Evelyn straightened her clothes and warned Calvert in a cold voice, "Don't make me hate you more!"
Then she turned, opened the door and left the room.
Evelyn walked out of the Alioth Building in high heels. As soon as she hit the parking lot and was about to call Sheffield, she got a call from Nadia. "Miss Huo, bad news! Mr. Zhang had a heart attack. We're waiting for an ambulance now. The launch is a mess."
A heart attack? Resting her forehead in her hand, Evelyn said resignedly, "Get someone else. He must have alternates. We could also change the launch date. Can you handle it?"
"I don't think that'll fly. The product designer's here, but only you and Mr. Zhang know everything about it. There are CEOs tuned in to watch this online. They saved the date for that reason. If we cancel it..."
After three seconds of silence, Evelyn said decisively, "I'll be right there!"
To Evelyn, the launch of the new product was more important than jaunting off to France.
After she ended the call, she took a look at the airline ticket again. Takeoff was in 1.5 hours.
If you want to catch an international flight, you need to be there at least two hours early. Maybe even three. The plane was going to take off, and she wasn't at the airport yet. All she could think about was Sheffield.
She closed her eyes and leaned back in the seat of her car, pondering how to solve this problem.
It would take at least 20 minutes to drive from here to the venue holding the launch event, and making sure it would all go smoothly could take hours. The event itself was supposed to last three hours, with an open bar. If she could take ten minutes to make sure everything was in place to her satisfaction, she could leave it in the capable hands of her assistants afterwards. If she kept it down to 10 minutes and rushed to the airport after that, she should be able to barely catch the flight before it took off. She opened her eyes and told Tayson, "Take me to the venue where the launch event is taking place. And step on it!"
"Yes, Miss Huo!" Tayson answered and started the car in a hurry.
Tormented by those thoughts, she took out her phone and sent a message to Sheffield. "Where are you?"
At that moment, Sheffield had arrived at the airport and was going through the security check. His phone had been put in the tray, and was on a conveyor belt that would take it through the security scanner.
When he saw Evelyn's message, he was already at the boarding gate.
"I'm at the airport," he replied.
Evelyn's heart ached. She held her phone tightly, not knowing what to say.
Finally, she replied, "I'm sorry, honey. I got held up. A last-minute glitch in the launch event. I'm on my way, now. I'll probably be late."
Sheffield read her message three times. When he was about to reply, "I'll wait for you," he received a picture on his phone.
He clicked on it. It was a high-definition surveillance video screenshot. A man pressed the body of a woman against a door in a private booth. And from the vantage of the security camera, it looked like they were kissing.
Soon after he clicked on that, he got a text message. "Evelyn and I were in a private room of a hotel. She told me she didn't know how to turn you down, so she asked me to tell you she didn't want to go to Paris. That's why she was at the launch party, and not at the airport. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. You're wasting your time if you're waiting for her."
It was from a number not in his contact list. But he knew who sent it.
Sheffield played with his phone, flipping it between his fingers, catching with the other hand. He needed to think about this.
He opened his text messages again, but he didn't reply to Calvert. Instead, he sent Evelyn a text message saying, "I'll wait for you. We can always change flights."
He wouldn't believe that asshole.
Evelyn felt much better when she saw his message. "Okay," she replied.
She went over all the things she needed to talk about, making sure that she could recite the speech fluently by then to save every possible second.
An hour and ten minutes later, Sheffield received a call from Joshua. "Hey, Bro. You guys boarding now? Have fun there. Wish I could go, but I'm stuck here working—"
"Evelyn isn't here yet," Sheffield interrupted him.
"What? Isn't your flight supposed to take off soon? Like ten minutes from now? Unless my watch is wrong." Joshua double-checked, taking another look at his watch. No, he was right. So why wasn't she there? Then he checked the time on his phone to make sure. Same result.
"No, we had a slight change of plans. She got held up." Sheffield's tone betrayed no emotion.
"What happened? Where's Evelyn?"
"I don't know!" After that initial text, he got nothing more from her. So he really had no idea where she was, or how quick she'd be there.
He called her ten minutes ago, but no one answered.
Just then, a voice was heard on the intercom. "Mr. Sheffield Tang and Miss Evelyn Huo, your flight is about to take off. Please report to Gate 293 for boarding. Sheffield Tang and Evelyn Huo. It's time to board the plane." They had taken a passenger count, and they knew they weren't aboard when they checked the manifest.
Joshua heard this over the phone.
After a moment's silence, he reminded Sheffield in a low voice, "Time to board, man. You'll miss your flight."
Sheffield stood in front of the large-paned French window, one hand in his pocket. He looked at the plane outside and said, "So what? It's not time to take off yet. If she gets here, we can board together. If not, I can always change my flight."
Joshua sighed. He knew Sheffield better than anyone else. He may project the image of an uncaring playboy, the love-em and leave-em type who went through women like a chain smoker went through cigarettes.
But that wasn't who he was at all. He was a softie, and when he loved someone, it was an all-consuming passion, and he would love that woman until death took them both.
Just like now, he wouldn't change flights until the first plane had already started taxiing. He just stood there, waiting for his loved one.
"Maybe Evelyn was delayed by something. She probably ran into some last-minute business as a CEO. You could fly to Paris first and wait for her there."
On the other end of the line, there was a moment of silence. Then Sheffield said all of a sudden, "Did you know Evelyn was pregnant?"
"What?! She had your kid? Where is the baby?"
"It was an ectopic pregnancy. One of her fallopian tubes was torn open, and they took her to the hospital."
Joshua didn't know much about fallopian tubes, but he knew what an ectopic pregnancy was. "The baby died. Evelyn almost did..."
"Oh..."
Another silence followed.
Joshua lit a cigarette and leaned against the window. "I'm sorry to hear that. How did you find out? And are you sure it's true? Why didn't I hear about it before? I chat with Terilynn every day. How come she never mentioned it?"
"Matthew told me yesterday. I just want to tell you, don't use cheap condoms. They break easy, and they can break a relationship too." For example, he had accidentally hurt Evelyn.
Although Sheffield sounded more relaxed, Joshua could still feel his sadness.
Sheffield stood at the window, watching the plane taxi down the runway.
The plane had taken off, and yet the person he had been waiting for still hadn't arrived.
For a moment, he thought as long as Evelyn came to the airport, he would take her to Paris today even if there were only charter planes available. But transatlantic flights were pretty common. They could take another flight.
An hour later, Sheffield left the boarding gate with his phone. He was still on the phone with Joshua.