abcnovels
Chapter 321
Chapter 321
Chapter 321
The next day morning, Edmund arrived right on time at Arthur’s home entrance.
Seeing a woman in a black dress carrying a small bag walk out, Edmund smiled mysteriously.
After all, he did request that Elspeth wear a black dress, yet he did not think that she would actually do it.
This put him in a good mood.
Just as Elspeth placed her hand on the car door handle, Edmund rolled down the window and looked at her teasingly.
“What are you looking at?”
Elspeth raised her eyebrows, accompanied by a straightforward tone.
“I knew that you looked better in black. Those white dresses that you used to wear could not accentuate your elegance.”
Elspeth smirked. “Aren’t you a fashionista.”
Not arguing with her, Edmund drove away as soon as she got in.
Soon, they reached a shopping mall.
Since the national day was near, a lot of people were gathered there, and it made Elspeth look at him with a frown. “Why are we here?”
“Do you still remember we came to the mall on our very first outing together?”
Edmund seemed to be reminiscing and lamenting at the same time.
It was when she first came to the Winthrop Family… Father wanted five of us to accompany her to the mall to shop for clothes.
“Don’t tell me you’re about to spend the whole day going down memory lane, are you?”
Edmund shook his head. “That would be too much. I won’t do that.”
Too much?
In Elspeth’s memories, she and Edmund barely interacted before. Normally, they would only greet each other and exchange a bit of banter if they met.
What does he mean by too much?
“Edmund, I don’t think we’re particularly close?”
His gaze darkened as a reaction to her words.
“Actually, I was by your side in a lot of situations. It was just that you weren’t aware.”
Elspeth clutched her bag tightly.
“What do you mean by this?”
“Not much. It’s nothing. Let’s continue walking. Come on, I’ll buy some clothes for you.”
With a cold tone, Elspeth replied, “I don’t need more clothes. I have tons of them.”
“What does it have to do with whether you’d like more clothes or not? I’m the one paying, anyway. Don’t forget that you’re my girlfriend for today, so whatever I want to do, that’s up to me.”
After stating that, Edmund held Elspeth’s hand.
Edmund could feel a subtle heat radiating from her palm as well as a bit of moisture.
“Are you nervous being with me? You’re all sweaty.”
Suddenly, Edmund had a naughty thought, as he rubbed her palm gently.
Elspeth, who felt the sensation akin to ants crawling on her skin, took a few steps back in disgust.
“I’m saying this now. If you don’t satisfy me today, then don’t think that I’ll be lending you that freight ship.”
This made Elspeth sneer. “I won’t agree to any absurd request, so don’t force me.”
“Am I this sort of person in your eyes?”
Elspeth still maintained an indifferent tone. “I’m not privy to whether you are this kind of character or not. What I know now is I find your current actions repulsive.”
“What if I was Callum? Would you find it repulsive if he did this to you?”
“This and that are different.”
Smiling, Edmund let go of her hand.
“Alright, I’ll stop teasing you now. Let’s go.”
To stop him from doing anything overboard, Elspeth kept her distance from him by a few steps.
“Hey, we are a ‘couple,’ after all. Even if you don’t want to hold hands, at least we can walk side by side?”
Edmund stopped and waited for her.
“Edmund.” Finally, Elspeth could not hold it in anymore. “I really think that this pretend couple stuff is unnecessary.”
A bit dazzled upon seeing how troubled she was over this, Edmund smirked.
“This is just something that I’ve always desired.”
Elspeth could not understand his intentions.
“Since you don’t have any feelings for me, why play this game with me?”
Edmund laughed. “Who said that I didn’t like you? I think I started liking you way before Callum.”
Disbelief came from Elspeth when she heard this. “Yet, up till now, you’ve never shown any signs of fancying me before?”
“Of course, I can’t show it. When I realized my feelings for you, you and Callum were already deeply in love.”
That day, he clearly knew he had fallen for Elspeth when she stood up for him and even comforted him patiently. It was the first time he found himself unable to say anything hurtful to her.
Yet, in that period, Callum had already stated his love for Elspeth explicitly, and Elspeth reciprocated his feelings. Hence, he thought that he would not act like a clown and fight over her like how Blake had done.
Although he did like to challenge Callum, at that point, he knew deep inside that he could never win Elspeth’s love, so he chose to bury his feelings for her.
“What do you mean?”
“I don’t wish to be with you, nor do I have the preposterous idea of being able to marry you. I just want to be a couple with you for one day to satisfy my desire and end any regrets I might have.”
He knew that Elspeth and he couldn’t be together.
Standing in the middle of the crowd, they exchanged gazes in silence. Elspeth could see the sadness in his eyes.
“Okay, I understand.”
Sighing, Elspeth continued, “We were never meant to be.”
Even if she was not fully devoted to Callum from the start, she would not like Edmund due to his personality.
Since the beginning, the two of them were two parallel lines separated by an infinite distance from each other. Their lives would never intersect.
Sighing again deeply, Edmund stated, “Okay. I’ve already known all of this. You don’t need to say more.”
Seemingly dejected, Edmund shrugged his shoulders helplessly, which affirmed Elspeth that he took her words to heart.
Then, she smiled. “But, since you want us to play a couple for a day, then I’ll try my best to satisfy you. Just treat it as the last present from me, your friend.”
It was then his sorrowful eyes lit up, but he also caught the last part of her sentence.
“Yeah. You’re about to go abroad soon.” Although Edmund was pensive, he could only accept that fact. “Are you not coming back for good?”
Elspeth shook her head. “I’m not sure yet.”
She had hidden the fact that she would be getting engaged to Arthur abroad away from everyone.
Everybody thought that she was going abroad to seek help for curing her mother. Some even thought that she was going into hiding.
Just as Elspeth was about to change the subject, someone in the crowd shouted in panic.
“Fire! There’s a fire!”