She saw Kendrick holding a bunch of fiery red roses and handing them to the woman who was impersonating her. That woman shyly accepted it. She indeed looked like her in every frown and every smile.
She looked like her indeed.
She looked almost the same as her.
“Isn’t that Glendale’s young master, Mr. Waldburg?”
“Yeah, it’s him. I heard that he hated the woman the old master forced him to marry back then. Now, I guess it’s just a rumor.”
“It seems that today is their anniversary. Mr. Waldburg even prepared a surprise for his wife.”
“Tsk, I guess the saying is correct. You can tell whether a man loves a woman from his eyes. Look at the way Mr. Waldburg looks at Eveline. You’ll only get that twinkle if you truly love someone.”
Niamh could hear all kinds of envious and lamenting words next to her ears, and all of them were like sharp knives to her heart when they glided into her ears.
Niamh looked at the man who was not far away. There was indeed a twinkle in his eyes and that was the true expression of real love.
Her body went cold. She felt the drizzle getting heavier, but she stayed until the crowd had dispersed. Now, she was the only person watching.
In the rain at night, she saw Kendrick holding the umbrella for that woman. They were walking in her direction side by side.
Niamh stood motionlessly in the rain as she watched Kendrick walking toward her step by step. Then, Kendrick quickly noticed Niamh who was standing motionlessly in the rain.
He lifted his charming and narrow eyes as his intense gaze landed on Niamh’s body uncontrollably.
The moment their eyes met, Kendrick abruptly stopped in his tracks.
The woman walking next to Kendrick stopped walking as well. Her face was filled with a grin that she could not hide. She then asked in a sweet voice, “Kendrick, what’s wrong? What are you looking at?”
Niamh could not believe this. This woman’s voice was almost the same as hers back then too. However, she never had that tone that was full of pretense.
Kendrick ignored the woman next to him at this moment. He was staring at Niamh absent-mindedly.
For some reason, Kendrick felt as if his heartbeat and breathing were under the control of the pair of eyes that were not far away from him.
‘Could there be another woman with the same eyes as Nia in this world?’
Kendrick had this question in his heart. He could not help but take a step forward and walk toward Niamh who was quietly standing alone in the rain.
Immediately, the happy woman who was holding the roses had an annoyed expression on her face when she saw Kendrick suddenly walking to a woman who had her face covered while holding an umbrella.
The woman curled her lips unhappily at Kendrick’s back where he could not see before following him.
On the other hand, as Niamh watched Kendrick walking toward her, her heartbeat started to get erratic.
This was the man who she had been dreaming about this entire time. He was now walking toward her, but somehow, she had the urge to back away.
She hoped that Kendrick would recognize her, but at the same time, she was also scared that he would.
He fixed his deep eyes on her, and Niamh felt the grievances that were hidden in her heart about to pour down in torrents.
This was the man she wanted to depend on the most in her lifetime. She wanted to remove her tough armor in front of him and only wanted to be protected and loved by him.
Niamh could not control her emotions anymore. She looked expectantly at Kendrick. Before she could stop herself, she parted her lips.
“Ken—”
“Kendrick, who’s this? Do you know her?”
After Niamh uttered the first syllable, the imposter interrupted her.
The woman walked up to Kendrick and her gaze landed on Niamh’s face.
When the woman saw Niamh with a mask and a scarf as well as the small scar on her forehead, she shifted her gaze coldly. “Kendrick, let’s go home now. The children are waiting for us.”
When she heard this, Niamh’s eyebrows furrowed.
She stared straight at Kendrick as her eyes bled with the desire to say something, but she still swallowed the words down in the end.
On the other hand, Kendrick did not know why but he handed his umbrella over to her with no explanation as he looked at those eyes that appeared as if they could talk.
“For you.” He parted his lips slightly, his tone so gentle.
The woman looked at Kendrick strangely. “Kendrick, is this your friend?”
Kendrick did not say anything. He merely stared at Niamh and noticed that she was also spacing out while staring at him. He suddenly reached out and grabbed Niamh’s right hand to stuff the umbrella into her hand.
“Don’t stay in the rain even if you’re in a bad mood. You’ll get sick,” he advised kind-heartedly.
Niamh’s heart was trembling furiously. The moment Kendrick held her hand, her tears almost escaped her eyes disobediently.
Kendrick was at a loss about what to do as he did not expect Niamh to cry. Plus, he also did not know why his heart would feel the pain of being burnt by her tears.
“Kendrick, let’s go. The rain is getting heavier.” The woman urged again. When she saw Niamh crying, she was even more curious. “Kendrick, does this woman know you? Why is she crying?”
Kendrick finally let go of Niamh’s hand and shook his head. Then, he parted his lips and said to the woman, “Let’s go home.”
Niamh lowered her head dully after she heard that. “Thank you.”
She said softly, but after she said that, her voice made Kendrick and the woman look at her again at the same time.
Niamh felt their gazes on her and smiled. She hid the wedding ring on the ring finger of her left hand. Then, she held the umbrella Kendrick gave her with her right hand and walked forward.
Kendrick turned around and looked at Niamh’s thin back that was getting farther and farther away. He unconsciously spaced out in the rain for a long while.
“Kendrick, Kendrick?” The woman was confused at Kendrick’s reaction.
Even Kendrick himself did not understand why those eyes were able to make him feel so disconcerted. Plus, the view of that woman’s back caused him to feel a sharp pain in his heart for some reason.
This was so strange.
However, he did not have time to look into this before he was urged away by the woman by his side.
The rain was getting heavier and heavier. Niamh held the umbrella, and after she walked for a while, she slowly stopped walking.
She did not know when the sky turned black. When Kendrick walked past her earlier, she felt as if her vision had turned black.
Her heart was in immense pain, but right now, the wounds on her face started to burn painfully.
Niamh placed the umbrella down while feeling unwell. However, the moment she removed her scarf and mask, a passerby suddenly exclaimed, “Damn, what a scary face!”
The passerby’s unintentional words sounded so piercing as they penetrated Niamh’s eardrums.
She silently stood where she was and watched as the passerby ran away hurriedly after being shocked by her face. Niamh started to adapt and get used to being looked at in a weird light.
Of course, she did not care about the passerby’s gaze. The only person she cared about was the man named Kendrick Waldburg.
However, he…
Niamh lowered her gaze in desolation and allowed the dense raindrops to crash onto her body.
In the silence, she heard footsteps getting nearer to her. Then, an umbrella appeared above her head.
“Do you not want to recover?” The man’s cold and clear voice sounded flat. “Have you ever considered that you might affect your recovering face if you stand in the rain like this?”
Niamh clenched her fists and put away her negative emotions. After she put on her mask, she turned around.
Under the streetlight, she saw the man holding the umbrella with his icy poker face looking extremely frigid.
“Why are you here?” Niamh was curious.
However, the man did not answer her. “Come with me.”
After he said that, he turned around. When he saw that Niamh was not moving, he shifted the umbrella slightly toward her.
“You’ve been wandering aimlessly for the entire afternoon. You’re homeless.”
“…”
Homeless.
Immediately, Niamh felt a coldness in her heart.
Glendale was her hometown. Her maternal home and in-laws were all here but now, she really had nowhere to go…
Niamh followed the man back to a modern-looking European manor.
The man asked the doctor over to treat Niamh’s face. Niamh lay on the bed like a lifeless doll as she allowed people to do anything they wanted to her.
After a while, Niamh finally felt the burning dryness and itchiness on her face slowly disappearing.
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.