In fact, the woman in the painting looked nothing like her.
“Do you honestly think that looks like me?”
Gwen shot him a strange look, feeling a little disappointed at this.
She and Rachel were nothing alike, and the painting was the only reason she had even agreed to come out on a date with Winson in the first place. She had not been looking forward to seeing herself in a painting, but she was curious as to what a younger version of her looked like in Theo’s eyes.
All in all, she wanted to catch a glimpse of this painting to reminisce about her younger days. However, it was clear that this was not at all what she hoped to see.
Winson scratched his head rather sheepishly and replied, “Well…l think it does.”
“How so?”
Gwen curled her lips into a smirk. “The only thing she and I have in common is we both possess two eyes, a nose, and a mouth.’
With that, she turned to stare at Winson solemnly and continued, “I thought I made myself very clear last night, Winson. The only reason I came out with you today is because I’m interested in what you have to show me, but it turns out it wasn’t at all what I hoped. Please don’t do something like this ever again.”
With that, she turned to leave, but before she could do so, Winson reached out to grab hold of her wrist with a frown. ‘Don’t go!”
His grip on her was so tight that it was beginning to hurt. “The art show tickets cost me a fortune, so are you seriously going to leave right now? Come on, stay for a little while longer, okay?”
Gwen turned to shoot him a murderous glare. “Let go of me!”
How could Winson possibly let her go just like that?
The angrier Gwen got, the tighter his grip became. “Come on, Gwen. It’s not like you have anything else to do today anyway, so why don’t you join me for the rest of the art show? Come on, we’ve known each other for ages now. Are you seriously going to do this to me?”
Gwen sneered as she cast him a cold look. ‘Yes, we’ve known each other for ages, and in fact, we used to be close back in high school, but that isn’t a reason for you to stop me from leaving!”
After all, they had lost touch for so long that in Gwen’s opinion, they were more akin to acquaintances instead of friends at this point.
The only reason she agreed to come out with him was because she still remembered him from their high school days. If she had failed to recognize him, he would be a stranger to her.
What was the point of watching an art show with someone she barely knew?
At the thought of this, Gwen bit her lip and grew even more determined to leave without Winson, but the more she struggled against his grasp, the tighter it became. “Come on, Gwen. You’re already here; join me for the rest of the art show. I’ll treat you to lunch after this!”
If he had not continued to hold onto her like this, Gwen might have caved in right on the spot and agreed to his request, but the fact that he was doing this made her lose all her patience toward him.
“I don’t care about lunch. Let go of me!”
He refused to.
Gwen was a woman, so naturally, she was not as strong as Winson. Not only that, but she had just undergone surgery a few months ago and had yet to regain her full strength, so no matter how hard she tried, she could not pry herself free from him.
Before long, the people around them began to notice their little commotion and paused to stare at them.
Some of the nicer strangers even stopped to ask whether they knew each other.
“She’s my girlfriend,”
Winson replied, still holding onto Gwen’s wrist. He was worried that the people would try to help Gwen once they found out about their relationship, so he quickly explained before she could, “I invited her to this art show, but she refused to stay because she claims she knows nothing about art. I’m trying to convince her to stay, but she won’t listen.”
With that, he tightened his grip on her and added, “Come on, honey, please stop making a scene. People are staring at us!”
Gwen widened her eyes in shock. “Who the hell are you calling ‘honey’? Let go of me, Winson! Since when did I agree to date you? What utter nonsense!”
“See? That’s just how she is. Whenever she gets mad at me, she’ll turn around and tell everyone she doesn’t know me.”
Winson shot everyone a sheepish grin, then continued to tug on Gwen’s wrist. “That’s enough, Gwennie.’
“Don’t call me Gwennie!”
Gwen was so infuriated that her voice began to shake. “You’re not allowed to call me that!”
The passersby witnessing this began to step back when they saw this. They had all bought into Winson’s lie and thought he and Gwen were an arguing couple.
Not only that, but some of the people were even beginning to leave.
The rest of the people who remained started murmuring about how bratty Gwen was behaving.
Winson could not help growing even more triumphant when he overheard their whispers. He curled his lips into a smirk and turned to glance at
Gwen. “Come on, Gwennie. Let’s go in to watch the art show, then we can go for lunch afterward, okay?”
“No,” all of a sudden, a man’s voice rang out coldly.
At the same time, someone’s hand reached out and grabbed hold of Winson’s wrist, which was tugging on Gwen’s.
With a loud crack, Winson’s wrist was twisted at a grotesque angle, and Winson shrieked in pain as he drew his hand back.
Gwen turned around, and an expression of joy crossed her face when she saw the man in black. “You’re finally here!”
“Yes.”
The man dressed in black paused for a moment when he heard the delight in her voice, then glanced at her and nodded. “Are you hurt?” “No.”
Gwen shook her head. ‘How about you?”
She scrutinized his right arm, which was wrapped with gauze, and furrowed her eyebrows. “Are you okay?”
“I’m okay.”
The man turned to glance at Winson, whose wrist he was holding. “How did you claim that you know her?”
At this point, Winson was in so much pain that his entire face had turned pale, and he could not utter a single word apart from vague whimpers of pain.
“He claimed to be this lady’s boyfriend,” one of the passersby piped up. “We thought he was harassing her, but he claimed to be her boyfriend…and this lady also referred to him by his name, so we assumed that they knew each other.”
The other passersby agreed. “Yes, we thought something fishy was going on, and we were wondering whether he was telling the truth… After all, you never know what goes on in other people’s lives.”
“Yes, I thought this man looked a little aggressive, but I never once imagined he’d be lying!”
“Thank God you’re here. Otherwise, who knows what could’ve happened…”
A split second later, one of the passersby finally asked, “Miss, do you actually know this man who claims to be your boyfriend?”
“We used to be classmates.”
Gwen sneered as she cast Winson a cold look. “But from now on, we’re nothing more than strangers.’
People like him did not deserve to remain in contact with her, much less be a friend of hers!
“Gwen…”
Winson bit his lip as a distraught look crossed his face. “It’s no big deal; do you really have to-ahh!”
Before he could even finish his sentence, the man had bent his wrist again at a crude angle, and this time, he could clearly hear the sound of his bone snapping.
The man shot him a cold glance. “You deceived everyone by wrongfully claiming to be her boyfriend; do you think this isn’t a big deal? What would you have done to her if I hadn’t shown up just in time? How dare you harass her like this in public? If this is what you’re capable of doing in broad daylight, who knows what you’d get up to when no one is around?”
Winson slumped onto the ground limply and began to howl in pain. “You assaulted me! I’m going to call the cops on you! Just wait!”
As he said this, he took out his phone and dialed 911. “Hello, yes, I want to report a case of assault…”
Seeing that Winson was already calling the cops, Gwen immediately lunged forward and kicked his phone out of his hand, sending it clattering onto the ground.
“Run!”
The moment the phone landed on the ground, Gwen grabbed hold of the man’s hand and sprinted out of the door.
If Winson really called the cops on them, not only would they be blackmailed by Winson, but they would have to be subject to police interrogation.
Since none of them were locals, it would be a hassle should the police get involved.
Most importantly, however…once they arrived at the police station, the man in black would be forced to reveal himself, and Gwen could not bear to see him be subject to such cruelty, especially in front of Winson.
The man was dragged out of the art show by Gwen, and he could not help smiling as he gazed at the tendrils of her hair being blown softly in the breeze.
She was as adorable as he remembered.
Still holding onto his hand, Gwen led the man in black out of the art gallery and all the way back to the street where she lived.
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.