novelraw Chapter 225: What Kind of Feeling Is This?
Chapter 225: What Kind of Feeling Is This?
Chapter 225: What Are These Feelings, Exactly?
Although Melissa was young, she was a girl of principle. If she promised someone something, she would definitely do it. Likewise, she expected others to keep their promises to her.
Melissa wasn’t the kind of child you could easily fool.
Rachel Royce looked into Melissa’s expectant eyes and finally had to agree. "We’ll have to get up very early to see the sunrise. If you’re a sleepyhead, you’ll miss it." Melissa said, "I definitely won’t be a sleepyhead." Tristan Sterling said to Rachel, "Melissa will sleep with me tonight." Rachel lifted her eyes to look at the man.
Melissa turned and hugged her father’s leg. "Then you can’t oversleep either, Daddy." Tristan Sterling bent down and picked her up. "Daddy won’t oversleep. Now, say goodnight to Aunt Evelynn." Melissa wanted to give Rachel a kiss first, so Rachel leaned in. "Goodnight, Aunt Evelynn." Rachel kissed Melissa’s little cheek. "Goodnight." The man lowered his gaze, watching the gentle expression on the woman’s face.
Noticing his gaze, Rachel’s expression cooled when she looked back at him. She said to Melissa, "Get to bed early." Tristan said, "You get some rest too." Hearing his words, Rachel suddenly wondered if she’d misheard him.
The light reflected a softness in his eyes that she found utterly unfamiliar.
Tristan looked at her dazed expression but didn’t say anything more. He then left the room with Melissa, closing the door behind him.
Rachel stared at the closed door, didn’t dwell on it, and turned to walk toward the bathroom.
After a long soak in the tub, she lay back in bed and scrolled through the photos she’d taken that day, then posted a nine-photo grid to her Moments.
The photos included shots of their group skiing over the past two days, pictures of the snowy mountain scenery from today, a picture of the snowman she and Julian Jennings had made together, and right in the center, the group photo from today’s sunset.
Every single picture radiated the joy of their trip.
After she posted it, the likes and comments started rolling in.
June Jennings asked: Who made such an ugly snowman?
Rachel Royce replied: It wasn’t me, that’s for sure.
Julian Jennings replied to June Jennings: If you’re looking for a beating, just say so.
June Jennings @Peter Preston: Peter, someone wants to beat me up! [pitiful face]
Peter Preston: I don’t think I could win that fight.
Rachel Royce: You’re no help, Peter!
Peter Preston: [stabbing motions]
Rachel Royce: June, I think Peter’s going to kill me.
June Jennings: This is all my brother’s fault. Make him pay for it.
... Rachel was reading through the comments when she suddenly received a like and a comment from someone she didn’t recognize: "Such a beautiful view. Is that the sunset from the Korvale lookout point?"
Seeing the name Jason Sinclair, Rachel paused for a moment before it clicked. She had added him at Nina Fitzwilliam’s birthday party.
She replied: Yes.
Jason Sinclair saw her reply, then sent a message to Tristan Sterling. "Tristan, are you planning on making Evelynn Melissa’s stepmom?" Tristan doted on Melissa, yet he’d let Rachel take her on a trip.
At Nina Fitzwilliam’s birthday party, Tristan’s attitude toward Evelynn had been obviously strange, but Jason couldn’t quite put his finger on what Tristan’s feelings for her actually were.
He had asked Franklin Fitzwilliam about it later, but Franklin hadn’t said anything, only warned him not to get any ideas about Evelynn.
An answer like that only made Jason all the more curious about their relationship.
Tristan Sterling saw Jason Sinclair’s message: Why do you ask?
Rachel had blocked Tristan on WeChat before and never unblocked him, so they could only contact each other by phone.
Jason sent him a screenshot of Rachel’s Moments post.
Tristan saw the photos Rachel had posted on her Moments, along with her replies in the comments below.
Everyone in the photos was beaming. His gaze fell on the last picture, a photo of Rachel and Julian Jennings together on the mountain.
Jason immediately sent another message: So what’s the deal with her and Julian Jennings? Are they a couple?
Tristan Sterling: If you have time to waste on wild speculation, why don’t you do something productive?
Jason Sinclair: I was just asking! What’s your problem?!
Tristan didn’t reply to Jason again.
"Daddy!" Melissa murmured.
Tristan put down his phone and pulled the blanket up over Melissa. "What is it?" "You have to wake me up early, Daddy!" Tristan gently patted Melissa’s back with his large hand. "I will. Go to sleep."
「That night.」
After a certain photography blogger posted their photos to social media, the picture of Rachel Royce and Julian Jennings together drew a great deal of attention, bringing a huge amount of traffic to the blogger’s account.
Some netizens accused the blogger of taking photos of people without permission, violating their image rights.
But with so much traffic on the line, the blogger chose to ignore the accusations.
Someone quickly recognized Rachel as the anchor from the financial news channel. There had been a scandal online before about her supposedly mingling with various financial tycoons.
Although the matter was quickly clarified and the original poster had apologized,
there were always conspiracy theorists who believed the rumors without question. The internet was never short of people who assumed the worst of others. In their eyes, beauty itself was a cardinal sin.
Soon, people began gossiping about the woman in the photo online, and some even started posting abusive comments.
The words were filled with jealousy.
Overnight, it was as if Rachel had committed an unforgivable crime in the eyes of these complete strangers.
The comments under the blogger’s post went from a few remarks praising the beautiful scenery to a full-blown trial of the woman in the photo.
Just as the traffic was swelling,
suddenly,
the blogger’s account was shut down.
It was as if nothing had ever happened.
Because she was in the same city, June Jennings had just clicked on the post when she saw it, but by the time the page loaded, the blogger’s account had been banned and there was nothing to see.
She was confused. She was sure she had just seen a photo of her brother and Rachel.
Rachel herself hadn’t seen any of the online drama.
She was tired today, too.
She lay down to sleep around ten o’clock.
In the early hours of the morning, while sleeping soundly, she was roused by the vibration of her phone. She fumbled for it, answered, and put it to her ear. "Hello?" Her voice was thick and nasal with sleep.
A man’s wide-awake voice came from the other end. "Time to get up." Rachel’s mind was still completely foggy. She was dazed for a moment before asking, "Where’s Melissa?" Because she was still half-asleep, her voice sounded exceptionally soft.
Tristan said, "Melissa’s already awake. You should get up." Rachel gave a lazy "mhm" and said, "I know." Tristan then asked, "What do you want for breakfast?" "Whatever’s fine." Tristan hummed in acknowledgment and didn’t press further.
After she hung up,
Rachel lay in bed for a little while longer before finally reaching over to turn on the bedside lamp. She saw that it was almost six o’clock.
She threw back the covers, got up, and went to the bathroom to wash her face, which woke her up completely.
After getting dressed and ready, she grabbed her hat and scarf.
KNOCK, KNOCK.
There was a knock on her door.
Rachel went to open it.
Tristan and Melissa were standing at the door.
"Aunt Evelynn, I got up super early today!" Rachel bent down and patted Melissa’s little head, smiling. "That’s great, Melissa." Tristan said, "Let’s go. We’ll get breakfast first." Hearing the man’s voice, Rachel felt a daze come over her again as she looked up at him.
She thought about his phone call just now. Before, he would have definitely used a high-and-mighty, commanding tone. ’It’s like he’s had a complete personality change.’