Chapter 66 She Will be Sad.
Seeing Lauren frozen in place, Adeline furrowed her brow and followed Lauren's gaze.
Standing at the door was a disheveled looking Jasper.
He seemed to have come from a faraway place.
His once crisp black suit was wrinkled, and his hair was slightly messy.
And yet despite all that, he still exuded the mature and unique scent of a grown man.
Adeline noticed that he was holding a small box.
The box seemed familiar, but she couldn't remember where she had seen it before.
"Daddy, where did you go?" Lauren carefully placed her bowl and utensils on the table, scurried off to the kitchen, clumsily dished another bowl of food, and brought it out. "You came back just in time. Let's have our last lunch together."
Finishing her sentence, Lauren realized what she said. "Not the last meal, but the last lunch before Auntie leaves," she corrected herself.
"Hmm." The man glanced at Adeline with indifference, placed the suitcase down, and roughly loosened his tie before tossing his coat onto the coat rack.
He rolled up the sleeves of his white shirt and strode over with large steps, carrying the suitcase.
At that moment, Adeline noticed that not only was his coat wrinkled, but even his white shirt had a grayish tint, as if covered in long-settled dust.
Frowning, she wanted to ask where he had been, but managed to restrain herself.
She wasn't anyone to him, so where he went had nothing to do with her.
"Daddy, what is this?" Lauren frowned at the small suitcase Jasper was holding.
Jasper gently placed the suitcase on the coffee table. "It's the dress you'll be wearing tonight."
Confused, Lauren replied, "But Auntie already bought me the dress for tonight yesterday."
"Earlier, Daddy just wanted you to wear something grand, but last night I suddenly thought you should wear this," Jasper explained.
With that, he opened the suitcase.
Inside the suitcase, a brand-new girl's dress lay quietly.
It was a pink French-style dress.
The dress was hand-stitched, with every stitch and detail handled almost perfectly.
Wide-eyed, Lauren leaned in closer, exclaiming, "Wow!"
It was so beautiful!
Even more beautiful than the several little dresses Mommy had taken her to try on at the mall yesterday!
Lauren was excited to reach out and touch it, yet she hesitated.
"Daddy, where did this come from?"
Looking at her innocent face, Jasper's heart softened.
He raised his hand and affectionately stroked her little head. "Daddy fetched it from the place your mommy used to live."
Adeline dropped her fork onto the floor.
Jasper glanced at her but didn't pay much attention to her unusual reaction. "Last night, it occurred to me that your mommy had once fantasized about having a daughter with me before we got married. So, during the wedding preparations, she drew the design, taught herself tailoring, and made this little dress herself."
Adeline sat stiffly in her chair.
No wonder she thought the suitcase Jasper was holding seemed familiar.
That suitcase used to contain the drawings and the dress.
When they got married, she had intended to bring this little girl's dress to Blue Bay.
But when she was packing her things, Molly had said that the dress was too outdated and tacky. Being Jasper's child, she would have a noble status and wouldn't wear such a dress.
And, after much hesitation, she ended up leaving the dress in the tiny ten-square-meter room she used to live in.
So much time had passed since then that she had even forgotten about that dress she had made.
She thought back to that time; making the dress. She envisioned a happy future with Jasper.
She thought that marrying him would make her the happiest woman in the world.
But what was the result...
Reality had slapped her hard, almost taking her life away.
"Auntie."
The sweet voice of the little girl next to her brought Adeline's thoughts back.
Lauren stood in front of her now wearing the dress, happily pulling at the hem, her smiling eyes curved, "Do I look pretty?"
The image of her daughter standing before her overlapped with the one she had envisioned in her memory.
Adeline's heart felt like it had been struck violently.
She held back the tears that threatened to fall and resisted the urge to embrace Lauren.
The woman sniffled and smiled, saying, "You look beautiful."
"Then I'll wear this tonight!" Lauren excitedly twirled in the middle of the living room, pulling at her dress. "I'll wear the dress mommy made for me and attend daddy's family dinner. I'm so happy!"
Watching her innocent and lovely appearance, Jasper's furrowed brow slowly relaxed.
The man went to the bathroom to wash his hands and then sat down in front of Adeline, gracefully picking up his bowl and beginning to eat.
Lauren excitedly asked a servant to bring over a huge mirror, and her small body eagerly changed angles to admire herself in the reflection.
"Isn't it pretty?"
Seeing Adeline continuously gaze at Lauren, Jasper faintly smiled and asked, "Why did you suddenly want Lauren to wear this dress?"
Just the day before, he had asked her to take Lauren to the mall to choose a formal dress.
Adeline's previous house in Omaha was several hundred kilometers away from Denver, and a round trip would take at least ten hours.
Judging by his disheveled appearance, he must have traveled to Omaha in the early hours of the morning, picked up the dress, and returned straight away.
Jasper's eyes were filled with Lauren's adorable appearance. "Because I suddenly thought that if I announce Lauren's identity at the dinner tonight, Adeline should be able to see it."
After speaking, he smiled bitterly. "Since she can see, I hope that she can see Lauren wearing this dress."
"On one hand, it fulfills a year-long fantasy and obsession of hers."
"And on the other hand..." The man sighed. "I also hope that after she sees Lauren in this dress, she can feel that I remember a lot of the things she once told me, and she is still in my heart."
Adeline's heart chilled slightly, and her face...
The smile on her face disappeared instantly.
He wanted to lure her out.
To make her believe that he had deep feelings for her.
This man was still the same as before, cunning and merciless.
She glanced at Lauren, who was still excitedly admiring the dress, and a bitter smile formed on her lips. "Although Lauren is only six years old, she's not ignorant. If she knew you were using her, she would be heartbroken."
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