"Patrick?"
"Yes, hop in. I'll drive you home. It's late and it's not safe for a girl to be out alone." reiterated Patrick.
Flora shook her head: "You really don't have to go to such lengths. I can wait for Matthew."
At the mention of Matthew's name, Patrick's eyes darkened. No one understood better than he that Matthew would not come for her. He had already left with Selena earlier.
"You can't park here for too long..." He stepped out of the car, extending a hand towards her: "If you still consider me a friend, get in."
Avoiding his gaze, Flora took another glance around. The absent taxis were a grim constant.
Left with no other choice, she reluctantly accepted his help.
In contrast to her discomfort, Patrick seemed completely at ease. He hummed an unfamiliar tune as he drove, making casual conversation during traffic lights: "You must be hungry, staying back so late." he speculated.
"I...I've eaten." Flora lied, her gaze fixed on the floor.
The truth was, she hadn't had a bite all day. A morning eavesdropping on Matthew and Selena's conversation had left her devoid of any appetite. And the evening was consumed in a frenzy of work, time passing unnoticed. She didn't want to burden Patrick anymore. Their relationship was already a minefield.
Just as she finished speaking, her stomach audibly growled. Betrayed by her own body, her face turned crimson in embarrassment.
Patrick laughed gently: "You don't need to be shy around me."
At that moment, the traffic light turned green. Instead of driving straight to Matthew's mansion, Patrick took a left. After a while, he pulled up in front of a late-night diner.
Flora gasped in recognition. It was their old haunt from the past.
"Come in! Aren't you... Flora and Patrick, right? I haven't seen you guys around for a while. Are you married? Do you have any kids?" The memory of the old owner was still sharp, recognizing them after years of absence.
Flora lowered her head, unable to answer the well-meaning questions.
Thankfully, the owner didn't press further, bustling back to the kitchen and returning with two steaming bowls of chicken porridge. The aroma itself was enough to whet her appetite.
"Eat up, you two." the owner urged, placing a jar of pepper on the table: "It's heartening to see you guys still together after all these years."
Flora sighed, keeping her gaze downward. The familiar scene, the unchanged taste of the porridge, only served to amplify her melancholy.
The taste remained the same as it did back in the day, but the man sitting opposite her, once her "fiancé", had now turned into an "old friend".
"I'm sorry, I didn't think he'd remember us." Patrick sighed heavily.
Neither did he anticipate the unfolding scenario.
Both of them hastened through a bowl of porridge, then drove back to Matthew's mansion.
On the way, neither of them uttered a word.
"Where have you been at this hour? And with Patrick! Do you take me for granted?" A voice suddenly broke the serene silence.
Startled, Flora glanced toward the living room sofa.
Matthew sat there, his expression dark.
His words felt as if he were a husband who had just discovered his wife's infidelity.
With a weighty sigh, Flora kept her lips sealed.
This man used to be her closest confidant, yet he suddenly seemed so unfamiliar.
She wasn't sure whether he had changed, or if she had never truly understood him from the beginning.
Seeing her silent, Matthew's brows furrowed, he snapped: "I'm asking you!"
"He was just offering me a ride to dinner and back home.
Don't overthink..." Flora brushed past him: "I'm tired, I want to go to bed."
"Where are you going?" His hand gripped her frail wrist tightly.
Flora didn't need to look back to know his face was growing grimmer. She was simply too exhausted to care.
"Let's be clear first, then you can go wherever you want.
What's going on between you and Patrick?... Where's your ring?"
Touching Flora's icy hand, he suddenly noticed.
The engagement ring he had gifted was no longer on her little finger.
She had not spoken of it before, but the mention of the ring brought a sarcastic laugh from Flora: "On what grounds do you ask about that ring? You're about to marry someone else, yet you want me to wear the ring you gave. Do you want me to be ridiculed or what?"
There was a time... when she had been overjoyed to receive that ring, believing that happiness was within her grasp.
To her despair, what she thought was happiness was merely her illusion.
"Matthew, one shouldn't be too greedy.
You want to put a ring on two women's fingers at once... I absolutely will not accept!"
Flora's eyes lingered on the velvet box in the drawer.
Encased within was the distinctively designed diamond ring with a phoenix tail, the one Matthew had slipped on her finger not long ago.
The ring had been removed, leaving a faded mark on her slender finger.
She sighed deeply, reaching for the box, then abruptly withdrew her hand.
"Perhaps... I no longer have the opportunity to wear this ring..." She muttered under her breath, sounding disheartened.
Once... when Matthew proposed with this ring, she believed she was the happiest woman in the world.
Their love story was a beautiful dream from which she never wished to awaken.
Until today.
Reality dealt her a painful blow.
Before closing the drawer, her gaze briefly settled on another box.
It was also a ring box, albeit dust-laden, bearing the marks of time.
It was the ring Patrick had given her seven years ago, a ring he had carefully designed.
She had left in such a hurry seven years ago that she had forgotten to return it to him.
Now, given their faded relationship, it was not appropriate for her to keep the ring.
Carelessly, she slipped the ring box into her purse on the table, silently promising: "Next time I see him, I'll return it..."
Just then, the sound of a key scraping in the lock resonated from the door.
Flora startled, hastily closed the drawer and lay down on the bed.
At least for now, she didn't want to face that man.
"Are you asleep?"
Light from outside penetrated through the curtains, dimly illuminating the room.
Matthew gently bent over, planting a kiss on the hair of the woman lying on the bed.
Flora's hand clenched the bedsheet without making a sound, her body instinctively stiffening.
These reactions did not escape Matthew's keen senses.
He sighed deeply, embracing her from behind.
"Don't be like this... okay?" Flora's voice was as light as a drifting wind: "You've decided to marry Selena, then... I decide to let go.
The children... let them decide who they want to follow... From now on, each of us will have our own lives, irrelevant to each other..."
Only heaven knew, uttering these words, how agonizing her heart was.
The steady breathing of the man behind her abruptly halted, his arms around her tightening even more.
He silenced her intended words with a lengthy kiss.
His breath was scorchingly close, the long kiss felt like an affirmation of love.
Outside, the wind began to pick up.
As lightning flickered across the sky, Flora caught a glimpse of the man's eyes above her, full of loss and regret.
"Go to sleep.
The rest... we will talk about later."
Surrounded by the familiar warmth, Flora tossed and turned for a while before drifting off to sleep.
Listening to the steady breath of the person in his arms, Matthew exhaled a breath, confirming she was asleep before letting go.
He kissed her forehead lingeringly, then grabbed his continuously vibrating phone and exited the room.
"It's pouring like this, what are you doing here?" Matthew emotionlessly stared at the man drenched to the bone outside his living room door.
"Boss." The man seemed unfazed by his attitude: "Our people have found out.
Selena lives in a villa not far from here, but the name on the property is a man named Joshua White."
Matthew sat down on the sofa, taking the dossier brought by the man despite the rain.
After flipping through a few pages, he furrowed his brows.
His finger tapped thoughtfully on the table, he was contemplating.
After a while, he finally spoke again: "Who is Joshua White? Her father is Daniel, I never heard her mention this Joshua White... Investigate it for me immediately!"
"Our people have started the investigation, we will have results soon."
Matthew was very satisfied with this answer.
But when the man remained silent, he was perplexed: "Did you come here just to tell me this?"
His subordinate looked out at the pouring rain, scratched his head awkwardly, and saw him gesturing impatiently.
"There's a guest room over there, go sleep in there.
Come back in the morning." Saying so, he didn't care about the man's surprised face and stuffed his hand in his pocket, heading straight upstairs.
After a long rainy night, a new day dawned.
Flora sat, propping up her chin.
Her mind wasn't on the pile of documents, but lost in thoughts about the morning's event.
This morning she met her mother and a strange uncle in the flower garden.
Her mother said he was a gardener introduced by Aunt Laura, a good person, but he was deaf and mute.
Looking at that man, she had a strange feeling, she pondered but couldn't understand why.
"Flora, you seem to be in a good mood?" This sarcastic voice, who else could it be but Matthew's fiancée.
Selena watched the dazed secretary smiling dreamily during work hours, her eyes sparking with annoyance.
But deliberately, this place was the headquarters of S.E.I Corporation, she wasn't suitable to make a fuss in front of so many people.
Flora jerked back, but quickly regained her composure.
She greeted casually with a serene smile: "Good morning, Director White.
Thank you for your concern, I'm quite well... Ah, what a beautiful day it is."
The more at ease she seemed, the more aggravated Selena became.
Flora's gentle smile was, to Selena, nothing less than a thorn in the eye.
Pretending not to care, Selena breezed past Flora's desk, sweeping a stack of documents onto the floor in the process.
A pile of papers scattered haphazardly across the floor, creating a chaotic mess.
Flora gasped, quickly stooping to gather the documents from the floor.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I wasn't careful..." Selena feigned surprise, turning around and "accidentally" stepping on Flora's hand as she collected the fallen papers.
The heel of her high-heeled shoe ground into Flora's tender hand, causing excruciating pain.
Flora instinctively retracted her hand.
She exclaimed: "Ouch! That hurt! What do you think you're doing, Director White?"
At that exact moment, something completely unexpected happened.
Selena swayed, suddenly falling to the floor.
She clenched her eyes shut, clutching her abdomen.
"Flora, how can you be so cruel? I only accidentally knocked over your documents, but you shoved me so hard... My stomach hurts! I don't know if the baby in my belly has been affected or not..."
This commotion easily attracted the attention of the numerous employees within the corporation.