Investigate where Madam went and tell me immediately,” Nathan ordered his assistant coldly. The assistant hesitated.“Mr.Campbell,should you…try contacting her first?”
Nathan’s voice trembled and sounded dark,“She refuses to see me right now,but I need to know vhere she is.Is she cold?Has she eaten?”
She won’t go back to her parents‘ house,” he said quietly.“She knows exactly what that place i ike.“She’ll hide somewhere else,like a wounded cat and shut everyone out.”
However,her health isn’t good and emotionally unstable…can’t let anything to do with her.”
By the end,Nathan’s voice had gone hoarse.
He had always been composed,rational and in control. However,now,for the first time,he looke ike an out–of–control ordinary person,panicked,confused and remorseful.It was like he’d faller nto a bottomless black hole,with no way back up.
Raindrops trickled down from his soaked hair to his chin.He didn’t even bother wiping them
way.Clutching the rain–drenched suitcase,he stepped into the living room.
The opening of the suitcase was still caked with mud and Nathan carefully wiped it clean with a ag before taking out the remaining contents piece by piece and spreading them out on the floor.
His movements were calm at first, but when he came across a light pink silk scarf,his fingertips
erked to a halt.
t was a limited edition Channel he’d given me for my twenty–third birthday because I had made 1 casual comment about liking the soft color.
He remembers the day I smiled brightly in his arms and said,“Nathan,you’re so sweet.”
Then every year when the season changed,I wore it around me,saying the color looked white on ny skin.
Nathan picked up the scarf and gently twisted it. The rain had made it lose its original luster,like a piece of broken memory,washed away and faded by the rain.
Nathan inhaled deeply and he could not help but reach out and find the other things in the box.
The cover of that old photo album was wrinkled because of the water,but the photos inside were still there.
He turned page after page.
On the first page,it was me standing in front of the university library. My hair was tied in a loose ponytail.I was smiling into the camera.
It was the first time he’d seen me,the sun was shining and I was walking down the library steps,looking down at a book while chewing on a straw.
He noticed me instantly.I was Laurissa Smith,the campus goddess.
Back then, he always wore a cold expression and was well–known at Cedarcove University,yet Laurie had the nerve to challenge his investment model during his lecture,in front of the whole class.
Later,his assistant had told him,“Mr.Campbell,that girl’s name is Laurissa Smith. She’s top of the
Chapter 8
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finance department.”
He scoffed.”Top student?”
Later,he watched Laurie face off against him in a competition,calmly analyzing market data and breaking through the traps he set in front of everyone.
That was when his eyes lit up,like a cheetah spotting its prey in the crowd.
However, what truly moved him was when he had to leave midway through an event because his father was rushed to the hospital. Laurie waited backstage for three full hours. Never once complained. She only asked,“Are you okay?”
That was when something gentle poked into his heart.
Nathan put the photo down with his shaking finger and continued to flip to the next page.
On the second page, was standing on the roof of a building in a white dress in Blue City,Morocco.It was the last trip he sent me before going on an exchange trip abroad.
I was holding an ice cream cone in one hand and tugging his tie with the other. “Nathan, why do you always wear black? You like a mafia.”
He’d laughed and pinched Laurie’s nose.“Didn’t you say you liked that I’m a little cold?”
“I said I like how you look cold,” I winked.“I don’t like it if your heart is cold.”
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