Chapter 16
At the celebration banquet after the fashion show, the crystal chandelier reflected a dazzling light.
Cassius led Alice through the designers, her portfolio being passed around and eliciting occasional gasps of admiration.
“What a genius–like sense of color perception!”
“This tailoring design was too stunning!”
Alice’s cheeks were flushed with a slight blush as she poured herself another glass of champagne.
“I was so happy today… Thank you, Mr. Stewart, for showing me the world…”
Her fingertips lightly swayed the wine glass, the amber liquid swirling in the light.
Cassius grabbed her wrist and said, “Don’t drink anymore.”
His voice was soft, yet carried an undeniable force that could not be refused.
“Happy, aren’t you…”
Alice stubbornly poured another glass and pushed it in front of him, “You drink too…”
Cassius shook his head helplessly, but his gaze never left her flushed cheeks.
The touch of crimson at the corner of her eyes when she was slightly
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drunk was more captivating than the most gorgeous satin on the runway.
“Cassius…”
After three rounds of drinks, Alice rested her chin on her hand, her eyes hazy yet determined, “Why… are you so good to me?”
In her past life, she had already seen through Vincent’s insincerity.
Cassius‘ gentleness was like a mist, making her both long for and wary
- it.
of
She would rather believe that he had ulterior motives, but after searching his whole body, she couldn’t find anything worth scheming for.
The snowflakes fell silently on Cassius’s eyelashes, his deep eyes gazing at her, but he never answered.
On the way back, the accumulated snow beneath their feet made a crunching sound.
Cassius helped her and suddenly realized that he had left his phone in the pub.
“Wait here.”
He settled her on the bench downstairs in the apartment building.
Alice stared at the thick snow in a daze.
Having been in Paris for so long, I felt a sense of tranquility for the first time…
“We talked.”
A cold hand suddenly grabbed her wrist.
Alice suddenly looked up and met Vincent’s bloodshot eyes.
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He had lost a lot of weight, with snowflakes still clinging to his coat, as if he had come a long way.
The cold night wind brushed across Alice’s cheeks, waking her up completely.
She struggled hard to break free, but was held tightly in Vincent’s arms.
“I’m sorry… I’m really sorry…
His voice trembled violently, his arms imprisoning her like iron clamps. “I was wrong, Alice… I have always loved you… Do you still love me too? Come back home with me… The winter in Paris is too cold…”
His words were fragmented and filled with an unprecedented sense of humility.
“We could get married… Didn’t we agree to register? I will make Juliana pay the price… I will never let you suffer again…”
In the long silence, Vincent only heard the sound of their breathing overlapping.
Alice in his arms did not push him away, which gave him a glimmer of hope.
“Punish Juliana?”
Alice suddenly laughed coldly, her voice piercing the night like an ice pick. “Wasn’t all of this approved by you? You want to punish her, but what about yourself?”
Vincent was struck by lightning and stood frozen in place.
“You came to see me,” her voice suddenly brightened, “do you know what I am doing now?”
“I knew!”
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Vincent nodded eagerly, as if grasping at the last straw, “You are Zari’s designer, you are very talented… I know it all…”
“Very well.”
Alice’s voice was filled with obvious delight, “So you must know what my dream is, then please tell me, if I go back with you, how will you make my design dream come true?”
“I would…”
Vincent suddenly looked up, his eyes shining with hope. “I will provide you with the best resources, the top team. I will introduce you to…”
Alice slowly raised her hand, lightly placing her index finger on Vincent’s lips.
She gazed at the face that had once haunted her dreams.
The forever bright and glamorous Vincent in memory, now has a stubble of dark blue on his chin and heavy shadows under his eyes.
She withdrew her hand, her fingertips still lingering with the warmth of his lips.
“You couldn’t, Vincent.”
Vincent was eager to explain, but he was stopped by a single glance from
her.
“Did you forget? Our college does not accept students who plagiarize…”
A bitter smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “Thanks to you, I don’t even have a diploma in my own country. How could I possibly be worthy of knowing your connections?”
“Does your school only cultivate students who cheat?”
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This sentence was like a slap in the face, leaving Vincent speechless.
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“The winter in Paris is indeed very cold,” her voice was as light as snow falling, “but when you are by my side, my heart is even colder.”
The last glimmer of hope melted away like snowflakes.
Alice suddenly lost her balance and fell backwards, but she was caught by a strong arm.
Cassius didn’t know when he had already stood behind her, blocking Vincent to the side.
“Do you have a new love?”
Vincent’s voice was terrifyingly dry.
Alice chuckled lightly and naturally took Cassius’s hand, “New love?”
She raised her eyebrows, “Please show some respect, this is my boyfriend.”
“You’ve met before, but it wasn’t some ‘new love‘.”
After saying that, she turned around and walked upstairs with Cassius.
It wasn’t until her figure disappeared from sight that Cassius finally looked down at his own hands.
There still lingered the warmth of her palm there.
He chuckled self–deprecatingly, turned his palm over, clenched it into a fist, as if trying to hold onto the warmth of that moment just now.
Returning to the apartment, Alice slumped wearily onto the sofa.
Today’s encounter with Vincent left her feeling unsettled. Although she spoke decisively, she knew that the paranoid man would not give up
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easily.
When she got up, a bunch of keys slipped out of her pocket – it was Cassius’s keychain.
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I was just planning to return it to him at the company tomorrow when the sudden knock on the door interrupted my thoughts.
“Arrived.”
She thought it was Cassius who came to look for the keys, but when she opened the door, she was met with Vincent’s bloodshot eyes.
“How did you…”
She instinctively tried to close the door, but Vincent squeezed in ahead of her.
“Are you lying to me, aren’t you?”
His voice was terrifyingly hoarse, with a surge of obsession in his eyes.
“What?”
“If Cassius really was your boyfriend,” he advanced step by step, “why didn’t you let him stay overnight?”
Alice laughed angrily, “Do you think everyone is like you? Just because you like someone, you have to jump into bed with them right away?”
“I was not…”
Vincent took a step back as if he had been pricked, “I just…”
His voice grew lower and lower, eventually dissipating into the air.
“Please go out when you have nothing to do.”
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Alice said coldly.
A long silence spread between the two of them.
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Just as she was about to rush him again, Vincent suddenly slid down the door and sat on the ground.
“My mom… passed away…”
His voice was as light as a feather, “She was almost better… but Juliana…”
Alice stood frozen in place.
“Juliana couldn’t get into the hospital… but Matheo managed to sneak in… and showed her those videos…”
“I’m sorry… I didn’t mean to use this to seek sympathy…”
He lifted his head, his eyes filled with a vulnerability that Alice had never seen before. “I just… wanted to talk to someone…”
“Was this… my retribution?”
Alice looked at him in silence, her throat tightening.
“I left.”
Vincent struggled to stand up, “I won’t come to disturb you again in the future.”
Cassius stood outside the door, standing tall like a pine tree.
He locked eyes with Vincent, as if invisible sparks were flying in the air.
In the end, Vincent silently lowered his eyes and brushed past him.
He had actually arrived long ago.
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Intentionally putting the key into Alice’s pocket was just a reason to come back and make sure she was safe.
When he hurried back, he happened to see Vincent walking into the apartment building.
He chased to the doorway, his hand raised, but slowly lowered it upon hearing the words “my mother passed away.”
Cassius didn’t relax until he was sure that Vincent’s figure had completely disappeared into the night.
In the moment when he turned around, he met Alice’s ambiguous smile.
She stood by the door, arms crossed, clearly having waited for a long
time.
“I came to pick up the keys.”
Cassius uncomfortably touched the back of his neck.
Alice didn’t expose his clumsy excuse, she just asked softly, “Now, can you answer my question from earlier today?”
“What’s the matter?”
“You had known me for a long time, right?”
Her gaze was clear and penetrating, “That time when I was disqualified from the competition, were you also there?”
Cassius’s lips curled slightly upwards. “You finally remembered?”
Alice did not answer, and continued to ask, “Even the interviewer could see the problems with that piece of work, why do you believe in me and still choose to hire me?”
Cassius suddenly bent down and looked her in the eye: “If you don’t
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remember Cassius, then… what about Caz?”
“Caz?”
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Alice suddenly opened her eyes wide, memories flooding back like a tide.
The reclusive little boy next door to my grandmother’s house in my childhood, the one isolated by other children, who only opened his heart to her…
“Are you…Caz?”
Her voice trembled slightly.
Cassius nodded gently, with a long–lost warmth shining in his eyes: “You said you wanted to be my friend for life.”
Alice’s fingertips trembled slightly as childhood memories flooded back like a tide.
“I remember…”
Her voice was so soft that it was almost inaudible, “You always said you couldn’t jump rope, so I taught you all summer long…”
A hint of tenderness flashed in Cassius’s eyes: “The day you left, I ran after the car for a long distance…”
Alice suddenly remembered something: “But then I received your letter, you said you were sent to a Welfare Home…”
“Those letters…”
Cassius smiled bitterly, “They were all confiscated by the teachers at Welfare Home.”
It wasn’t until I got into college and left there that I realized you never received any of my letters.
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The moonlight outside the window streamed in, casting a faint shadow on his well–defined profile.
Alice then realized that the tiny teardrop mole at the corner of his eye was exactly the same as the one on Caz in her memory.
“So… CZ, is it really you?”
“She remembered the online buddy who always replied to her design drafts on time, the stranger who encouraged her when she was most lost.”
Cassius pulled out a yellowed design draft from his pocket, on which were two immature signatures.
“This is our joint work, how could I not believe you?”
“I was just too weak back then, I wanted to speak up for you, but I got expelled from the college…”
His voice gradually became firm: “But now it’s different! We have all walked through the darkest path, and now I finally have the ability to protect you.”
Alice looked at the grown–up Caz in front of her and suddenly realized that fate had been twisting and turning, and the most precious bond had always been by her side.
Outside the window, the night sky of Paris was dotted with stars, just like the ones two children counted in the countryside that year, shining
brightly.
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