When fate plays its hand (Miranda)

hapter 0721

Miranda’s lips curled into a self–mocking smile.

+25 BONUS

Paul’s breath hitched from this. For some reason, the slight smile at the corner of her lips gave him an inexplicable pang of unease. It was as if… he had missed something important.

When they finally left the factory, the evening was setting in. The guard shift had changed; the cheerful, talkative older man was off duty, replaced by a quieter, younger guard. Perhaps due to his shy nature, the young man silently took the keys, put them away, and opened the gate for them.

The evening sky was a deepening shade of gray, casting a somber glow over the bare branches along the road. Miranda and Paul walked side by side, with silence stretching between them.

Paul opened his mouth as if to speak but hesitated. He sensed her shifting mood, yet he didn’t know its cause, so he stayed cautiously quiet.

Suddenly, Miranda looked up with a smile. “Thank you, Dr. Jefferson, for the thoughtful birthday gift. It’s meaningful, and I really like it. In return, let me treat you to dinner. What would you like?”

Paul watched as she went from quiet contemplation to a warm, radiant smile in the blink of an eye. mood had been carefully composed.

He was momentarily taken aback until Miranda asked again, “Well, have you decided?”

“Let’s go for Dolorianese. Can you handle spicy food?”

“Sure!”

Her

scarf tighter around her neck. Seeing this, Paul started to take off his own scarf to drape it over her shoulders,

“Nor

Jefferson. I’m

puzzled. Yet before he could question it, she was already

fully dark, and the cold wind swept in, casting a faint mist under the streetlights.

Miranda reached the bridge, she slipped her hands into her coat pockets and glanced back at Paul. “Dr. Jefferson, haven’t we walked this

“Yes,” Paul nodded.

“When was it?”

summer, when I bought you

laugh.

to say that he only remembered the important things, anything unimportant didn’t stick. But before he could, Miranda was

she said while taking out some

1.2

Chapter 0721

+25 BONUS

ice cream in the summer, I’m treating you to baked potatoes in the winter. It’s a

They were even now.