Chapter 63: Please, Go Away
When her grandfather was facing the demise of his business, it was exactly these people who stood aside or even helped destroy the Sanchez Group. They were the ones who pushed him over the edge.
After a little boy sang a hymn, the pastor began reading Franco Sanchez’s biography to the crowd. He marked him as a man who was fighting for his whole lifetime.
Charles and a few of Arianna’s former colleagues came for the commemoration. Arianna did not inform them of her grandfather’s passing, so she did not know how they knew to come.
Before leaving, Charles said to her, “You really need to get some rest now. If you have no other plans, the company still welcomes you back with open arms if you’d like to work for us again.”
She thanked him kindly.
Then, Arianna found Ryan standing in the corridor, wearing all black. Thinking of his care for her grandfather, she slowly walked toward him.
She stood next to him in silence for a while before he asked, “Are you alright?”
“Please don’t say, ‘I’m sorry for your loss, Arianna.’ I’ve heard that one too many times today from people who don’t give a shit.”
“Okay.” Ryan was quiet again.
After a few moments, Arianna turned to face him and said, “You are not supposed to be here. Please go away.”
Ryan did not say anything. Instead, he walked away from her, heading up to the altar. He took three bows in front of Franco Sanchez’s coffin before saying goodbye to Arianna and leaving the church.
But Ryan did not have any relationship with her family. And Arianna was not in the best mood seeing Travis Cooper’s associate on such an occasion.
However, when she saw Ryan showing respect to her grandfather, she knew Ryan was doing it on behalf of Travis. She thought that Ryan was praying that Mr. Sanchez may rest peacefully in heaven and leave Travis Cooper alone. Arianna wanted to laugh again.
****
The resilience of human beings was amazing. When Arianna was with her grandfather last night, she once felt that her world had collapsed and that she couldn’t continue living on in such a way. But today, the sky was blue, and the sun was shining. The green trees and white flowers in the cemetery were elegant and beautiful.
This scene was like a pair of invisible hands tickling every sensation in her body. She suddenly felt there was nothing wrong with living on earth. She could keep on surviving.
Arianna quietly slipped away for a while after her grandfather’s funeral.
She didn’t have any concerns, and she no longer had to greet the fake grievers. But she invited Mr. Jenkins to come along with her. She told him she wanted to lay low for a few days and asked if he could act on her behalf if anything came up.
There were not many things to do after Franco Sanchez’s funeral. Mr. Jenkins looked honest and reliable. Normally, Arianna was not a person who would trust anyone easily. But she also didn’t have enough strength left to doubt people. She had nothing to lose anyway.
However, there was someone she needed to deal with. When Ryan came to the funeral, she was expecting him to say something like, ‘Mr. Cooper says you’re a free person now’ or something similar, but he doesn’t. Arianna wanted to confront him face to face anyway.
Arianna asked Ryan, “Does he know?”
Ryan did not answer her directly, “Mr. Cooper is away right now.”
In theory, as her grandfather had passed away, her agreement with Travis should be automatically terminated. She did not know whether Travis would want to bid her farewell or let their last interaction be their final one.
But now that she had no concerns left, she could simply commit suicide if he went back on his word and continued to force her into this repulsive relationship.
Arianna shut down her phone, leaving all incoming calls to be answered by her voice message. She dropped it off at her apartment but did not stay for long.
There was a small hotel beside the cemetery road. It was two stories tall and only had six rooms available in total. The hotel owner was a widowed, middle-aged woman.
She said that the hotel was built before the city bought the land around it to use as a cemetery. There were not many people staying there. Her business typically came from mourners eating a meal before continuing onward.
Indeed, there were not many customers, so the woman worked as a seamstress as well. She had a daughter in high school who only returned home on weekends. The woman told Arianna that she was usually afraid at night, so it was nice to have her there as a companion.
Because Arianna did not want anyone to know her whereabouts, she left her cell phone at home and took a taxi here instead of driving herself. During her first night in the hotel, she worried that she would be murdered. There was no one else around after all.Content © provided by NôvelDrama.Org.
However, it was hard to live and easy to die, so the thought didn’t scare her. It would make things a lot easier if she did get murdered.
It turned out that Arianna’s perception of the world was all wrong. The owner was a simple and kind woman and was very tentative with Arianna.
Every day at three or four in the morning, the vegetable market that was two kilometers away began to make noise. There was a vegetable farmer who hand-picked flowers from his farm and put them into a basket for Arianna when she visited.
Just after dawn, Arianna walked to the market to pick up the basket of fresh flowers, which the farmer began giving to her for a very low price. The flowers were mostly white, and some were still only flower buds.
Then Arianna walked to the cemetery. The mornings were foggy and misty. The rows of gray tombstones looked like sentinels standing quietly under the shade of pines and cypresses.
There were no birds chirping or bugs buzzing. It was so quiet that she could hear her own footsteps and each breath clearly.
Arianna was a very timid person, even as a child. She did not dare to read ghost stories or enter dark rooms alone, but now that fear seemed ridiculous to her.
This cemetery was said to be built when her grandmother passed away. When her grandmother’s illness progressed, her grandfather secured the best and most expensive plot in this cemetery. Arianna’s uncle was also laid to rest here.
Her grandfather said to their family. “In the future, our family can be together here.”