A Journey from Bitterness to Truth

Matilda let out a laugh, her eyes sparkling with humor. “Wouldn’t it be great if you were my boyfriend?”

“I suppose I’d reluctantly agree to that,” Chloe quipped, flicking her crimson lip gloss. “Matilda’s my girl. Anyone who tries to mess with her has to deal with me!”

“Cut the crap, you’re in a rush, aren’t you? Get going,” Matilda nudged Chloe playfully. “We’ll come back next week, and be careful on your way.”

With a confident stride in her heels, Chloe made her exit, and just like that, the fun seemed to drain from the room. Criss and Matilda didn’t linger much longer over their meal before getting up to pay, only to find out someone had already covered their tab.

Matilda’s gaze immediately found Adrian, who was squeezing a credit card in his hand as he walked away from the front desk. Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

A frown creased her brow. She had wanted to pretend she hadn’t seen him, but Adrian turned back toward the front desk and started walking directly toward her with an unmistakable

presence.

Matilda instinctively stepped back, standing close to Criss for support.

“Finished eating?” Adrian’s voice, laced with an unspoken challenge, demanded attention.

Matilda answered with a quick “Yep” and tried to leave, grabbing Criss‘

Adrian’s laughter followed them. “Matilda, I’m not some kind of monster, and I’m certainly not Yvan. How scared of me can you be?”

There he went again, poking at her sore spots with ease.

Matilda’s grip tightened on Criss‘ arm as she turned to face Adrian. “Mr. Simpson, you and I aren’t exactly friends, so there’s no reason to stay. What’s next? Should we for a cup of tea?”

She had become quite the wordsmith.

pop by your place.

Unbeknownst to Adrian, Matilda had let go of everything. When a person has nothing left to lose, fear becomes irrelevant.

Mason noticed their exchange at the front desk and approached. Matilda hadn’t seen him in days and could see he had changed a lot.

She had tried to open her heart to Mason once, only to have her sincerity met with his suspicion, turning all her efforts into a joke.

Perhaps now Mason saw her as just another woman trying to use his family’s status to her advantage.

But Matilda no longer cared about how Mason saw her. She had been hurt in the past.

10:52

wondering why friends seemed to drift away, but she had come to understand that true friends never part, and those who leave are merely passing through her life.

Her gaze on Mason was no longer filled with the earnestness of the past: she simply gave him a cool “Hello, Mr. Farrell” and prepared to move on.

Both Mason and Adrian called out to her simultaneously.

Matilda paused again but didn’t turn around. “Is there something else?”

“Matilda.” Mason was clearly taken aback by her coldness, oblivious to the turmoil she had endured recently and the depths of her suffering. He could only look at her with the detachment of a stranger, his voice tinged with mockery. “You’ve changed.”

Matilda’s laugh was bitter, and when she turned back to face him, there seemed to be a shift in the very atmosphere.

She looked at Mason, and for the first time, she thought that maybe this was his true face.

Men often cloak themselves in mystery when they’re on the chase, but when they realize they might never get what they want, their true, cold indifference emerges.

Matilda laughed at her own naivety, how much she had once trusted this man.

She said, “Mason, do you know? I once thought of finding a safe harbor in you.”