What she most wanted now was for Mabel Quinn to have no chance of catching Daniel’s attention.
"Don’t let anyone else know about this," Grace Yowell cautioned.
Noah Fletcher nodded, "I understand." However, what puzzled him was that Mabel Quinn was supposedly Grace’s childhood playmate, yet Grace didn’t want her to appear at Morningstar.
Grace Yowell arranged to meet Mabel Quinn after work for a meal at a restaurant Grace frequented.
"Sorry, I’m afraid of being recognized, so I could only bring you here for a simple meal," Grace said.
Mabel Quinn smiled, indicating her understanding, since Grace Yowell was now a popular actress, having starred in many films and gained quite a fan base.
While having their meal, they conversed about everyday matters. Grace Yowell casually asked, "Mabel, have you ever mentioned the things that happened in our village to others?"
"Why do you ask all of a sudden?" Mabel Quinn asked, somewhat puzzled.
"Oh, it’s nothing. I just read the novel ’Sound of the Wind,’ where the protagonist, Amy, spends a summer in a small mountain village during her childhood. She even meets a blind boy in the village. The scenes described resemble your experiences back then, and that small village is depicted much like our Drumbeat Village," Grace said, quietly observing Mabel Quinn’s reaction.
"I haven’t told anyone about those things in the village, but ’Sound of the Wind’ was originally written by me, so naturally, those scenes would seem familiar to you," Mabel Quinn confided, not hiding anything from her childhood friend.
Grace Yowell was shocked, "What, you wrote it?"
"Yes, my manuscript was accidentally lost at the time. After a while, Lyra Grant published the novel under her own name." It was a significant event in her life back then, bringing forth pain she hadn’t felt since her father passed, and it opened her eyes to many people and things. Yet, as she spoke of it now, there was a peace she hadn’t anticipated.
It seemed that time truly could fade the past.
"Did you... not try to prove that the novel was yours?"
"The evidence I have isn’t enough, and Lyra Grant’s father is a high-level executive. Even if I went to court, my chances of winning are slim. Besides, the book no longer holds any meaning for me." It was a novel she had written with Soren as the prototype, embedding her childhood feelings for Soren into every part of it.
Yet, unexpectedly, once the book was finished, so too was her unrequited affection for Soren.
"That’s really unfortunate. I couldn’t have imagined Lyra Grant to be such a person!" Grace Yowell outwardly appeared to sympathize with Mabel Quinn, but inwardly she felt relieved, thankful that Lyra Grant had done such a thing back then. Otherwise, the person Daniel wanted to meet a few days ago would have been Mabel Quinn. If that were the case, everything she had now would have vanished.
She didn’t want to fall back into the days of old, nor end up like the girls from the village, either staying to plow the fields or working in factories in the cities, laboring hard yet earning only meager wages barely enough to make ends meet.