Chapter 322 Watching the Stars by Your Side
Ashley dropped her bag and sat next to him. With one of them on each side of the tombstone, the photo looked complete, like the three of them were together again.
But the person in the photo couldn't squeeze between them anymore to play peacemaker, or pop up on her phone to give fashion advice for outshining those mean girls.
Ashley's nose started to sting, and she turned her head as more tears rolled down, hot and heavy, hitting the ground.
Damian opened a can and handed it to her, "Share a drink with me? Just half a can, okay?"
His tone was more of a question than his usual command.
The man in front of her, wrapped in sorrow, was just a broken person who had lost his little sister. His hostility was gone, defenses down, sharp edges hidden, showing his vulnerable side.
Ashley softened instantly, her anger towards him melting away. The past had its wounds, but they couldn't all be lumped together. When it came to Faye, she always felt deep guilt. Even though she carried her own heavy burdens, she couldn't let her misfortune erase the past.
"Okay." Ashley took the beer and nodded silently.
Damian clinked his can against hers, "Time flies."
Ashley tried to stop her tears, but as soon as he spoke, she couldn't hold back the overwhelming sadness. Her shoulders shook violently, and her face was drenched in tears. "Yeah, time flies."
Three years had passed, but many wounds hadn't healed. The thin scabs would reopen at the slightest touch, bleeding anew. The supposed healing was just wishful thinking, unable to withstand any stimulus.
Damian took a sip of beer and didn't bring up the past again, "Is the lawsuit over?"
He picked up the interrupted topic from the phone. Back then, he had coldly cut her off, annoyed that on such a day, she called not to talk about Faye but to boast about her own victories. It made it hard for him, who was comforting his sobbing mother, to respond kindly.
Ashley now fully understood Damian's cold attitude on the phone. How could she have been so stupid to forget such a special day and foolishly talk about those trivial matters? "In front of Faye, let's not talk about unrelated things. Faye wouldn't like to hear it."
Damian looked at the girl in the photo who would never grow older, wanting to reach out and touch her nose, "She used to love being with you because you always talked about things she liked."
'Wasn't that because I wanted to please her to please you?' This thought circled in her mind but remained unspoken, "Maybe because we were both girls, we knew what each other liked. Besides, Faye had a great personality and wasn't picky."
"She wasn't picky, but she would directly say if she didn't like something, never suffering in silence," Damian said.
"That's great. It's not good for girls being too considerate of others. They only cry in secret when wronged, getting angry without others knowing why. Expressing their true feelings straightforwardly earns more respect." Ashley admired Faye's personality. Maybe only being born in the Hearst family could allow someone to be so unrestrained, being themselves completely.
The first daughter of Rochester City, countless people looked forward to her growing up and speculated on how beautiful she would become.
She died too young, breaking many hearts.
Damian said, "Aren't you the same?"
Ashley swallowed her beer and forced a self-deprecating laugh, "How can I compare to her? She had you as her backing. Would anyone dare say a word? She didn't even have to say she was wronged; you had already taken care of it."
This wasn't the first time it had happened. At a party, a drunk young heir, feeling all high and mighty, tried to push Faye into drinking. When she showed she wasn't having it, he kept running his mouth.
The next day, his family's business took a nosedive, and he ended up groveling to Faye, begging Damian for forgiveness.
Ashley had grown up with her brother's protection too, but he didn't have Damian's power and wouldn't go to such lengths for her.
If Damian wasn't her ex-husband, just looking at how he protected his family, he wasn't a bad guy.
Ashley envied Faye a lot.
People hated privilege and cursed the rich only because they weren't part of that world.
Damian finished his beer, his voice deeper and a bit nasal, "Still not enough."
If he had protected Faye well enough, she wouldn't have had that accident, and her body wouldn't be missing.
Ashley smoothed the baby's breath flowers ruffled by the wind, "Maybe Faye's become a star. She loved stars so much; she'd keep shining up there."
Damian looked up at the endless sky, dotted with stars. He pointed to a spot, "I bought the naming rights to a star for Faye. There's a star named Faye."
"Really?" Ashley followed his arm, but those stars with naming rights were invisible to the naked eye. She pretended the brightest star was Faye, waved, and softly said, "Faye, how are you? Are you happy?"
To see better, Ashley leaned close to Damian, her head almost touching his shoulder. Her long hair brushed against his arm, and a few strands, blown by the wind, gently caressed his skin, filling the air with a delicate, elegant fragrance.
Damian's free hand circled her shoulder, lifting her hand to adjust the angle, "There."
Ashley studied the stars intently, not noticing Damian was holding her, "That seems to be the Lyra constellation. It's especially beautiful through a telescope."
"Yeah, very beautiful," Damian said.
Ashley suddenly thought of the telescope in Damian's bedroom and turned to ask, "Do you often look at the stars at home?"
She turned her head too quickly, and Damian hadn't moved his arm, so her head bumped into his chin.
Ashley quickly moved her head away, realizing his arm's position, and retreated even more.
Damian cleared his throat, "Now you understand?"
Ashley adjusted her hair, tucking it behind her ear, "The direction of the lens was too easy to misunderstand. I didn't think much; my first reaction was..."
Damian said, "That telescope can see her star. If you want to see it, you can come over sometime."
Was this an indirect invite to his place?
But the reason was hard to refuse.
Ashley pressed her lips, "We'll see."
Damian nodded.
After a while, Ashley started talking about fun times with Faye, "Faye really admired you, but she loved badmouthing you to your face."
If anyone badmouthed Damian the most, it was probably Faye. She spared no effort in criticizing him, but only in private. To outsiders, Damian was like a god.
Damian smiled, "Probably because she was a Virgo."
A typical Virgo, the more they liked, the more they nitpicked.
Ashley laughed, "You know, because of her, I can't badmouth Virgos anymore. If all Virgo girls were as special as Faye, I would wish I were a Virgo too."
"Impossible," Damian said.
Ashley looked at the sky and sighed, "Yeah, not everyone is that lucky. How lucky it is to be Mr. Hearst's sister!"
"Really? Being my wife wasn't lucky?" Damian said.
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