After she ended the call, she took a look at the airline ticket again.

Takeoff was in 1.5 hours.

If you want to catch an international flight, you need to be there at least two hours early. Maybe even three. The plane was going to take off, and she wasn't at the airport yet. All she could think about was

Sheffield.

She closed her eyes and leaned back in the seat of her car, pondering how to solve this problem.

It would take at least 20 minutes to drive from here to the venue holding the launch event, and making sure it would all go smoothly could take hours. The event itself was supposed to Last three hours, with an open bar. If she could take ten minutes to make sure everything was in place to her satisfaction, she could leave it in the capable hands of her assistants afterwards. If she kept it down to 10 minutes and rushed to the airport after that, she should be able to barely catch the flight before it took off. She opened her eyes and told

Tayson, “Take me to the venue where the Launch event is taking place.

And step on it!"

"Yes, Evelyn!" Tayson answered and started the car in a hurry.

Tormented by those thoughts, she took out her phone and sent a message to Sheffield.

"Where are you?"

At that moment, Sheffield had arrived at the airport and was going through the security check. His phone had been put in the tray, and was on a conveyor belt that would take it through the security scanner.

When he saw Evelyn's message, he was already at the boarding gate.

“I'm at the airport," he replied.

Evelyn's heart ached. She held her phone tightly, not knowing what to say.

Finally, she replied, "I'm sorry, honey. I got held up. A last-minute glitch in the Launch event. I'm on my way, now. I'll probably be late."

Sheffield read her message three times. When he was about to reply,

“I'LL wait for you," he received a picture on his phone.

He clicked on it. It was a high-definition surveillance video screenshot. A man pressed the body of a woman against a door in a private booth. And from the vantage of the security camera, it looked like they were kissing.

Soon after he clicked on that, he got a text message.

"Evelyn and I were in a private room of a hotel. She told me she didn't know how to turn you down, so she asked me to tell you she didn't want to go to

Paris. That's why she was at the Launch party, and not at the airport.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. You're wasting your time if you're waiting for her."

It was from a number not in his contact list. But he knew who sent it.

Sheffield played with his phone, flipping it between his fingers, catching with the other hand. He needed to think about this.