Chapter 142
And now, here he was again, still making empty promises like nothing had changed.
She let out a cold laugh, then slammed her high heel down hard on Zachary’s leather shoe. He let out a muffled grunt of pain, and Diana and Melanie screamed.
Gwyneth easily pulled her wrist free. She looked down at Zachary, who was bent over in pain, and said coldly, “All I want is for you to let go.”
“If you can’t even do that, then what’s the point of all your big promises?” With that, she turned and walked off without looking back.
Just before the elevator doors closed, she gave them a smug little smile. “I’ve already hit my performance goal. Clocking out now. Bye.”
Zachary’s face was pale from the pain, but his fists were clenched tight.
He thought he had failed to protect Gwyneth when she needed him most. So if she hated him now, he didn’t blame her. He swore he’d do whatever. it took to make it up to her from now on.
After leaving the company, Gwyneth went straight to Evan’s studio.
Quentin’s pressure, Zachary’s clinging, and all the scheming inside the company had completely drained her, both mentally and physically.
She stepped into the empty studio and focused on pottery. Only then did her restless mind start to calm down.
By evening, Evan arrived. When he saw the clay pieces already shaped and finished, his eyes lit up. “Wait, these… these replicas are all your work?”
“I can’t believe someone outside the field made these. Ms. Jenkins, with skills like yours, you could join our studio as a full–time ceramic artist. Seriously, the details on this one are almost identical to the original.” Evan looked at her work with admiration.
Gwyneth wiped the clay off her hands and carefully placed the ceramics into the heated kiln. The blast of heat rushed at her, blurring her vision.
It would be nice if she could always focus on what she loved–but right now, that wasn’t possible.
“I have more important things to take care of, so I’m not thinking about that for now,” she said as she turned around, took off her apron and arm covers, and waited quietly for the kiln to finish.
Evan noticed the tired look in her eyes. He didn’t try to convince her to join the studio. Instead, he checked the time and asked, “Looks like everything’s almost done. Want to grab a bite together?”
“Ferfect, I’m starving,” Gwyneth replied. After a long day, she was both hungry and exhausted.
Evan smiled. “Great, my treat.”
They left the studio and found a restaurant nearby on a busy shopping street.
While they waited for the food, Gwyneth had nothing to do. Thinking about how hectic the past few days had been, she suddenly remembered it was Harrison who had introduced her to Evan in the first place.
On a whim, she sent Harrison a message. [Things are going really well with Evan. I’m almost ready. He’s treating me to a fancy dinner.]
She even snapped and sent a photo.
Harrison replied quickly. [Looks delicious.]
[If the food turns out good, let’s come back together next time.] Right after she sent that, it hit her–Harrison was her ally, not her friend.
She reached out to unsend the message, but before she could, Harrison had already replied with an [Okay] and a nodding emoji.
Gwyneth’s hand froze in the air, and in the end, she didn’t delete the message. She thought for a moment. Having dinner with Harrison didn’t sound bad at all. Even if they were just allies, he always cared about her feelings.
Satisfied, she put her phone down.
Across the table, Evan had clearly seen Harrison’s name on Gwyneth’s screen. He handed the menu to the waiter with a grin and gave her a teasing look. “Texting your husband? You look way too happy.”
3:10 PM
@
*
