Chapter 457:
Roughly sixty seconds ticked by before another elevator announced its arrival with a soft chime, and Egbert stepped into view.
He crossed the threshold of the building and immediately spotted Millie’s silhouette waiting in the distance. Without hesitation, he navigated the space between them with purposeful strides.
“Care to spare a minute for me?” Egbert inquired, his voice carrying genuine interest.
Millie’s eyes swept toward the space where Myron’s car sat waiting before she gestured toward a nearby area where fewer people wandered through their afternoon routines. The two figures came to rest in comfortable stillness.
“Why did you do it?” Egbert’s voice carried the weight of genuine curiosity.
Millie understood exactly what he was asking, but she chose to sidestep his question entirely. Instead, she allowed her gaze to travel deliberately over his form, studying him with calculating interest.
“Egbert,” she began, her voice steady and probing. “Why are you here?”
Egbert maintained his silence, his attention fixed solely on her face as if memorizing every subtle expression.
“Please don’t feed me some fabricated story about discovering my divorce and rushing back to capitalize on that opportunity. Your overseas ventures were flourishing magnificently.” Millie refused to break eye contact. “There’s absolutely no logical reason for you to abandon that success and plunge yourself into this tangled web of complications. If my instincts serve me correctly, something significant must have unraveled in Flesta— isn’t that the truth?”
Egbert finally allowed laughter to escape his lips, rich and knowing. He shook his head slowly as the sound faded. “Remarkably perceptive, as always. Your mind remains as razor-sharp as ever.”
His hand disappeared into his jacket pocket and emerged holding a miniature wooden sculpture, expertly carved to capture the elegant form of a fox in perfect detail.
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“This belongs to you now,” he announced, extending the gift toward her. “Consider it a symbol of our enduring friendship. I believe it captures your essence quite perfectly.”
Millie stretched out her hand and accepted the offering with careful fingers. The fox truly possessed remarkable craftsmanship, every detail lovingly rendered, and she could tell immediately that he had carved it with his own skilled hands—just like that exquisite bottle of wine she remembered.
“I had every intention of presenting that wine to you personally,” he revealed, seeming to anticipate the direction of her thoughts. “Unfortunately, Babette intercepted my plans before I could execute them properly.” Egbert studied her face intently. “What do you think?”
Millie continued examining the wooden fox, offering no definitive response to his question. Golden sunlight caressed the elegant lines of her profile, yet he detected the profound melancholy that lurked beneath her lowered lashes. He recognized that her thoughts had drifted once again toward the precious child she had lost.
He spoke with quiet conviction. “I invested tremendous effort in the years that followed.”
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