He watched her back, suddenly feeling a sense of panic that he couldn’t explain. Her unfamiliarity, even just her silhouette, made him find it unbearably glaring.
His eyes seemed to ache again, as if they were being pricked by needles one after another.
As Mabel Quinn reached the Corporation entrance, she heard someone exclaim behind her, "Mr. Harris, what’s wrong? Are you alright?"
Mabel turned around, only to see Daniel Harris slightly bent over, one hand pressed against his eyes, looking pained.
Could it be that his eyes are hurting again?
Mabel turned and quickly walked over to Daniel, already able to hear his deliberately suppressed breath laced with pain.
"Quick, get a hot towel." Mabel told someone nearby.
That person, also a Corporation employee, immediately turned around to comply upon hearing Mabel’s words.
Mabel and another executive of the Corporation helped Daniel to sit on a chair in the lobby’s resting area. Mabel placed her hands on both sides of Daniel’s temples and began to gently massage them.
Daniel’s hand, which was pressing against his eyes, slowly lowered, though his eyes remained closed.
"Breathe deeply, and it won’t hurt as much," Mabel said.
And Daniel did as Mabel instructed.
The hot towel arrived, and Mabel placed it over Daniel’s eyes, massaging for a while longer. Slowly, Daniel’s furrowed brow relaxed, and his breathing returned to normal.
Just as Mabel was about to remove her hands from Daniel’s temples, he suddenly reached out and grasped her wrist.
The warm touch was so obvious in his palm; her wrist was so slender that his fingers could easily encircle it, with room to spare.
Mabel was startled, "If you’re still in pain, Mr. Harris, you can have someone continue to massage around your eyes. It might feel a bit better."
Daniel’s other hand removed the hot towel from his eyes, and his eyes slowly opened.
Earlier, when her hands were massaging around his eyes and temples, he felt like he was back in the past when he couldn’t see anything. Back then, there were also hands that would gently caress his eyes, telling him how blue the sky was, how green the grass was, describing everything he couldn’t see.
This warm touch brought back memories, but even after he found Grace, that touch that once moved him seemed to vanish.
However, whenever she massaged his eyes, it inexplicably reminded him of that moment’s sensation.
"Who... exactly are you?" The words spilled from his mouth uncontrollably.
Mabel was taken aback, but before she could respond, another voice suddenly rang out, "I wonder what Mr. Harris intends to do with my girlfriend?"
There was a collective intake of breath around them.
Mabel turned her head, only to see Kyle Kinston, who had approached unnoticed, now also clasping Daniel’s wrist. The three of them were like linked chains.
"How did you get in?" Mabel asked.
"You never came out, so I got worried something happened to you and came in to check," Kyle replied.
These ordinary words were enough to reveal the intimacy between the two.