Aurelia Shaw finished washing her face and brushing her teeth, and came out to see Mason Nightshade holding a picture frame and looking at it.
Did she put any photos in the room?
She hadn’t been back for a long time, so Aurelia Shaw couldn’t quite remember.
She walked closer and caught a glimpse of a boy and a girl in the photo. The girl was affectionately holding the boy’s neck, and the boy was half-squatting, looking lovingly at the girl and allowing her to playfully kiss his face with a smacking sound.
Mason Nightshade’s handsome face turned as dark as iron, his brows furrowed, staring gloomily at the couple in the photo.
He recognized the girl as Aurelia, even though she was still young. Her brows and eyes already showed the early signs of the beautiful charm she had now.
He didn’t recognize him!
Could she have chased after another man?
And at such a young age! Long before him!
Mason’s heart was flooded with jealousy. He thought about her previous smiles of flattery towards him, how she went into the kitchen she hated for him to cook his favorite dishes, watching him taste with caution, and waiting up late into the night for him... Thinking all of this might have been done for another man—
Mason could not allow such a thing to exist.
He realized he very much minded the existence of such a person!
"What are you looking at?" A voice suddenly sounded from behind.
"Has no one ever told you that rummaging through other people’s things is a very impolite behavior?" Aurelia said, taking the album from his hands, opening a drawer, and seemingly carelessly placing it inside.
Her movements paused as she closed the drawer.
She glanced again at the gentle smile on the man’s face in the photo, a dark trace of sadness flashing in her eyes.
Mason did not miss this subtle change in her gaze, his mind boiling over like an overturned jar of vinegar.
"Who is that man?" he asked in a deep voice.
"It’s none of your business." Aurelia didn’t want to talk about it at all.
Speaking of which, ever since he left, she remembered throwing all the items related to him into the storage and locking them away. This photo suddenly appearing in her room... Aurelia couldn’t help but associate it with that mother and daughter duo.
They really were relentless.
Aurelia turned to leave, but her arm was firmly grasped.
Mason held her arm, his face stern, and asked again, "Who is he?"
"An insignificant person," Aurelia said flatly.
"An insignificant person, and he embraces you so intimately? An insignificant person, and you kiss him?"
Naturally, Mason didn’t believe her implausible words. The more she avoided talking about it, the more it suggested there was a hidden truth. He couldn’t help but think that this man might very well have been her childhood sweetheart, her first love, or perhaps... the older brother she admired when she was young?
Those first childhood affections are often the hardest to forget. Even if someone has someone they like now, a first love always holds a place in the heart, like an indelible shadow.
Even though he knew the girl now liked him, recently she had become more and more distant toward him.
After marriage, he had been so cold to the girl that she might have been heartbroken. Once a woman is heartbroken... Mason dared not imagine the consequences. He couldn’t face the thought of what it would be like to lose her, that feeling of living death was something he never wanted to endure again!
"Aurelia," he said, embracing her and pressing her against the wall, lifting her face gently with his hand, his sorrowful yet passionate dark eyes trying to peer deep into her heart.