He Said Wait Again And I Waited For The Plane To Paris Chapter 06

He Said Wait Again And I Waited For The Plane To Paris Chapter 06

Over the next few months, I cut off all contact with everyone back home.

Every day, I stayed in the studio, studying oil painting restoration with my mentor.

The sunlight in Paris was beautiful. The coffee smelled rich and warm.

There was no endless waiting, no suffocating smell of seafood sauce.

And there was no man constantly whispering “next time” in my ear.

Six months later, my first restored piece was exhibited in the academy gallery.

It was an eighteenth-century portrait. When it was sent in, the paint layer had cracked and peeled so badly that the woman’s face was almost impossible to see clearly.

I spent three months restoring her, little by little, until she looked whole again.

My mentor, Julian Hayes, stood beside me and studied the painting for a long time. His refined features softened with an approving smile.

“Evie, you’re very gifted. You brought this painting back to life.”

“Thank you, Professor Hayes,” I said, lowering my head slightly.

Julian was in his early thirties and had lived in France for years.

Everyone in the field knew he was exceptional at restoration. He was also gentle and endlessly patient with his students.

He handed me a glass of champagne.

“Today is your big day. Don’t be nervous. Go talk to the guests.”

I took the glass and smiled at him, but through a gap in the crowd, my eyes met a bloodshot stare.

A glass crashed nearby.

Someone beside me had accidentally knocked over their drink, but I could no longer hear anything.

Adrian was standing less than fifteen feet away from me.

He had lost so much weight that he barely looked like himself. His cheekbones stood out sharply, and the hair he used to keep perfectly styled now hung messily over his forehead.

The custom black suit he wore looked empty on his frame.

He stared at me, his eyes filled with wild joy and a despair so deep it seemed bottomless.

He looked like a traveler who had been dying of thirst in the desert and finally saw an oasis, only to fear it might be a mirage.

Stiffly, he started walking toward me, step by step.

The people around us sensed something was wrong and moved aside, opening a path for him.

Adrian stopped in front of me and raised a trembling hand, as if he wanted to touch my face.

“Evie…”

His voice was hoarse.

Thick with tears.

“I finally found you.”

I looked at the man in front of me. He seemed like he was about to fall apart.

I took half a step back, avoiding his hand.

Adrian’s hand froze in midair, his fingertips shaking uncontrollably.

“Evie…” He looked at me with something close to pleading in his eyes.

“You’ve lost weight.”

He tried to use that familiar tone to pull us closer, as if half the world were not standing between us.

I looked at him coldly.

“Mr. Whitmore, do you need something?”

Those words struck him like a dull knife driven deep into his chest.

Adrian’s face turned deathly pale, and his breathing grew uneven.

“Mr. Whitmore?” he murmured, repeating the words with a smile that looked more painful than tears.

“Evie, don’t call me that. It scares me.”

Scares him?

Hearing those words from his mouth was almost laughable.

For five years, I had waited through countless nights for him.

Had he ever been scared then?

I turned to leave.

Adrian suddenly pulled a velvet box from his pocket and opened it in a panic. Inside lay the Whitmore family’s heirloom emerald-and-diamond bracelet.

“Look. I got it back.”

“I got it back from Vivian.”

He hurriedly held the bracelet out to me like a child offering a treasure.

“I’ve made everything clear with my mother too. I made it clear to my mother too. You’re the only woman I will ever marry, Evelyn Lane.”

“No one can ever take your place.”

“Let’s go to the courthouse right now, okay?”