CHAPTER 35: CHAPTER 35: SHOOTING STAR

On the way back, there were even fewer cars than when they came.

Feeling that there was an odor in the car, Simon Forrester opened the sunroof.

Sienna Thornton hugged her arms, her entire back deeply sunk into the wide leather seat, tilted her head back, and looked at the stars moving backward rapidly due to the car’s high speed. She smiled and said, "Looking at it this way, they all seem like shooting stars."

"Isn’t that nice? You can keep making wishes."

Sienna Thornton let out a "pfft" laugh, "Wishing on stars? I’d rather set a small goal for myself."

Maybe it was because the night was deep, and people’s emotions were more relaxed and abundant than during the day. Sienna Thornton surprisingly chatted a bit more with Simon Forrester.

"When I was little, my family was very poor. So poor, in fact, that my stepfather decided when I was in seventh grade that he would sell me to the village chief’s son after I graduated from junior high to exchange for a 20-square-meter homestead to build rooms for my younger siblings."

"..." The sudden change of topic made Simon Forrester, who was concentrating on driving, pause.

"All my classmates laughed at me for being a child bride to the village chief’s family. I would hide on the mountain every day after school to cry. My deskmate told me that on clear nights, meteors would streak across the sky, and if you made a wish to a meteor, it would come true."

Simon Forrester: "..."

"From that day on, I went to the mountain every night waiting for meteors. One day, I finally saw one."

At this point, Sienna Thornton turned her head to look at Simon Forrester’s profile and asked, "So, can you guess what happened?"

Simon Forrester was concentrating on driving but still turned his face slightly to look at her.

The lights from the oncoming cars flashed on and off on her face, making it hard for him to see her expression. He could only feel a pair of moist, almond-shaped eyes blinking at him.

She seemed particularly different at this moment.

Simon Forrester withdrew his gaze and said lightly, "Making wishes must have worked. Otherwise, you would be lying on the village chief’s son’s bed right now, not sitting in my car."

Sienna Thornton chuckled, but then sighed longingly after a moment, "Perhaps."

"..." Simon Forrester didn’t know how to comfort her.

He was reluctant to ask more, even though he had many questions when Sienna Thornton spoke about her past.

From the few words Sienna Thornton mentioned about her school years last night, he guessed that even if she wasn’t from a wealthy family, she was at least from a middle-class background.

In these years of increasing social stratification, elite education was no longer accessible to ordinary families. For her to be so outstanding and receive so many resources, she couldn’t possibly be a child from a poor family.

But how could something like being forced to be sold to the village chief’s son for a piece of homestead land happen to her?

Simon Forrester felt that if Sienna Thornton wasn’t acting for sympathy, then something very bizarre must have happened to her.

Although curious, he wasn’t a nosy person, so he didn’t ask more. Sienna Thornton also didn’t elaborate further.

The two returned home in silence and went to sleep separately.

Maybe because too much happened that night, Sienna Thornton tossed and turned and couldn’t sleep. Just as dawn was breaking, she suddenly heard a crisp sound from outside, like glass shattering.

She was about to go out to check when another dull thud sounded.

The sound was eerily strange, and worried that Mrs. Reed had brought someone in again, Sienna Thornton quickly threw on a coat, grabbed her crutches, secretly opened the door a crack to cautiously peek outside.

The bar light was on, and the living room was empty. Sienna Thornton glanced at Simon Forrester’s room door, which was open.

She thought, perhaps Simon Forrester went out for a drink of water and accidentally broke a glass? But what was that thudding noise? Plus, the lights and door were open, yet he was nowhere to be found...

The more Sienna Thornton thought about it, the more she felt something was off, so she quickly hobbled out with her crutches.

It would’ve been better if she hadn’t checked. What she saw almost scared her to death.

A large, white body lay under the bar, with a pile of shattered glass nearby.

Realizing it was Simon Forrester in a white T-shirt, Sienna Thornton felt her throat tighten and hurriedly limped over to help him up.

"Director Forrester? Director Forrester? What’s wrong?"

Simon Forrester’s eyes were tightly closed, his lips pale, and his thick brunette hair was drenched in sweat, while his hand remained clutching his stomach.