It took Armand a lot of effort to even his breathing. He helped her with her shirt and pulled the blanket over her before using the remote controller to close the curtains.
“Get some sleep,” said the man in a raspy voice. “I’ll come and get you when it’s time for lunch.”
Genevieve murmured a reply and curled herself up under the blanket.
After Armand closed the door to the bedroom, he called Steven and said, “Come over to Regality Gardens now.”
He felt so stuffy inside that he couldn’t breathe.
He walked to the living room and saw the pack of cigarettes on the coffee table. He took one out and began to smoke.
Armand didn’t rest when Patrick escaped with Genevieve. He had spent most of his time dealing with the reporters and the other members of the Faulkner family and had Steven in charge of looking for Genevieve.
After he got the police to drop the charges against Genevieve, they sent her things back. It was her phone and her purse that she had left at the Faulkner residence.
The phone screen had cracked, but it still functioned well.
Maria had been worried that Genevieve would need that phone, so she had left it on the coffee table.
Armand grabbed that broken phone and turned it on.
The wallpaper was a photo of her leaning back on a pillow. She had a loose white shirt on and her collarbone was exposed.
She was wearing his shirt at that time.
The plushy she was hugging was the one he won from the Devil’s Pasta challenge. Her cheek was pressed against the snow-white body of the plushy, and she was smiling at the camera.
Her eyes were watery. It was as though she was looking at him through the screen with eyes that held so much beauty.
There was arrogance, stubbornness, cuteness, and even an undisguised love in those eyes.
Armand swiped the screen, and a PIN was required to unlock the phone. He knew the PIN and typed “1431118” to unlock it.
The second he unlocked the phone, he recalled that “143” was the number of letters in each word for “I love you” and the last four numbers were his birthday.
When he clicked on the notepad, he saw two documents. Genevieve would type her words on her phone and show them to the others when she couldn’t speak. She had a habit of deleting everything after the person she was communicating with had read the message.
However, she didn’t delete a single word she told him.
“I don’t owe you anything, Armand. I want a divorce!”
“Just you wait. Once my throat is healed, I’ll buy ten meatballs and eat every single one of them right in front of you. Damn you!”
“I’m not leaving unless we get that plushy.”
“Armand Faulkner, you’re inhuman!”
“But you’re so much older than me. Isn’t it normal to call you Sir?”
“Since you’ve put on a tattoo to my liking, I thought I should reciprocate the gesture and get one resembling your favorite mythical creature.”
“Thank you, Sir! Xoxo!”
He kept reading the words on the notepad and reminisced about those memories. He thought about their time at Springwyn, about her throwing a tantrum, and about her throwing herself in his arms.
She couldn’t even talk at that time, but she was still mischievous, and her each and every move was adorable.
Cough! Cough!
Armand had been smoking for years, but that was the first time he had choked. When the smoke hit his lungs, it felt bitter and painful.
At this moment, the doorbell rang. He went to answer the door and saw that it was Steven.
“Mr. Faulkner.”
Steven noted how terrible Armand looked and saw a hint of emotion he had never seen before in those eyes. After greeting him, he entered the living room with Armand.
Armand pointed at the couch and gestured for Steven to take a seat. He finished smoking that cigarette, stubbed it out in the ashtray, then took out another one.
“Grandma has just passed away, so how did the police get there so quickly? And why was everything revealed to the media?”
“A housekeeper from the Faulkner residence called the police,” answered Steven. “At first, that housekeeper told me that Old Mrs. Faulkner didn’t look well when she called Mrs. Faulkner. The housekeeper claimed that was why she called the police. But she later confessed and told me the truth after I forced her to.”
