“Mel, where are you? It's been so long, I miss you. Once I'm home, let's leave for Switzerland together.”
“Is your illness better? While I was away on business, I went through every place around here and found the gentlest, most effective medicine, and your favorite dessert too...”
I listened to Oliver's voicemails, so caring and just a little anxious, and said nothing back.
The driver watched my calm face in the rearview mirror and teased, “You're a lucky woman, miss. A partner that thoughtful.”
I smiled and let it go. The car finally left that bright, crowded bridge behind, and through the glass I looked out at all the glittering excess. None of it had anything to do with me now.
Oliver's calls kept coming, one after another. I quietly powered off the phone and threw it hard onto the roadside.
I reached the airport without trouble. My parents had been waiting a long while. After so many years apart, the moment my mother saw me she rushed forward and pulled me into her arms.
“Mel, it's been so long. I've missed you day and night these past few days. Have you been taking care of yourself out there?”
As she spoke, tears welled up in her eyes, brimming with ache for me.
“I'm fine. Everything's fine.”
My father took my luggage, just as overjoyed. Then he noticed the wide bruises across the hand holding my bag, and asked me anxiously what had happened.
“No need to put on a brave face in front of us. Mel, what really happened to you?”
With them asking again and again, I told them plainly what I'd been through all this time.
“It's all behind me now. After today, it's a new life.” I said it as calmly as if I were telling someone else's story.
But the worry on my parents' faces was beyond hiding, and my father clenched his teeth, his fists tight.
“Don't worry, Mel. Your mother and I will make sure they're properly ‘repaid’ for everything they've done these years.”
“We couldn't be at ease sending you off to the research institute alone. This is my protégé, Xander Winston. From now on, whatever you need, just leave it to him.”
Only then did I notice the unfamiliar man behind my parents. He was tall, his features clean and even, but his eyes held a rare clarity and sincerity.
Xander took my luggage, and together we boarded the plane bound for the research institute.
Night fell. On the other side of the city, Oliver stared at the thirty-some missed calls and countless unanswered messages on his phone, uneasy.
He kept telling himself he must have seen it wrong just now, that those eyes couldn't have been mine.
There was no reason for me to be out there in the middle of the night. I had to be at home resting, that was why I wasn't picking up.
But the calls in Oliver's hand showed no sign of stopping, and watching him fret like this, Regina's fine mood curdled into nothing but jealousy.
She was the leading lady tonight, and yet his heart was still somewhere else, on someone else.
She almost snatched the phone from his hand, but then she thought of that reply I'd sent, and the smugness rose in her again, a smile curling at the corner of her mouth.
Before long she would be the mistress of the Gilbert house. Ten years, and her dream was finally about to come true.
The wedding went on. The crowd's excitement was stoked to its peak, and the ceremony reached the moment everyone had been waiting for: the vows.
Even now Oliver was preoccupied, still thinking about those eyes. Everyone listened in silence as the two of them made their vows, and then, all at once, a phone rang.
Oliver's eyes lit up in an instant, ready to step down and chase after the sound, but Regina would never let him have his way. She held both his hands, tugged her lips into a smile, and gazed at him with a face full of sincerity.
“The wedding isn't over yet. Where are you going, Oliver? You promised me the grandest wedding.”
“I think our child will look forward to seeing the footage of their parents' wedding someday too.”
At the mention of the child, Oliver's steps faltered, and in the end he gave it up.
It wasn't until the wedding ended that Oliver realized the butler had called him dozens of times.
The call connected, and a second later came the frantic voices of the butler and the servants.
“Mr. Gilbert, you finally picked up! Miss Henson is gone! She's vanished!”
