Chapter 27
A faint smile played on Hayden’s lips.
The dinner had been pleasant and relaxed. Lydia had polished off three large bowls of soup, and by the time they left the restaurant, she was so full she could barely move.
Hayden slung his suit jacket over one arm and strolled along the path beside her. “I’m free tomorrow afternoon,” he said. “I’ll have the driver take you to City Hall then.”
Lydia froze–she almost forgot it. “Okay,” she murmured.
Back at her hotel, Lydia rummaged through her suitcase, but her ID card was nowhere to be found. She called Jane and asked, “Hey, can you help me track down my ID card?”
Jane’s voice came through the receiver, which lay on the bed beside Lydia. “I’ve turned the whole house upside down, dear, but there’s no sign of your ID card. Did you leave it at Michael’s place? The one you stayed at before?”
Lydia paused her search, a frown creasing her forehead. ‘How unlucky,‘ she muttered silently.
Jane searched through everything multiple times but couldn’t find Lydia’s ID card. Frustrated, she had to end the call.
Lydia slumped into a chair, staring at the mess she’d created and letting out a frustrated sigh. She picked up her phone and started typing a message to Hayden.
[Lost my ID card. We’ll need to get a replacement before we can get the marriage license.] She stared at the screen, deleting and retyping the words over and over.
‘I’ve been using Hayden to get what I want. If I send this now and delay the license, will he think I’m taking advantage of him? But my ID card is seriously missing,‘ Lydia thought. After a long moment of hesitation, she hit send.
Meanwhile, across from Room 3601, Michael found Lydia’s ID card in his suitcase. He sat beneath the lamp, staring at it, and the weight of his worries finally lifted.
“How did you get Lydia’s ID card?” Ciara watched as he traced her name gently with his finger, treating the card like a long- lost treasure. Jealousy flared hot in her chest.
Michael slid the ID card back into his suitcase. “We’ve discussed getting married, and her ID card had been in my bag the entire time.”
Ciara ground her teeth in anger–so he still wanted to marry Lydia?
“Go back to your room tonight,” Michael said, his voice cold as ice. Too much had happened lately. He needed time alone to think, to map out his next move.
Ciara nearly argued, but a scheming idea flickered in her mind. She stood up meekly and left his room.
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20:21, Fri, 15 Aug «ä.
Chapter 27
At midnight, Michael’s phone rang–it was Ciara. “Michael, I fell,” she whimpered. “I think I twisted my ankle. It hurts so
bad.”
“Stay put.” Michael rolled out of bed, grabbed a random piece of clothing and draped it over himself. “I’ll get a first–aid kit
from the front desk. Hold on.”
A cunning smile flashed across Ciara’s face, but her voice stayed soft and sweet. “Okay.”
As soon as Michael left, a shadow slipped into his room and fished Lydia’s ID card from the suitcase.
In Room 3601, Lydia was still fuming over her missing ID card. She dried her damp hair with a towel, water droplets sliding down her neck and seeping into her robe. Suddenly, her phone buzzed on the bed.
She glanced at the screen–it was a text from Hayden. Her thumb hovered before tapping his name, bracing for anger. Instead, his message read: [Driver’s license works too.]
Lydia froze. ‘All that rummaging, all that overthinking before texting him–for nothing?‘
[Whoa, you’re quite experienced at this,] she typed without thinking, meant as a playful jab. But the moment she realized she was teasing Hayden, the message had already gone through.
Lydia scrambled to delete the message, but it was too late–the “read” notification popped up instantly. She balled her fists and thumped the mattress in frustration. “Ugh, Lydia, you absolute fool!”
She thought, ‘Why would girls like Effie turn down marrying into wealthy families like the Leonards? One reason is the rumor that Hayden is not only disabled but also impotent. And here I was, joking about him being ‘experienced.‘ That’s too
harsh.‘
For the next hour, Lydia stared blankly at her phone, typing and deleting messages over and over–nothing felt right. Time trickled by, but the chat stayed frozen with her single, reckless message, hanging there like a mocking reminder.
Late that night, Room 3601 once again erupted with a sharp, frustrated sound.
Early the next morning, Lydia stood in front of the mirror, sighing at the dark circles under her eyes. She was about to wash her face when a knock sounded at the door.
Learning from the last incident, she kept her phone ready and approached the door cautiously. “Who is it?” she called out.
“It’s Zachary,”
Lydia relaxed and opened the door, only to find Zachary holding out a set of keys.
As she took the keys, he explained, “Mr, Leonard asked me to give these to you.
“He said since you’ll be getting married soon, it felt improper for the Leonard family to leave you staying in a hotel. So he sent me with the keys to Westgate Manor.”
Lydia nodded faintly. Noticing helingered, she asked, “Is there anything else?”
20:21 FTT, 15 Aug
Chapter 27
Zachary glanced past her at the messy room behind and cleared his throat. “This looks like it’ll take a while to clean up Let me help.”
Lydia remembered tearing the room apart the day before to search for her ID card. Flustered, she stepped sideways to block his view. “I can manage,” she said. “Just text me the address. I’ll take a taxi over later.”
Since she had said so, Zachary didn’t feel he could press further.
Lydia watched him leave, shut the door, and frowned at the chaos. Three hours later, she finally had everything tidied up.
Several suitcases were stacked in the corner, and Lydia had to ask the hotel staff for a luggage cart to move them all at once. Inside were her belongings from Raventon, the clothes Hayden had recently bought her, and most precious to her Patrick’s vintage paintings.
Lydia stood at the hotel entrance with the cart, first checking her phone for messages. Seeing no reply from Hayden, she let out a soft sigh.
“Lydia!” Michael emerged from the hotel. As he spotted her with the suitcases, a flicker of delight lit up his eyes. “Are you going back to Raventon?”
Ciara, standing beside him, shot Lydia a murderous look, as if she wanted to rip her to shreds. ‘Why?‘ she seethed internally, ‘She’s already got Hayden; why is she still trying to go after Michael?‘
AD
