Chapter 56
But Emily really loved painting, so she didn’t turn down Louisa’s kindness. “Don’t worry, Prof. Perez. I won’t give up art,” she
smiled.
It had been her only hobby since childhood. Only painting could bring her true, quiet peace. No matter what, she’d keep it. But her heart just wasn’t the same as it used to be.
Louisa picked up on the things left unsaid, and her chest tightened again. Emily felt different now, but Louisa couldn’t put her finger on how.
Yet, as long as Emily kept painting, Louisa believed that with her talent, she was destined to be a rising star-one who wouldn’t easily fade away.
“Good,” she said, patting Emily’s hand. “Do you still have the same number? If you ever need help, don’t hesitate to reach out. You’ll always be my student, got it?”
Louisa truly valued Emily’s gift. If Emily quit painting, it might haunt her forever. And at her insistence, Emily finally added a second name to her phone.
They chatted a bit longer before saying goodbye. Neither of them noticed the group in the villa hall watching them leave.
“Isn’t that Prof. Perez? She gave up advising Lydia even when Lydia hadn’t done a thing wrong. Today’s Lydia’s graduation party-what’s she doing here?” a girl grumbled.
“I invited her,” Lydia quickly explained. “She was my mentor, after all. Today’s a big milestone, and I wanted to share my moment with her.”
For two years, Louisa wouldn’t let that old plagiarism mess go. She’d made Lydia the first student in the school’s history to get dumped by her mentor, for no real reason at all.
‘On a day this happy, of course I’d invite her. How else would she realize she’d let an amazing student like me slip away?’ Lydia thought with a hint of satisfaction.
The girl clinging to Lydia’s arm piped up, “You’re way too nice, Lydia. If it were me, I wouldn’t even give that Louisa the time of day.”
“Prof. Perez always favored Emily. I get it,” Lydia said with a soft smile. But a flash of unmistakable sadness crossed her face.
Suddenly, Yvonne Zwick spoke up. “Doesn’t anyone else think the woman with Prof. Perez looks exactly like Emily?”
In Cloudridge’s social circles, Yvonne and Emily had never gotten along. Ever since Emily came back, Yvonne had been the first to jeer at her for “stealing” Lydia’s place.
Lydia glanced at Yvonne, her smile warming. “Yeah, that’s her. She came back over a month ago. I even planned a welcome dinner for her at the Hiltin Hotel, though things didn’t go as I hoped.”
Those who had attended the welcome dinner were Emily’s old friends, but today’s party was packed with Lydia’s classmates and alumni. Plus, the Bennetts and Sinclairs had kept the Hiltin Hotel incident under wraps, so almost no one knew what really happened.
Now that Lydia had brought it up, everyone present grew curious and began asking about what had happened.
Lydia’s eyes misted as she “spilled” the story. “I really wanted to make that dinner special for Emily. But she hated it, I guess. She showed up in those ragged old clothes deliberately and said I wasn’t being sincere.
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“Sean got so mad and stood up for me. He just asked her to apologize, but something he said set her off. She suddenly pounced on him, hitting and biting, which even sent him to the hospital.
“After that, Mr. and Mrs. Sinclair went to apologize to her. But she flipped out again-she bit Sean like a maniac, almost ripped a chunk out of his arm. She even got Grandpa so worked up he ended up sick.”
