"You see what kind of man you're hanging out with? Why is he so rude?" Carlos cast a burning glance at his daughter and added, "Humph. He broke a smart lock worth hundreds of thousands of dollars in just a few minutes. Seems like the brat has some clever tricks. Next time I see him, I'll charge him ten times that!"
Carlos then told Nadia to order a new one.
Looking at the broken smart lock, Evelyn said helplessly, "Since when did you care about the cost of a lock so much?"
Sheffield was running out of capital for his drug research project. Ten times the price of the lock would be a few million. She didn't think he could afford that.
"I won't allow him to take one more cent of my money. If he can't afford it, I'll go to First General Hospital to collect the debt and let the doctors and the patients know that he is not a good man!"
"Dad… Don't you think your behavior is…" Under Carlos' withering gaze, Evelyn cleared her throat and changed her words. "You're acting like a kid throwing a tantrum!"
She sighed inwardly. Her father had never been able to stay calm when it came to Sheffield. Maybe because Sheffield was so good at ticking people off, or maybe Carlos was getting old and becoming more and more childish.
Carlos had never encountered such a rude, cocksure man. Even though he already spread the news that Evelyn was going to get engaged to Calvert, it still didn't stop Sheffield. He just wouldn't stop bugging her.
Thinking of this, he glanced at his daughter's desk. There was a light brown paper bag that Sheffield left there.
He walked toward the desk. But before he could reach it, Evelyn quickly grabbed the paper bag and tucked it in the drawer. "Was there a reason you came by?"
Carlos looked at her coldly. "I'm serious about you marrying Calvert. Make sure you're ready." Finally, he reached out his hand and demanded, "Give me that bag."
"What?" Evelyn played dumb.
Carlos stubbornly walked around the desk, whipped open the drawer, and grabbed the paper bag. "I'll take that!"
"Dad!" Evelyn stood up and called out to him.
Carlos didn't stop or even turn his head.
"That's mine. Give it back."
Emotionless, Carlos said, "Everything of yours is mine too, including…" He raised the paper bag to show her. "This!"
"Okay. How do I get it back?" She knew he had demands. She might be willing to meet them. Evelyn tried to bargain with him.
"If you cut all contact with Sheffield, you'll get it back."
Frustrated, Evelyn lowered her head. "Fine, I don't want it. Bye, Dad!"
Carlos snorted and left with the bag.
Carlos went back to his office and opened the paper bag. Inside were a ticket to a concert and a box of preserved plums.
Without hesitation, Carlos threw the box of preserved plums in a bin and burned the ticket with his lighter.
Looking at the smoldering ticket, Carlos suddenly remembered something. He buried the ashes in a flowerpot. Then, he retrieved the box of preserved plums out of the clean bin and put it back in the paper bag before calling Dixon in.
"Take this to Evelyn," he said.
When Dixon arrived at Evelyn's office, she was sulking silently in her chair. When she saw him, Evelyn stood up from the chair and called out politely, "Hi, Uncle Dixon."
Dixon smiled, "Hi Evelyn. Mr. Huo asked me to drop something off."
Evelyn saw the paper bag in his hand. It wasn't hard to see it was the same one Sheffield brought here.
But she wasn't thrilled. She knew her father well. "Tell me what he wants."
Dixon sighed. "Mr. Huo said, if you agree to go to the concert with Mr. Ji tomorrow night, you can have this back."
'Evelyn is so unlucky in love…' Dixon felt sorry for the girl.
Evelyn's guess was right. She knew her father wouldn't give it back to her without asking something in return. She took a deep breath and said, "Okay. I'll go."
Dixon put the bag on her desk and left.
When she was alone in the office, Evelyn opened the gift bag and saw a box of preserved plums in it.
It wasn't the brand she usually bought. But she tried this brand before, and it was extremely difficult to find at the store.
She felt her heart warm up. She gently opened the box, unpacked one of the packaged plums and put it in her mouth. It tasted sweet, and she felt sweet in her heart as well.
She took out her phone, opened the WeChat app and tapped on Sheffield's dialogue box. There was one message waiting for her, the same message that Sheffield had sent earlier: "Evelyn, do you love me?"
Evelyn's eyes reddened.
In fact, she loved him.
Very much.
But she ignored the question and sent a message to him. "Thanks for the plums."
Then she added, "Very sweet."
What she didn't know was that Sheffield hadn't left the parking lot of ZL Group. He was sitting in his car, working on his computer. When he saw the message from her, a smile of comfort appeared on his face. "I wish I could share the same plum with you."
'Share the same plum?' Sheffield always did things like that.
Biting her lower lip, Evelyn replied, "I'm busy. Bye."
"Okay, but don't forget our appointment," he replied. Sheffield thought Evelyn must have seen the ticket to the concert since she had eaten the preserved plums.
'Appointment?' Evelyn was confused and tried to think about what appointment he meant. After a long while, she remembered that he had once said that he would take her to France and buy her coffee. He might be talking about that appointment.
She didn't reply to his message because she wasn't sure whether they would be able to go to France together or not. The piano concert started at seven o'clock in the evening.
Before six o'clock, Sheffield changed out of his doctor's outfit as soon as he was off duty and went straight to the concert.
Jimmy Mi, the well-known pianist, was performing. He almost never came to the city. The tickets were sold out. Most of the guests were from the upper crust.
At about a quarter after six o'clock in the evening, Sheffield arrived at the gate of the concert hall. He called Evelyn, but she wasn't answering.
At half past six, he was about to head to ZL Group to find Evelyn when his phone rang. "Where are you? Are you off work yet?"
Not knowing why he suddenly asked this question, Evelyn answered honestly, "I'm outside."
"Are you still busy?" Sheffield talked on the phone as he watched the throngs making their way to the concert hall. He turned around and happened to see a familiar figure.
A woman in white fashionable dress, holding her phone to her ear, emerged from a car. The man in front of her was Calvert in a black suit jacket. All eyes were drawn to the striking couple.
"Yeah, I have something to do." Evelyn didn't want to let Sheffield know that she had gone to a concert with Calvert.
Sheffield stared at the woman who got out of the car with the man's help, and asked, "Then what about me?"
"What do you mean?" Evelyn was confused.
And so was Sheffield. 'What does Evelyn mean to do this? Why didn't she tell me she didn't want to go to the concert with me? Why is she playing dumb now?' he wondered.
Calvert held her hand and put it on his arm.
Evelyn wanted to pull it back, but with so many people around, she didn't say anything more.
