James Grant left right after dinner.
He didn’t say much more to Evelyn Clayton, but just before he walked out the door, James turned back and planted a kiss on Evelyn’s lips.
"I might not be back until the early morning. Get some sleep early."
After saying this, James lightly caressed Evelyn’s cheek in an affectionate manner, then turned and left.
Evelyn watched his departing figure, her eyes filled with unrecognizable emotions.
After a long while, she made her way up to the third floor, up to the rooftop.
From there, Evelyn could see the scenery outside the iron gate.
In the deep night, she watched as James’s car slowly drove away into the distance.
It wasn’t until the car disappeared from view that Evelyn took out her phone and dialed Yara Reagan’s number.
It was as if Yara was waiting by the phone; she answered almost instantly.
Yara’s breathing was heavy, so heavy that Evelyn could hear the trembling in her voice.
Evelyn lowered her eyes, suppressing the bitterness in her voice, and softly said, "Yara."
"I’m here, I’m here."
Yara finally couldn’t hold back and began to sob, "Evelyn, are you, are you okay?"
"I’m fine." Evelyn’s laughter was forced, not wanting Yara to worry about her, "James isn’t starving me, nor is he abusing me. There’s nothing wrong."
In just those two sentences, Yara was already crying uncontrollably. This text is hosted at novel※fire.net
"I’m sorry," she said, "It’s me who didn’t protect you—"
Evelyn didn’t know how much of this conversation James could hear, she didn’t even know if he was remotely monitoring her calls at this moment.
"Don’t cry, Yara." Evelyn’s voice was slightly hoarse, "I told you I’m fine, it’s okay."
Evelyn knew what she wanted to say, and she understood that Yara was aware she was being monitored, so she could only hesitate.
Her fingertips dug into her palm, trying to make her tone sound calm and unruffled, "Yara, I know what you want to say. Let me think about it some more. When we can meet, we’ll talk then, okay?"
On the other side, Yara bit her lip tightly to keep her sobs from spilling over, making Evelyn feel even worse.
She swallowed the acidic pain in her throat, finally replying in a hoarse voice, "Okay, okay. But you must take care of yourself, I want to see you just like before, okay?"
Evelyn curled her lips slightly and replied softly, "Okay. But Yara, can you promise me one thing?"
Yara’s thoughts immediately became taut, "What is it?"
"Iris probably hasn’t come back yet, right?" Evelyn said slowly, "Given my current situation, I hope you do not tell her, don’t let her know. She’s impulsive, and I fear she might do something rash."
Evelyn spoke slowly, and Yara instantly understood what she meant.
The so-called Iris being impulsive...
Although Iris sometimes wasn’t very clever and was easily swayed by others, she was definitely not the impulsive one.
On the contrary, Iris was the most timid and cautious among the three of them.
Moreover, Evelyn should have already anticipated that Iris would hurry back as soon as she learned Evelyn had returned to Riversend. And Yara, too, would not hide the fact that Evelyn had been taken away from Iris.
Evelyn wasn’t talking about Iris... she was referring to the Sinclair family.
Yara’s throat grew even more parched and pained.
After a long while, she reluctantly agreed in a choked voice.
"Okay, I understand. I’ll listen to you."