Sheffield held Miranda's arm and led her to the dining table, and replied proudly, "Thank you, Grandma. After all, I'm taking wedding photos with this beautiful woman. I must make sure that I'm in the best shape."
Miranda burst into laughter. "I'm so glad that you and Evelyn are getting married soon. It has not been an easy journey for either of you." When Miranda heard about his leaving two years ago, she had wanted to go find him in Evelyn's stead. But Evelyn didn't seem in a hurry to meet him, so the old lady had decided not to intervene.
"I've been waiting a long time for this, Grandma. We can finally be together now," Sheffield said with a content smile.
"The road to happiness is covered with setbacks." Miranda smiled at the young man.
In an elegant demeanor, Evelyn walked up to her grandmother and hugged her. "Grandma, I've missed you so much!"
Miranda patted her on the back. "I've missed you too, my dear granddaughter."
"Have a seat, Grandma." Sheffield pulled the chair out for Miranda.
The three of them sat down at the table, and chatted while they ate.
"I heard from your mother that Gwyn is doing much better now. Is that true?" Even to this day, Miranda had nightmares just thinking about what had happened to Gwyn.
Evelyn nodded with a smile. "Yes." She glanced at the man sitting opposite her and said, "Her daddy has been a great influence on her." If she had known that Sheffield's presence would help Gwyn recover so fast, she would have gone to find him long ago.
"I wish I could have been there when it happened. I couldn't fulfill my duty as a father in the past two years. It won't happen again," Sheffield said slowly, his voice laced with remorse.
"It's not your fault, my dear boy. Evelyn didn't tell you about Gwyn. So, don't beat yourself up. I just hope the three of you can live happily together from now on," Miranda said, patting Sheffield's hand.
"Rest assured, Grandma, that I will take good care of them," Sheffield swore.
"Well, I'm relieved to hear that. By the way, I'm sorry that I may have to bother you two. This is your last stop, isn't it? I was wondering if I could go back to Y City with you after you finish the photo shoot. Do you mind?" She had already brought her luggage, and didn't intend to go back to Munich. It would be wiser to fly back to Y City from there.
The couple looked at each other. Sheffield smiled helplessly and said, "Grandma, we are happy to accompany you back. Why would we mind?"
Miranda was relieved. "That's good. You will be holding a ceremony, right? I can't be absent from your wedding. That's why I decided to come back early. I would love to help you with the arrangements."
With a soft laugh, Evelyn said, "You don't need to help, Grandma. I don't have anything much to help with either."
Sheffield was taking care of all the preparations for the wedding. All she had to do was try on the wedding dress for the ceremony and wait to be the bride.
"Okay, if you don't need me to help you with the wedding, I can help you take care of Gwyn!" Miranda smiled. She also had a few friends in Y City whom she wanted to meet.
"All right, then we'll leave Gwyn to you. Actually, she can eat by herself now. So, you don't need to worry about her at all," Evelyn said, glowing with pride.
The ambience of the dinner was most pleasing. They had a good meal, talking and laughing together.
After dinner, Miranda went back to the hotel, leaving the couple alone.
The next day, they began their pre-wedding photo shoot in the Neuschwanstein Castle as planned. They dressed up in a royal and aristocratic fashion. While they were taking photos, Miranda sat in one corner, eating and drinking, and at intervals, giving Evelyn advice from time to time.
They went through two different themed photo shoots in two days. After that, they returned to Y City.
But the shoot was not over yet. They still needed two more sets of traditional wedding photos, which were to be taken inside the studio.
The number of pictures she had taken and the smiles she had worn in the past few days were more than what she had had in the past thirty years of her life.
Fortunately, the last two sets of pictures were taken indoor, so she didn't have to wander around here and there and it wasn't as tiring as their trip.
As soon as the pre-wedding photo shoot was done, they both devoted themselves to their own work.
Most of the time, Sheffield would bring Gwyn to his office. The little girl would play in his office while he worked. A trustworthy maid, who had worked for the Huo family for ten-odd years, would help watch Gwyn while he concentrated on his office files.
The main wedding dress for the ceremony was ready. Sheffield managed to spare some time to accompany Evelyn for the trial.
Just as Evelyn had expected, the man said the same thing every time she tried on a new dress.
When she walked out of the fitting room in the white wedding dress, Sheffield's eyes lit up like Christmas. "Eve, you look amazing! You are my goddess!" he praised.
Evelyn gave him her hand and walked towards the full-length mirror. Wearing a smile, she said, "According to you, I look good no matter what I wear. If it was up to you, you would want me to wear all these wedding dresses in all different colors!"
He beamed, "Absolutely. I was just thinking that! We are connected by our hearts, Eve. I found your whereabouts using my telepathy the other day too. We are the perfect couple, honey. No doubt."
Evelyn shook her head helplessly. She could do nothing around this sweet-talker.
Evelyn had a good figure, and the fishtail wedding gown suited her perfectly, just as Sheffield had said. Going along with his suggestion, the designer had the wedding dress designed into the fishtail style with a long train, and with a layer of light gauze outside.
The color was decided as white, to represent their pure love.
The designer had initially wanted to make it an off-shoulder, but Sheffield disagreed. Then, a lace was added to the shoulder, which he liked.
There was a long string of pearls at the back of the dress. At first, Sheffield didn't agree because it was almost backless. He didn't want people to see his wife's beautiful back.
But, since the bridal veil was about five meters long, it more or less covered her back. So, he grudgingly approved of it.
Sheffield had already taken care of the other details like the wedding gifts, the invitation cards, candies to go with the invitation and so on.
Within a week, everybody received the invitation card and the wedding candies.
The invitation card was decorated in a classy baby pink with the couple's wedding pictures printed on it. The guests' names were hand-written by Sheffield himself.
On the back of the card were these words—"I know you are approaching me, with a river of stars as your gift. So I walk towards you too, with the spreading shades of dusk as my gift in return."
In addition to a few old classmates, Evelyn had wanted Savannah to be her bridesmaid too. But because of her disabled legs, Savannah declined. She didn't want to cause Evelyn any trouble on her special day, but Savannah told her that she wouldn't miss her wedding for the world.
Evelyn had six bridesmaids in the end. To match her, Sheffield also invited six groomsmen.
Everything went smoothly as planned.
The most-awaited wedding day came very soon. The Huo family and Tang family were busy even before the day broke.
A wine-red Aston Martin sports car drove along the wide road, followed by two red British classic cars. Behind them were two rows of red and black Emperors. There were a total of sixty-six cars.
