The night was cool. Dressed lightly, Raina Reddington shivered by the lotus pond, but even this was better than returning to the crowd.
Footsteps sounded from behind her. Raina turned, her eyes flicking up to see a familiar figure.
"Miles."
She said his na just as she had years ago, her tone unchanged.
The man found a spot to sit on the rockery beside her. "Why aren’t you going back?"
"It was stuffy."
Raina hugged her knees, resting her chin on them. "Miles, where have you been all these years?"
The man’s heart sank, and he was at a loss for words. Raina turned her head away. There were so many things she didn’t understand, so many questions she wanted to ask him. But now that the words were on the tip of her tongue, she found she had nothing to say.
"Which do you think is better? This place or Hemlock Village?"
"Our ho, of course."
Hearing this, Raina felt a sting in her nose. She raised a hand to cover half her face. "Lucky died. He ran out of the yard to play and was poisoned sohow."
There used to be another dog, a black one nad Louie, who always followed Miles. But after the Hawthorne family moved away, Louie disappeared too.
"Raina, why did you marry Ethan Lancaster?"
"And you? Why are you Miss Lynch’s fiancé?"
Miles lowered his gaze. "I know you bla ."
"I registered for college by myself, thinking we were supposed to go to the sa school, that we could have worked together. But the four years I was so excited for turned into over a thousand days of soul-crushing agony. Miles, you had your own plans, but you could have told ."
The man’s thin lips parted, but he remained silent. The calamity had struck so suddenly; he himself hadn’t had a mont to prepare.
"But it’s pointless to talk about this now. You just be Mr. Hawthorne, and I’ll be Mrs. Lancaster."
Hannah Lynch couldn’t find Miles and was calling him frantically. He stood up and glanced at Raina. "Is your grandmother doing okay?"
She nodded lightly.
Miles took two steps, then turned to stare at her back. He was reluctant to leave, but he left all the sa.
Ethan Lancaster thought she had returned, but after asking around, no one had seen Raina. He went outside and followed a small path. His phone screen flickered for a mont, then displayed a missed call from Raina.
A wave of irritation washed over him. He glanced up absently and thought he saw a figure in the distance.
He strode over, and only when he was standing behind her could he see clearly who it was.
Ethan Lancaster felt a flicker of relief, but his words were rciless. "If you’re going to hide after making a fool of yourself, you should do it at ho. What are you doing out here?"
She hadn’t expected him to co looking for her; all Raina wanted was to sit in peace. She quickly wiped her face with the palm of her hand. When Ethan Lancaster ca to stand beside her, she turned her head away, not wanting him to see her expression.
Ethan Lancaster placed a large hand on top of her head, trying to turn her to face him, but Raina simply buried her face in her knees.
"Oh, so now you’re getting an attitude?"
"Leave alone."
Amused, Ethan Lancaster sat down next to her. "You weren’t the one who was humiliated today, were you?"
"Can I skip events like this in the future?"
Ethan Lancaster rested his hands on his legs. "Why?"
"I don’t like them."
"Fine. Let’s go ho now."
Raina’s grip on her knees loosened. Fearing he was just placating her, she asked, "Really?"
"In your current state, you’d just be an embarrassnt if you stayed."
Raina knew she must be a ss. She’d been sitting in that position for so long that her legs had gone numb. She struggled to stand, but Ethan Lancaster didn’t offer a hand. Unsteady on her feet, Raina stumbled and fell sideways.
Ethan Lancaster reached out to steady her but missed. Her hand pressed hard against him to break her fall, landing—of all places—on a certain unntionable spot.
She scrambled upright in fright. Ethan Lancaster’s face went deathly pale. "Did you co out here just to molest ?"
"It was an accident!" Raina glanced around. Thankfully, no one else was there.
Ethan Lancaster’s eyes swept over her. "Where’d you get the clothes?"
"I borrowed them."
He lifted a corner of the suit jacket. "Is the dress underneath torn?"
"Can’t you do sothing about her? If you don’t, I swear I’m going to slap her."
Ethan Lancaster couldn’t help but smile. "What you did earlier was far more vicious than a slap."
"She started it. If my dress hadn’t been tampered with, it wouldn’t have fallen apart mid-party." After saying all this, Raina realized sothing. She tilted Ethan Lancaster’s chin up. "Are you even listening to ?"
Ethan Lancaster hissed and pushed her hand away. "Have you no sense of propriety?"
"I’m asking you, with the folder in the car and now the dress incident, why won’t you have them properly investigated?"
Ethan Lancaster remained seated. "What’s there to investigate?"
"Do you just believe whatever I say?"
"I don’t need you to tell . I can figure it out myself if I think about it." Ethan Lancaster had seen Raina step on Miranda Caron’s hem with his own eyes, but he’d also taken in Raina’s bizarre outfit. The best explanation was an eye for an eye: you try to make lose face, and I’ll rip your face off, throw it on the ground, and stomp on it.
Little did Miranda Caron know that for all her plotting, her sches were child’s play in front of Ethan Lancaster.
She was probably still patting herself on the back, proud of her brilliant chain of plots, never imagining that Ethan Lancaster was an expert at spotting a bitch. In front of him, petty tricks like hers were like a demon before a magic mirror—their true forms were instantly revealed with nowhere to hide.
"So, Fourth Master, what are your thoughts on tonight’s incident?"
"Childish." That was what Ethan Lancaster truly thought. He stood up. She had been sitting here for so long that the hem of her dress was filthy. "It’s like two children fighting over candy—when you can’t win, you resort to tearing at their clothes. It’s shaless."
"I don’t think it’s shaless at all. As long as I’m not the one being shad, I’m fine." Raina clapped the dirt from her hands. "I’d feel worse if I had to swallow that insult. I settle today’s scores today. I can’t exactly show up at her door in a few days, can I? I wouldn’t have an excuse, she’d burst into tears, and then you, Fourth Master, would surely throw out."
Ethan Lancaster had to hand it to Raina’s sharp tongue. "But I didn’t throw you out today, did I?"
"But you said I was crazy."
’She really has a good mory,’ he thought. ’But that’s probably why she holds a grudge so easily.’
Ethan Lancaster couldn’t resist taking another jab at her. "Well, you were acting crazy. You were blatantly causing trouble in front of all those people."
"Then what should I have done? Why don’t you teach ?"
"Miranda Caron has no powerful connections, which is the only reason you got away with it so easily today. Raina, I’ll teach you sothing, so listen carefully. The next ti this happens, you can get your revenge, by all ans. But you can’t leave behind any evidence. Even if everyone knows it was you, you have to make sure they have nothing to hold against you. Understand?"
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