"Tap, tap," the lights above went out completely.
Only a dim light from the lamp on the cabinet between the two beds remained.
Shane, having turned off the lights, lay down on the bed, flat on his back, not looking at Audrey on the neighboring bed. There was a rustling sound from her side, but it was clear she had no intention of sleeping.
After about ten seconds, the room finally fell completely silent. Just as Shane closed his eyes, he heard Audrey’s voice by his ear: "Did you think I was at ho today?"
Shane didn’t respond, opened his eyes, and turned to look at her.
She lay on her side, facing him, and continued, "When you discovered the fire, were you worried about ?"
"Is that why... you hugged when you saw , right?"
After she asked, her black eyes curiously looked at him, filled with a certain expectation, waiting for his answer.
At that mont, Shane was indeed very unsettled. The worst possibilities crossed his mind, and just the thought that she might perish in the fire and leave him forever made it feel like sothing had torn a piece of his heart away.
It was at that mont he realized he might have started to fear losing her.
Since his brother left, he had beco independent and detached, not thinking he’d ever feel heartbroken over soone’s absence again.
But today he felt that way again. It was fortunate that such grief didn’t happen to him again.
"Why aren’t you answering ?" Audrey asked with a hint of dissatisfaction.
He then said, "I was worried about the dog at ho."
"What about and Pea?"
"I didn’t think that much."
The light in her eyes dimd instantly, and after a few seconds, she got off the bed, walked to his side, picked up Pea curled up on his blanket, and returned to her own bed, turning her back to him.
Seeing her sulky back, Shane couldn’t help but smile.
"Will you divorce ?" she suddenly asked out of the blue.
Shane responded with a question, "Do you want to divorce ?"
She still faced away, silent for a few seconds, then mumbled, "Whatever, I’m still young, it’s not like I couldn’t get married again."
She always brought up age, making Shane insecure, doubting himself, wondering if he was really too old to be worthy of her.
He asked her softly, "Is there soone you like?"
Without thinking, Audrey replied, "No."
She then added, "All n are pigs, none are any good."
After she spoke, she waited for a few seconds. When he didn’t reply, she asked, "What about you? Is there soone you like?"
He cleverly replied, "Sa as you."
Audrey pondered his words, internally noting that she and he were indeed different.
Silence descended in the room once again, neither of them sleeping, each occupied with their own thoughts.
Audrey thought that now her grandfather had passed away, and the inheritance issues were basically settled, this marriage seed to have no aning for him anymore.
The delay in choosing to divorce might just be to avoid tarnishing reputations, or perhaps because The Suttons and The Warners were well-matched, maintaining this marriage was beneficial and harmless to The Warners.
Shane, anwhile, considered the fact that she had so many peers at school, with her quirky personality and good looks, she was a type many guys would like.
In any condition such as height, appearance, talent and intelligence, or financial and social status, Shane had confidence, except for the age issue, which seed an insurmountable hurdle.
Before he t Audrey, he thought even if he married at thirty-five or six, it was still a golden age, and he could find any woman he wanted.
When he first married her, he didn’t consider age as much of an issue.
But over ti, constantly hearing her call him "old" or things like "old cow eating young grass", he started to doubt himself, wondering if letting her find soone her age might be more suitable?
But the thought of doing so made him uncomfortable.
Subconsciously, he already considered her his own, and the idea of handing her over now, even if he convinced himself ntally, his actions wouldn’t allow it.
The next day, when Audrey woke up, it was almost nine o’clock. Shane had already left for work.
General and Pea were playing on the carpet next to the bed, and Audrey lay in bed watching them without moving.
If those two could get along so well, when would her relationship with Shane progress toward sothing resembling "love"?
"Knock, knock." Outside the door, a woman’s voice called out: "Miss Sutton, your husband asked to call you to get up for breakfast."
Audrey looked at her phone, it was exactly nine o’clock.
She got out of bed, opened the door, and took the breakfast tray from the hotel staff: "Thank you."
"You’re welco, enjoy your al. If you need anything, you can call the front desk."
After washing up, Audrey sipped her milk while scrolling through X.
Suddenly, she thought of sothing, imdiately exited X, opened a certain tower defense ga, and chose to log in through WhatsApp.
In the list of ga friends, she found Shane. His WhatsApp avatar was still a white background with a black number "five." His ga na: Yi Guan-Y, Yi Guan was the na of his team.
She opened his profile page for a look, noticing a total of four marks, over seventy heroes, and about one hundred and fifty skins; it seed he hadn’t played in a while.
The ga history was traceable, and Audrey noticed they were mostly five-player gas, with the most recent ga dating back a year.
Audrey’s curiosity was piqued over who he played gas with, so she imdiately clicked on a ga record. Seeing his teammates, Audrey felt at ease.
His gaming buddies were all Yi Guan mbers: Yi Guan-Luc, Yi Guan-Mor, Yi Guan-Brother Phoebe, and Yi Guan-Faye.
Thankfully, Audrey had t Luc, Mor, and Phoebe King beforehand; otherwise, she might have thought they were three girls and begun analyzing, speculating on their relationship with Shane again.
Looking at the team information, she noticed the captain was Faye Xavier, whose avatar was strikingly similar to Shane’s, a white background with the word "pig" in black.
Audrey found it a bit odd, then looked at the other three’s avatars, piecing them together to fully understand the aning behind the avatars, and felt quite surprised, finding Shane... so silly?
The five avatars each had a character; pieced together, they spelled out "opposite," "five," "heads," "pigs"...
Though this idea was certainly not Shane’s, it looked like sothing Faye or Luc would co up with—Shane and Mor were probably the ones forced to play along.
Yet, Audrey still found it... really funny.
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