Hiding Behind Her Superficiality

Chapter 277

Early the next day, Elspeth was woken up by a call.

She rubbed her eyes, then reached out and felt for her phone below her pillow. Then, she answered the call.

Her eyes were swollen from the grogginess. It was already 10.00PM last night when she was done entertaining the guests. By the time she washed up and lay in bed, it was already past midnight.

The voice coming from the other end of the line was familiar and cold. The man’s hoarse voice sounded. “Elspeth.”

The woman woke with a start. She sat up on the bed, and the sunlight from the window coincidentally shone in her eyes. She hastily covered her eyes as she said, “Are you back, Gilbert?”

“Hm, I thought I told them to inform you yesterday. Are you still in bed right now? Are you slacking off because I haven’t trained you in a while?”

Gilbert’s voice was low and crisp, and it sounded especially nice in the morning when he was still half- asleep.

“Of course not! How could I possibly slack off? I woke up at 5.00AM and went for a jog, then went home for a nap. I never slack off.”

Elspeth lied, her eyes darting around as she did so.

When she saw that the quartz clock on the milky white wall showed noon, her face turned pale.

“That’s quite a long nap you took.”

Gilbert couldn’t be bothered to expose her. He was pulling his luggage behind him while he walked, and the wheels were rumbling on the ground.

“Where are you now? Shall I go fetch you?” Elspeth propped her phone between her ear and shoulder as she began rummaging through her closet. “Or just tell me your location, and I’ll go find you.”

When Gilbert heard the crashing noises on the other end of the line, he knew that Elspeth was probably bustling about again. He couldn’t help but let out a chuckle. “It’s okay, you don’t have to come and get me. I’m already at the rented house.”

“What?” Elspeth was slightly stunned. “It’s not like you’re lacking money; why would you stay at a rented house?”

As they spoke, Gilbert had already arrived at a slightly worn-down residential building. He proceeded to open the door with a key. It wasn’t a huge room, but other than the thin layer of dust, it looked clean and tidy.

“Before I was 18, I stubbornly moved out and started working. This is the very house I lived in back then, but sadly…” Gilbert narrowed his eyes as he began to reminisce. “Sadly, my parents passed away after that, and I never came back.”

Elspeth knew this incident had always bothered him, so she didn’t say much about it as she changed the topic. “Well, Harper and I will visit you tonight after 6.00PM. Let’s get some drinks.”

Gilbert put down his backpack and sat on the couch, propping his feet up. “Oh, what’s this? Is Mr. Winthrop willing to let his fiancée go out for drinks with someone else in the middle of the night?”

“You’re not a man, anyway. What’s more, Harper is totally out of the question.”

Elspeth laughed, then instantly realized she had said something wrong as she covered her mouth.

“Fine, quit the nonsense. I’m going to shower. Carry on with whatever you’re supposed to do.” Gilbert had always been a decisive person, and he hung up pretty quickly.

Elspeth was slightly bewildered as she sat on the pile of clothes.

Her heart was a mess.

Just then, someone knocked on her door. The sound was very light and based on its frequency, it sounded like Callum’s habitual knock.

Elspeth opened the door to see Callum standing in front of her. His lips were pursed, and there was a dull light in his eyes.

“Are you going out tonight?”

Elspeth opened her mouth, but she couldn’t say anything.

By the looks of it, Callum must have heard their conversation and misunderstood something.

“Yes, I’m going out tonight to celebrate Gilbert’s return.”

This matter was as normal as could be, but Elspeth saw a look of disappointment flitting across his eyes.

“What’s the matter?” Elspeth asked carefully.

Callum’s shoulders drooped as he shook his head and said, “Nothing. Go ahead. Don’t come back too late.”

Elspeth gulped. “You’re not jealous, are you?”

“No.” How can I not be jealous?

Still, Callum didn’t say those words and smiled at her instead.

After bidding goodbye, he turned around and went back to the corridor, then leaned against the wall.

The notifications on his phone were ringing non-stop. With great effort, he took out his phone and watched as photos were being sent to him. His heart sank.

In the photos, Elspeth and Gilbert seemed quite intimate with each other. They visited the amusement park, went on the merry-go-round, had dumplings, and even shared an ice cream.

Toward the end, he received a photo of a yellowed love letter with exquisite handwriting.

The letter was signed ‘Elspeth’.

As Callum looked at those photos, his heart seemed to have constricted, and he couldn’t breathe.

The photo transfer was finally complete, and Arthur’s name blinked on the screen.

‘Callum, you probably don’t know that Elspeth liked someone when she was overseas, right?’

‘Yup, that man is her mentor. They spent their happiest times together, and they looked so sweet.’

‘See, Elspeth isn’t completely ignorant about love. That love letter was written so well that even I found it blinding.’

‘Callum, has Elspeth ever treated you like that?’

Arthur’s messages came to a stop, and that was the last message in the chatroom.

Callum lowered his gaze, his long eyelashes quivering. Property belongs to Nôvel(D)r/ama.Org.

‘You have no right to discuss our private matters.’

After Callum sent the message, he locked his phone.

The door to Elspeth’s room was already shut, and a wall separated the two.

Callum stared at it for a while, then sighed deeply and walked away.

In the bedroom, Elspeth only felt confused.

Callum’s behavior today was too odd. In the past, even if he were jealous, he would force her to apologize and surrender, so why did he look so hurt just now?

She took out her phone, typed out a string of words, then deleted them again.

Never mind. She would ask him when he opened up about it.

She picked a white belted dress and put it on. Her collarbone was exposed, and the dress also enhanced her perfect figure.

After applying some light makeup, she tied her hair and gathered her things, then went out.

Elspeth made a call to Harper, but she didn’t expect Harper to know about Gilbert’s return before she did. Harper had even gone to pick up Gilbert at the airport, and he teased Elspeth for oversleeping and missing the flight.

Elspeth couldn’t stand all the nagging, so she hastily hung up and called up Lisa instead.

“Lisa, Gilbert just came back today. Let’s have a gathering at Luna Bar.”

Lisa nodded and said yes. Elspeth was about to hang up when a weird voice sounded from the other end of the line.

The voice was quite familiar. It sounded like… Blake!

“Lisa, why are you still with Blake?”

Lisa creased her pretty eyebrows while Blake dragged her to the claw machine. She felt a headache coming on as she said, “Elspeth, I can’t explain this to you right now. I’ll tell you when we meet up tonight.”

What could it be that Lisa couldn’t explain in a few sentences?

Elspeth was speechless.

After hanging up, Elspeth drove the sports car she named Night Elf and headed right to Luna Bar.

When she arrived, someone seemed to be causing a ruckus at the entrance of Luna Bar. Elspeth turned off the engine and got out of the car. At a glance, she could spot Gilbert standing out among the crowd.