Chapter 97: A Birthday Gift -1
Arianna heard the conversation and could not think. She held her breath, took off her slippers, and gently walked back inside her room barefooted. Then she closed the door slowly and silently and then crawled back to the bed.
She fell asleep that night, but she didn’t sleep very well.
When she saw Charles, she was surprised that she could be as calm as usual, as if the conversation she had heard last night was just another dream.
Charles touched her eyes and smiled, “You sleep so much, and you still look sleepy.”
She also smiled, “This is the popular makeup of this year.”
She had been a bad actress for all these years. Now, for the first time in her life, she felt she had become an Oscar-winning actress.
When she came back to her house, she simply separated herself from the outside world. She didn’t go online or read the newspaper, and she even gave up going to the gym. It’s just that the world was so small, and her life was like a soap opera. She could not hide from the plots that had become classic formulas.
One day when she was driving, it was not smooth all the way. Each time she came to an intersection, she was caught at the red light. One of the red lights stayed for a long time, and finally, the green light was on. The car owner in front of her might be a new driver. He did not start his car for a long time. She had to wait before the new driver came back to earth, but the red light came back before him.
On that day, she actually had a little urgent matter. She was very annoyed at the situation. She saw an empty space next to her, so she drove the car to that lane. Another car slowly moving forward in that lane sounded the car horn at her from behind angrily.
She was embarrassed but also very amused. She looked back at the car and the angry face of that driver. When she turned her head, she found the license plate of the car on the left lane behind her was familiar. She looked up and saw the driver was Ryan, who was looking straight ahead and staring at the traffic lights.
She saw Travis Cooper before she turned her head. Travis was seated in the co-driver seat, an extremely rare case for him. At this time, it was already winter. The temperature was close to zero, and the wind was very strong. The daylight was bleak. But Travis wore a pair of dark-colored glasses, and he left the car window wide open, his fingers holding a cigarette. His expression and movement looked very leisurely, with no sign of a man in trouble at all.
Arianna quickly turned her head back. Luckily, the sunshade film on her car window was very dark. They could not see her inside the car from the side window.
When the car behind her rang another horn to her, she found it was green light ahead now. She slowly started the car, and Travis’s car in the left lane behind was overtaking her.
She quickly lowered her head and pretended to be looking at the shift gear. But at the moment Travis’s car passed by her car, Travis turned and took a look at her. When she had to look up to see the road, Travis’s car was already far away.
****
After receiving the “gift” from Susan, Arianna would like to anonymously remind Charles to watch out for himself so as not to leave anything vulnerable, but she gave up in the end.
Arianna always pitied movie characters who made a small mistake and fell.
When Arianna received the express package with no sender’s information, she asked someone to check it carefully. Inside the package was just a chic music player with a colored metal case, an orange body, and a thin metal chain with a leaf-shaped metal buckle on its end, which would make a delicate ornament hanging on the body. A piece of paper was attached to the courier with two words “Happy Birthday.”All content © N/.ôvel/Dr/ama.Org.
Arianna was indeed two days away from her birthday now. She saw the handwriting and knew the gift wasn’t from Charles. And she guessed it could be from Susan, and something like Travis and Susan’s sex video or anything else that could sting Arianna’s eyes could be inside.
Arianna was somehow guilty when she put it that way. Susan was a freak sometimes, but it never really hurt her. And because the gift came without a signature, Arianna could not call Susan to confirm.
After unpacking the gift, however, there wasn’t anything like what Arianna guessed. Inside the package, it was a short recording, its fidelity not high, but enough to identify the content.
The audio was a conversation between Charles and Susan. The background was a piece of vague music, which seemed to be in a bar. The music was very coherent, proving that the conversation was not cut.
Susan spoke first, “I didn’t expect you to dwell on the relationship.”
Charles replied, “I’ll take it as a compliment.”
“I really wonder in what way she is good?”
“I want to ask you about your husband too.”
Susan sneered, “So, you finally admit your motivation to chase Arianna just because of Travis?”
“Susan, I think you know me better than that after all these years. Travis is not a problem for me, not as large as the other half of my life. Of course, if my relationship with Arianna would make him upset, I’d be very pleased.”
“It’s unbelievable you have become so generous. Back in the old days, you wouldn’t even allow anyone to touch your textbook.”
“People change. You almost scratched the face of the girl who took away your boyfriend back in the old days, remember? And now you help your husband to conceal his former romantic stories. Ah, I almost forgot we had been together once. Travis doesn’t care about this story about his wife, so I don’t care about his former relationship with my girlfriend. I’m just no less than you guys.”
“Charles, your skills to depreciate are getting uglier, just like your gesture of doing things.”
“You are still carrying on your double standard. Travis is beautiful in your eyes, even if he is a criminal, regardless of how he disintegrated someone else’s legitimate business or forced a good girl to be a sex slave to him. I really can’t appreciate your husband’s good gesture.”