Chapter 58 The Things That Belong to Her
Early on aweekend morning, Daisy got up to pack her things.
Standing in front of the closet, she stared blankly at the similar-looking clothes inside.
After rummaging around for a while, she finally pulled out a beige dress from the corner.
Maybe because it had been stored for so long, the dress still carried a faint scent of mothballs.
After changing into it and looking at herself in the mirror, she felt a bit dazed.
How long had it been since she'd dressed up properly?
For the past six years, she'd been busy with household chores every day. What she wore most were loungewear or pajamas. Even after she started working, it was just shirts and pants with a white coat over them.
Finding a decent dress to wear out was actually quite difficult. Those pretty dresses she used to have were probably stuffed away in some corner gathering dust.
The dress she was wearing now had a simple and elegant style—not too formal, but not too casual either.
She put on light makeup in front of the mirror and loosely pinned up her hair, revealing her slender neck.
The woman in the mirror still had delicate features, but her eyes showed signs of weariness and hardship.
She tried hard to smile at herself in the mirror.
Good, just like this. Keep it up.
After getting ready, her phone rang. It was a message from Vincent.
[Traffic's a bit heavy, might be ten minutes late.]
After sending the message, Vincent looked at the congested traffic ahead and instinctively checked his watch, feeling a bit irritated.
He'd actually left early today specifically to avoid rush hour, but right after leaving the office, he'd run into Vanessa.
"Vince, where are you going?"
Vincent gave her the address, and Vanessa pouted. Without asking, she opened the car door and got in.
"I don't care, take me to Union Tower first. I have a client meeting there and I'm almost late."
She smiled playfully and said coquettishly, "If I can close this deal, the profit won't be small. Whatever you're doing, you need to take me there first!"
Vincent calculated the time. "Fine."
Once the car got on the road, Vanessa couldn't sit still. She kept rummaging through things in the passenger seat, then pulled out a sparkly little ornament from somewhere and hung it on the rearview mirror.
This was an old habit of hers - many of the decorations in the car had been casually hung up by her like this.
At first, Vincent wouldn't let her hang things, but Vanessa would lecture him with a straight face, saying this was called "adding fun to life." Over time, Vincent just let her do as she pleased.
"By the way, what are you doing?"
Vincent said casually, "Picking up Daisy."
Vanessa's face stiffened. Looking unhappy, she snortedand muttered, "Why are you picking her up? Is this a date?"
Vincent didn't respond.
Vanessa stopped talking too. She took out a small mirror from her bag and started touching up her makeup.
She carefully applied more color to her already bright red lips, pressed them together, and slowly curved them into a smile at the mirror.
The car stopped at an intersection, and Vanessa pushed open the door.
"I'm here, thanks Vince." She smiled and waved at him, closed the door, and walked away.
Because of this little detour, Vincent unfortunately hit rush hour traffic, making Daisy waitedat the door for over twenty minutes.
Daisy almost went back inside.
A black Mercedes stopped in front of her. The window rolled down, revealing Vincent's face.
For once, he wasn't wearing a suit, but a casual white shirt with a silver chain around his neck. His collar was slightly open - less formal than usual, more relaxed.
"Been waiting long?" he asked.
"Not really." Daisy glanced at his outfit and reached for the passenger door handle.
As soon as she opened the door, a faint scent of perfume wafted over - sweet and familiar.
Luna sometimes had this sweet scent on her too.
This was Vanessa's scent.
Daisy paused. Vincent asked, "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." She got in as if nothing had happened.
Vincent waited for her to settle in, started the car, and drove toward the outskirts of the city.
The car was very quiet. Daisy leaned back in her seat, watching the scenery outside the window,without saying anything
Vincent didn't say anything either.
After a while, he suddenly spoke up: "Luna came to see you yesterday?"
Daisy was startled, then nodded.
"She gave you a gift. Did you get it?"
"Yeah, a bracelet." Daisy said in a flat tone, "Too childish. I can't wear it out, so I put it away."
Vincent's lips moved. After a long pause, he finally said, "She's pretty upset that you won't see her."
Daisy didn't say anything.
She knew Luna would be upset, and she couldn't bear to see her upset, but she didn't want to make herself upset either.
She'd rather be selfish than taste again the feeling of being betrayed by someone so close to her.
The car fell silent again.
Just then, Vincent's phone rang. The car screen lit up, showing: Vanessa. Vincent was about to decline it, but he'd forgotten he'd set the car to automatically answer voice calls.
"Hello?"
"Vince!" Vanessa's voice came through the speakers, sweet and coy: "Where are you now?"
"Out."
"Oh, um... I think I left my lipstick in your car? Can you look for it? It should be in the passenger seat area."
"I really love that lipstick. It's a limited edition shade, you can't buy it anymore. You have to find it for me!"
Daisy instinctively looked around and found the lipstick in the seat crack.
Besides that, she made some other discoveries.
For instance, she accidentally opened the glove compartment, which was filled with hair ties, small hair clips, half-eaten gum, and similar things.
There was also a bread wrapper that hadn't been thrown away yet.
Vincent actually had a bit of a cleanliness obsession. He didn't like messy things in his car, and especially hated people eating in his car.
Daisy still remembered when she was in her third trimester and Vincent was driving her to the hospital. She got so hungry on the way, but luckily she'd brought some snacks from home.
As soon as she took them out, Vincent told her to put them back - no eating in the car.
Later, Vincent pulled over to the emergency lane, and she got out of the car and ate her ham sausage and sandwich by the roadside.
Now, his glove compartment actually had an un-thrown-away bread wrapper, and the wrapper still had bread crumbs in it.
Daisy stared blankly at the wrapper. Vincent glanced at her, looking a bit embarrassed.
He cleared his throat and said, "Found the lipstick, and some other stuff. I'll bring them to you later."
Vanessa's laugh was sweet: "Forget about the other stuff, just leave it in your car. I might need it sometime."
She paused: "Vince?"
Vincent's voice deepened: "Got it." He quickly hung up.
The car went quiet again.
"You..." Vincent was about to say something, but Daisy ignored him. This stretch of road faced the sun and was a bit glaring.
Daisy casually put the lipstick in the storage box and pulled down the sun visor.
The moment she pulled it down, a pink sticky note fluttered down from it.
She looked down and saw a few words written on it:
[Vanessa's exclusive seat, everyone else back off]
The handwriting was round and cute, with a little heart drawn next to it.