Finnegan stared at her with a cold, unsettling expression, making her feel a chill run down her spine. He didn't want to argue with her anymore. Talking to someone he didn't care about felt like a waste of breath. Without a word, he turned and left the room, heading upstairs to the third floor. Sidney put her clothes back on one piece at a time, beginning to feel how impulsive she had been. After saying so much, in the end, it all came down to the imbalance of power—she was shut down because of it.
After the argument, she felt a knot in her chest, unable to calm down or let it go. She couldn't sleep, sitting on the bed, her mind in a mess. She didn't know if Jayson would use their conversation to shut her out completely or if he would find a way to torment her until she regretted apologizing. After thinking it over, it seemed like there was no real solution, so she could only tell herself to take things as they came. She sat there lost in thought until dawn. When she saw it was about time, she went downstairs for breakfast, hoping to leave the room before Jayson came down. At least, if she stayed near the butler, Jayson wouldn't be able to do much to her.
The butler was busy in the kitchen, and since breakfast wasn't ready yet, Sidney went to the front door to grab the newspaper. She started flipping through it from the front page. She had a habit of quickly scanning through all the news before reading each article in detail. After going through the social and financial sections, she opened the entertainment section, where she saw a very familiar photo.
Wasn't that the venue for her wedding?
How could it be? It had been over a month since the wedding, and yet the photo of her wedding venue was still published in the entertainment section?
The huge headline read: "Entertainment Tycoon Knows How to Save Money, Recycling Funeral Flowers!"
Sidney immediately read the article, which mentioned that she and Jayson had asked a specially selected floral design company to cut costs by using recycled flowers. For example, some of the grasses and supporting lilies used to decorate the venue had been collected from the funeral home that same day.
As she read the news, the first thought that came to her mind was what the makeup artist had said that day. "Her sister chose the florist company and took kickbacks!" So how did this news get out? Was it her sister or the floral company?
Sidney couldn't figure it out; this kind of thing was no good for anyone.
She carefully folded the newspaper and placed it on the coffee table, then went back to the dining room to quietly eat her hot breakfast, worrying that the Nixon family would look down on her and the Calderon family even more after reading this news.
Sidney quickly finished her breakfast, went upstairs to freshen up, and just as she was done, Jayson entered the room to change and head out. Thinking of what had happened the night before, she was worried about the awkwardness and wanted to slip away without him noticing. But then, she heard Jayson's voice: "This is how the Calderon family handles things, always trying to drag others down."
It seemed he had already seen the news. Sidney stood at the door, not sure whether to stay or leave, head down, ready to endure more scolding.
"Go back and tell your Calderon family that because of this little bit of money, you've made our Nixon family lose face. I, Jayson, will remember this for the rest of my life, and you'll pay the price!" Jayson's voice was still cold, with no emotional rise or fall, just an icy chill that made Sidney shiver.
After Jayson left, Sidney finally let out a breath of relief. She quickly dialed Sanaa's number to find out what had happened, but no one answered. She tried calling her father next, but the phone rang unanswered again.
Sidney decided to call again later. After staying in her room for a while, feeling restless, she went to the study to look for some books to pass the time. She didn't really plan to read seriously; she was just flipping through random books, hoping to find something interesting. As she crouched on the floor, she thought, "I doubt anyone ever bothers to squat down and look at the books on the bottom shelf. I wonder what's here?"
She found that the books on the bottom shelf were all children's books, and many of them were quite old. Sidney thought that maybe these were books Jayson had read as a child, which is why they were kept here. Looking at these children's books, she found it fascinating. "So, Jayson actually had a childhood?" After flipping through a few storybooks she hadn't read as a child, Sidney noticed a particularly unique-looking book on the shelf. She pulled it out with some effort and saw that it was a handcrafted, thick-paper book.
