"Well, no. It's just that I don't have anything else to attend to here, and my parents miss me. I figured I could head home earlier than planned." Rebecca was calm now. She could speak about it like nothing had happened.Markus thought Liam had rejected her outright. His expression shifted. "Man, that old guy! He's refusing to do the work after enjoying the food! Gimme a sec, Ms. B. I'll talk some sense into him.""No, don't." Rebecca stopped him, looking helpless. "He didn't turn me down. Maybe today's dishes just weren't to his taste or something. Anyway, I don't think it's good for me to keep pestering him."My brothers can't wait for me to be home, and maybe my mother will get better when I'm with her. Then, we won't even have to bother Dr. Manson. He's not exactly young anymore, after all."Rebecca was being honest. She'd never been the type to trouble others to help her. She could set aside her pride and beg once or twice, but she wasn't shameless enough to do it again and ag
"Oh, it's nothing. A customer said this dish wasn't authentic, so I was surprised to hear Ms. Jones say it was. But everyone has different tastes, right?"It's normal for different people to have different types of feedback. Anyway, let's eat while everything's still hot."Rebecca didn't intend to say much. She explained perfunctorily before smiling.Maxwell didn't seem to want to let the matter slide, though. After a short silence, he said, "As you said, Becca, everyone has different preferences. Maybe that customer only said that because this dish is slightly different from what he remembers."It might not have anything to do with the dish itself." He added politely, "You don't mind me calling you that, do you? It's how I used to address you when we were younger."Rebecca did feel a little awkward at the suggested intimacy, but she couldn't make him change. She smiled and shook her head. "It's fine."Maxwell filled their glasses with more water. His attention was obviously stil
Rebecca turned to see a familiar face. His deep eyes were filled with anger as he glared at her. It was as if she was committing a crime by standing with Maxwell. His words didn't make the situation better.What did he mean by that? Was he saying that she was leading someone on because she wasn't sure about Sam?Rebecca had initially been feeling a little nostalgic because it was almost time for her to leave Riverwood. Now, that was gone. How in the world had she fallen for a little shit like Daniel?He wasn't even as handsome as Sam, let alone Ethan, a renowned actor."Go get your head checked if there's something wrong with it, Daniel. Don't come barking at me like a rabid dog." Rebecca glared at him. She'd wanted to reject Maxwell earlier, but she changed her mind now.She glanced at Maxwell and said, "Let's go."Naturally, Maxwell wouldn't object to this. He nodded and smiled gently. "Sure."They all knew each other, so it'd be rude for him to leave without acknowledging
"You …" The flames of Rebecca's anger were suddenly extinguished.She was caught off guard by Daniel's apology. She'd already thought of the insults she wanted to hurl at him for dragging her out here and his rudeness.Daniel didn't know what she was thinking. He only saw from the corner of his eye that her wrist was red from how tightly he'd gripped it. He loosened his grip further, only keeping her within the circle of his arms."I apologize for what I said. I can't control my temper sometimes, and when I saw you with Maxwell, I thought … Anyway, he's not a good guy. You should stay away from him."Rebecca immediately tugged her wrist free now that Daniel's grip had loosened. She looked at him warily. "Apology accepted. If you don't have anything else to say, can you let me go?"She didn't comment on anything else. She could tell for herself whether Maxwell was a good or bad guy; she hadn't been completely relaxed during the meal.Still, he'd helped her understand some things
"She's not my wife," Daniel subconsciously blurted. He looked at Rebecca seriously. "We're not married yet, so she's not my wife."Rebecca almost retorted by saying that he kept addressing her as "Mrs. Winston" despite them being divorced.But this would make it sound like she was trying to one-up Jessica, so she didn't say anything. "But everyone already knows you're gonna marry her. Since it's bound to happen, what does it matter if I refer to her as your wife now?"Anyway, women are all very petty when it comes to these things. If your wife were to find out about you abandoning her to watch over me, you'd have a lot of explaining to do."Daniel couldn't help finding her words mocking. This was especially true when she referred to Jessica as his wife. It made him feel like she was referring to the wrong person.Daniel quickly pushed this thought out of his mind. Jessica was the one he wanted to marry; George forcing him to marry Rebecca had ruined that. Why on earth would he thi
Back then, everyone thought an orphan like Rebecca was fortunate to be able to marry Daniel. Heck, even she herself had thought that. How could she dare to complain about anything?When Rebecca was still living with the Brown family, Jessica had talked about how she'd stolen her life and marriage. Even if George was the one who'd made it happen, it was still Rebecca's fault.And that was why Rebecca hadn't dared to voice her grievances, no matter how jealous she was.She'd been terrified of people pointing fingers at her if they heard what she had to say. Would they reprimand her for complaining when she was in a marriage she'd stolen? What right did a thief have to feel aggrieved?That was why she hadn't dared to show how aggrieved she'd felt. She could only suppress her jealousy at how well Daniel treated Jessica.To this day, Rebecca remembered how it had felt. She'd thought the pain from Jessica's beatings was no match for her jealousy. If given a choice, she would rather suff
Rebecca saw this from the car. She'd jolted in shock when she saw Daniel stumbling and immediately turned to see how he was doing. She instinctively wanted to get out of the car to check on him.But she stopped with her hand on the door. Rebecca didn't look away but didn't move either. She'd already made her stance clear to Daniel. There was no point in her doing the opposite of what she'd said.She no longer had the right to worry about him. And so she remained in the car. She texted Ryan to tell him about Daniel, then continued watching him.It only took a short while for Daniel to regain his composure. Rebecca could tell that he was still weakened, though. His eyes were on the ground, and he didn't move. He stood there like a statue.After a few more moments, Daniel straightened up and strode away without a look back. It was as if he was literally leaving everything behind him. And so he didn't notice the worried gaze that hadn't left him.Rebecca only retracted her gaze when D
Rebecca had shot out of the car and dashed toward the private room Daniel and Ryan were in. She didn't even have time to care who she ran into.She managed to shorten a ten-minute journey into three. When she burst into the room without a care for her manners, Daniel and Ryan looked up at her. She struggled to catch her breath."Daniel …" Rebecca could only get his name out as she panted.Daniel gave her a calm look. He took a sip of his water. Despite his calmness, Rebecca could tell he was one step away from telling her to get lost.On the other hand, Ryan came over to support her. "What's wrong, Bex? Why are you in such a rush?"Rebecca's lungs and legs were burning from the exertion. She grabbed Ryan's arm to hold herself up.It had been a while since she'd exercised like this, so she had a hard time adapting. It hurt to even breathe.Daniel's expression had darkened at the sight of Rebecca's hand on Ryan's arm. He said, "Get lost if you have nothing to say."Ryan wasn't h