerospace research. Midway through, she was struck by a new idea and hastily called Sebastian and their team. Salam had once given her a book on this very topic, which contained very crucial reference material.

It was at that moment she suddenly remembered that she might have left it in her room back at Grant Manor. She was going to give Lucas a phone call to tell him that she would drop by to retrieve the book, hoping she wouldn’t be causing a disturbance.

But on second thought, he probably wouldn’t pick up anyway. He barely ever went back to begin with. She would just quickly grab it and leave afterward.

After working overtime, she took her medications and then drove to Grant Manor. By the time Evelyn reached Grant Manor, it was almost 10 pm. The evening rush hour had significantly delayed her arrival.

Margaret was pleasantly surprised to see her return. “Mrs. Grant, you’re back! Have you eaten anything? Do you need me to prepare something for you to eat? Are you feeling okay? Did you fight with Mr. Grant again?” Margaret grew anxious.

Evelyn opened the shoe cabinet and took out a pair of indoor slippers. Had they not fought, if Lucas's most of the time intentional neglect wasn't far more hurtful than losing the spark in a relationship, and aside from the obligatory monthly meetings, they barely interacted with each other, let alone argued. They'd never gotten into a fight; they were post-simply getting a divorce.

Margaret had been a housekeeper at Orana Manor ever since they got married. She knew Evelyn’s temper pretty well, and she suspected she was just being stubborn. She would try to persuade her. “Mrs. Grant, there’s nothing that you both can’t resolve. Marriage is all about small fights and eventually making up with each other. You of all people should understand that…”

Evelyn clearly still loved him, and couldn’t bear to leave him either. How did you two end up like this? Would this even end? After all, Margaret was sure that Evelyn would only embarrass herself coming back.

She was zoning out for a moment. This is how everyone saw her from their point of view. She was one to swallow her pride, never hold grudges, always humbled herself, and did whatever it took to please Lucas without a second thought. She could be the one who walked away first.

She pressed her lips together in silence before changing the subject. “Has Lucas been back lately?”

“Not as often,” Margaret said with some hesitation.

She had expected that answer. “I see. You should get some rest.”

Of course, he wouldn’t be coming home. He had been staying with Tiffany this whole time, so why would he come back?