Bringing the Nation's Husband Home III

LXV

Eliana was chatting with the driver in the taxi whilst waiting for her. Seeing her emerge from the cemetery, she helped her open the car door.

Throughout the taxi drive back to the city, they didn't talk to each other. The taxi ride was extremely quiet. All that could be heard was the never ending thrum of the car.

When the taxi reached Fifth Ring Road, Eliana told the driver to stop by the side of the road.

When the car came to a stop, Eliana opened her purse. Just when she was about to pay, Helen, who sat next to her without moving an inch since she got in, said with a raspy voice, "Let me."

Eliana didn't fight to be polite with her. She shut her purse and shoved it back into her bag. With a "Thank you", she pushed the door open.

After she shut the door, Eliana hesitantly told Helen, who was still in the car, "I shouldn't have said all this, but since James told me you were married, I thought about how he knew he couldn't be with you but wasn't willing to spend the rest of his life with someone else... It just made me feel sad..."

With that, the rims of Helen's eyes turned red. She imagined that this was the first and only time in her life where she wanted to help someone who had hurt her with no regret at all.

She curved her lips into a smile at Helen, and said in a soft voice, "Goodbye". She quickly closed the car door, and turned around to leave with tears rolling down her face from the corners of her eyes.

Helen originally wanted to have the taxi driver take her back to Ceberos Apartments, but they ended up in an old neighborhood by Second Ring Road.

The mushroom restaurant wasn't closed for the night just yet. There was only one customer having dinner in there. That person had quite a bit to drink and was speaking quite loudly.

The owner remembered Helen. When she saw her, she excitedly escorted her to an extremely quiet corner table.

Helen wasn't really hungry but still ordered a few dishes.

When the owner took her order, she couldn't help but say, "After all these years, you and Mr. Williams have not changed your tastes. Every time he comes here, he always chooses these dishes."

Of course Helen knew that Mr. Williams was James. Her expression changed slightly, and she kept quiet for a moment before asking, "Does he come here often to eat?"

"Yeah." When the owner finished taking her order, she smiled and said, "He usually comes once a week, and every time he comes, he's always alone, yet he loves to have two sets of tableware in front of him. He would always put food into the other bowl as well."

"Oh." Helen curved her lips into a smile, but didn't say a thing.

The owner handed her the menu, then turned to leave.

Food was served quickly because there were so few people in the restaurant.

The dishes tasted just as they always had, nothing having changed. However, Helen found it difficult to swallow. In the end, she barely touched the food, paid the bill, and left.

It was already ten in the evening. Yet she didn't hail a taxi back home, but randomly followed the road.

The mushroom restaurant was quite close to the shopping district. Just when Helen was a little tired out, she realized that on the road opposite her was the Williams Enterprise tower.

She looked up for a long time, counting the windows to James's office. The lights were on, but because it was too high up, she couldn't see inside.