Chapter 26
After dinner, the three of them moved out to the courtyard.
Grandma brought out a few chairs and a plate of oranges.
"Eve," Luna suddenly spoke up. "Why don't you just stay here with me? There's an empty room anyway, and Grandma loves having people around."
Evelyn smiled softly. "Luna, I'm planning to go abroad."
Luna froze, even her orange-peeling stopped mid-motion.
"My mom's at a care facility. The conditions are better there," Evelyn said calmly. "I've been doing research, reaching out to a few places. Things are starting to come together."
"So... will you come back?" Luna asked.
Evelyn was quiet for a few seconds.
"Not sure," she said. "But before I leave the country, I want to go back to Seaside City first."
Seaside City.
Evelyn's hometown. Where her grandmother and father were buried.
"Visit their graves, check on the old house." Evelyn looked up, a small smile on her lips. "It's been forever since I've been back."
Luna didn't push her to stay. She knew Evelyn's personality too well.
"Then stay a few more days before you go," Luna said. "Let Grandma cook for you. You've gotten so skinny."
Evelyn nodded.
---
Night fell.
Evelyn lay in bed in the small room. The blanket smelled like sunshine.
She closed her eyes and drifted into dreams without realizing it.
She saw herself standing in a huge ballroom.
Crystal chandeliers blazed overhead. Flowers and champagne everywhere.
On stage, Matthew wore a black suit. Marigold held his arm, her white dress trailing behind her.
They were exchanging rings.
Everyone was clapping. She stood at the very back of the crowd. No one noticed her.
Marigold suddenly looked her way. "Miss Arden, why are you standing so far away?"
All eyes turned toward her at once. Nowhere to hide.
Marigold smiled gently. "Thank you for taking care of Matthew all these years in my place. But it's my turn now."
Matthew stood on stage, looking at her, saying nothing.
She opened her mouth to speak, but no sound came out.
The scene shifted.
Everything around her turned dark and cold, filled with the smell of rust and dust.
That abandoned warehouse!
She looked down and saw rope around her wrists, blood seeping from the wound, dripping onto the ground.
Johnson was laughing viciously as he walked toward her. Behind him were more people, faces blurred but eyes full of menace.
She tried to run, but her feet felt nailed to the ground.
She tried to scream, but her throat made no sound.
She turned toward the warehouse entrance.
Far, far away, Matthew stood there.
She tried to run to him, but with every step she took, he moved farther away. So close, yet impossible to reach.
Johnson's laughter grew closer and closer.
She jolted awake.
Moonlight filtered through the window, quietly pooling on the blanket.
Evelyn stared at the ceiling, breathing hard.
Her pajamas were soaked with cold sweat, her back freezing.
She slowly sat up, placing her hand on her stomach, feeling her heartbeat gradually calm down.
So "you dream what you think" was real.
She thought she didn't care about Matthew's engagement, but her dreams were brutally honest.
She did care.
But so what?
Wait for someone who would never come? Or wait for an answer that would never arrive?
Evelyn leaned against the headboard, watching the moonlight outside, and let out a quiet sigh.
"Let it go," she told herself, voice barely audible. "Stop torturing yourself."
Outside, wind rustled through the leaves.
She lay back down. This time, she didn't dream.
---
The next week passed slowly and quietly.
Every morning, Evelyn accompanied Luna's grandma to the market.
Grandma would haggle over vegetables while Evelyn followed behind carrying the basket.
Every morning, she'd pull up a chair in the courtyard, sitting in the sun, helping Grandma prep vegetables.
Grandma's cat would jump onto her lap, curl into a ball, and purr.
In her free time, she finalized the last details with the overseas care facility.
Kate would sometimes come over, sitting in a corner of the courtyard with her laptop, coding.
When Luna got off work, she'd bring back some braised dishes and beer. They'd all sit in the courtyard eating dinner together.
No one asked when she planned to leave or if she'd ever come back.
The days passed peacefully like that.
A week later, Evelyn packed her bags for Seaside City.
Tomorrow—back to Seaside City.
---
City A, the Perkins Group.
A whole week.
Matthew stared at his phone screen. That chat thread remained silent.
The messages he'd sent—not a single reply.
She must have seen them. She just didn't want to respond.
His phone buzzed. An email from his assistant about work.
He glanced at it for two seconds, then flipped the phone face-down on the desk.
Outside the window, the city lights blazed. On some impulse, he opened her social media again.
His gaze stopped on that post from three months ago.
He stared at those words for a long time, then made a decision.
The next day, after handing off his work to his assistant, Matthew booked a flight to Seaside City.
---
Seaside City was small, coastal, slow-paced.
He went to the old district Evelyn had mentioned.
The alley where she'd lived as a kid was still there.
At the entrance was an old woman selling ice cream. Evelyn had said this place had great ice cream.
He sat at that ice cream stand for a long time and ordered vanilla.
Very sweet.
He thought—when she was little, coming home from school, she probably ate this too.
At the end of the alley was a somewhat run-down small courtyard. The gate was locked tight, curtains drawn. No one had lived there in a while.
He stood there, looking at that window, imagining what Evelyn's life growing up here must have been like.
After standing in the alley for a long time, Matthew went to Seaside City's cemetery.
The cemetery was halfway up a hill, facing the ocean.
When Matthew found the Arden family headstone, the sun had just reached its zenith.
The headstone was clean. A bundle of wildflowers sat in front, still covered in dew.
Matthew's heart stirred. Had Evelyn been here?
Footsteps sounded behind him. An old man in worn work clothes walked over, broom in hand—the cemetery caretaker.
"Here to see the Ardens?" The old man looked him over. "New face. First time?"
Matthew nodded.
The old man sighed and sat down on the nearby stone steps, lighting a cigarette.
"You know Evelyn? Real filial girl. Has me buy flowers every week to bring here."
"Poor kid." He blew out a cloud of smoke. "Three years ago her dad passed, then her mom got sick. Three months ago her grandma went too."
"Now she's all alone," he said, pointing at the headstone. "Three months ago when she came, it was pouring rain."
"I was hiding in the shed. Saw her kneeling here all by herself..."
The old man shook his head. "Poor girl. She cried so hard."
Matthew stood frozen, his fists clenched white.
Three months ago, in pouring rain, she'd come alone to handle her grandmother's funeral.
That same day, he'd been in some high-rise building thousands of miles away.
He didn't know she was standing in the rain.
Didn't know she was kneeling here alone.
The old man turned his head, squinting at him. "What are you to her?"