Chapter 903: Chapter 903 The One He Loves is Back (Part 17)_1
Mr. Taylor waited until Howard Coleman finished his second glass and, without hesitation, poured another. Howard’s expression remained calm; he didn’t bat an eyelid as he swallowed it all once again.
With the glass he had just consud for himself, he had now downed four large cups of liquor. Yet, when he put the glass down, his face did not change color, nor was he out of breath—it was as if he had just sipped water.
Even Mr. Taylor, notorious for his love of drink, couldn’t help but admire Howard’s capacity, praising, “Mr. Coleman, what a great tolerance for alcohol!”
–
Although Howard had already drunk the wine intended for Madeleine in the first round, Mr. Taylor did not give up on trying to get her to drink. No matter what excuse Mr. Taylor invented to press Madeleine to drink, Howard always found another reason to take her place. In the end, when a frustrated Mr. Taylor switched to small glasses for Madeleine, Howard, without anyone noticing, replaced the liquor in her glass with water.
This scene was all too familiar to Madeleine. Before she had forced Anita Madris to leave, before Howard knew of her feelings for him, and when she and Howard were simply Madeleine and Howard to each other, Howard always unhesitatingly took her place and drank for her at every social event they attended.
It seed that only when she was his sister did he treat her so well.
In the depths of Madeleine’s heart, she could no longer find the warmth and excitent she used to feel when Howard protected her from drinking. Instead, there was an indescribable sense of helplessness and bitterness.
–
The dinner party did not disperse until ten o’clock at night. Howard and Madeleine stood at the entrance of the Grand Capital Hotel, watching as an inebriated Mr. Taylor was assisted into his car by his aide.
Mr. Taylor, slurring his words beyond coherence, was a muddy drunk whose speech was jumbled and unintelligible. Eventually, it was his considerate and polite assistant who bid farewell: “Mr. Coleman, Ms. Madeleine, goodbye.”
Howard nodded slightly with an introverted expression, not uttering a word.
Madeleine smiled and said “goodbye,” then watched Mr. Taylor’s car fade into the distance without looking away. When she turned around, she discovered that Howard, who had been standing beside her, had disappeared without a trace.
Madeleine furrowed her brow and looked around, then saw Howard propped against a nearby tree, doubled over, vomiting.
Madeleine pursed her lips and stood for a mont, then, without control, turned around and headed toward a nearby 24-hour pharmacy.
By the ti Madeleine erged from the pharmacy with the sobriety dicine, Howard had finished vomiting and was standing by the roadside, looking around as if searching for sothing. Only when he saw her did he seem to calm down.
From a distance, Madeleine noticed Howard exhale slowly.
Madeleine approached Howard, handed him the sobriety dicine, and then took a bottle of mineral water from the trunk of his car, unscrewed it, and handed it over.
It turned out her disappearance was to get dicine for him.
Howard extended his hand, took the sobriety dicine and water, his fingertips shaking slightly as he did. In a flash, his mind went back three and a half years to the night he t Anita Madris, when on returning ho and being asked by Madeleine about having a midnight snack, he made up a casual excuse about an upset stomach, prompting Madeleine to go out and get him dicine.
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